Diary Recipes

Fridays during lent are always meat free for Catholics and when you get tired of pizza or ailo oilo (pasta with garlic and oil) you need to use a bit of creativity. Nanny would make some white rice, mix it with sauce, mozzarella and grated cheese, put it in a pyrex, top it with some breadcrumbs and bake it until the top becomes crispy. It was always very satisfying for me. When I decided to make this for Steve the first time I knew that he would want a little more added to it for it to be considrered a whole meal. Thats how I came up with this. Nannys version is like a rice ball and mine is like a sicilian rice ball. Make this either way or both ways, they are both great. If you dont like peas you can leave them out or put less in. When I made this last night I only had a couple of handfuls of peas in my freezer and it was still great.

Thanks to my friends over at Bakespace I purchased a rice cooker and used it for the first time yesterday. Eric found this great deal for a 3 cup rice cooker for only $9.99!!!



It was great! I never have to worry about my rice being too mushy ever again! The best part is that its small enough for me to find a space for in the closet. That was my biggest concern but it turned out to not to be an issue at all. Thanks Eric and all my bakespace friends!

Nannys Baked Rice

Ingredients:

1 cup of white rice, uncooked
1 can crushed tomatoes
Extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
1 lb 85% ground beef
1 small package of frozen peas, defrosted
salt and pepper
garlic powder
onion powder
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp sugar
1 package of shredded mozzarella
Parmesan cheese, to taste
Italian Style breadcrumbs

Directions:

Cook rice, set aside. Meanwhile in a small saucepan sauté onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add basil and let it cook for 1 minute to let flavor release. Add tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper and sugar; if too thick add a little water (swish in can). Let cook for 30 to 40 minutes, taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. While sauce is cooking prepare ground beef. Season beef with salt pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder and brown in a nonstick pan (no oil needed if using a nonstick pan). Be sure to constantly break up meat with a wooden spoon. Drain fat. Ladle a little sauce on the bottom of a large rectangular Pyrex dish to prevent rice from sticking. In a large bowl combine rice, mozzarella, ground beef, peas and Parmesan cheese, adding a little sauce at a time. Do not want it to be too wet or too dry. May not need to use all the sauce. Add mixture to baking dish, spreading out and pressing down with spatula. Sprinkle top with bread crumbs and cheese.

Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes. Place under broiler to crisp the top if necessary

Last week I spent a long weekend at home in Houston with the specific purpose of taking a dance lesson with my dad for our father-daughter dance for the wedding. He chose "My Girl" for our dance because it reminds him of the time we went to see Father of the Bride and were late to the showing and had to sit in the very front row for all 105 minutes of the film. I guess my parents remember it differently than I do, because apparently it was a great memory for them! So, since today is also his birthday, I thought I would tell you a little about him so you can truly appreciate how big this was for him.
When I was growing up, I didnt understand why he had to take work calls on a Saturday or check email on vacation. My sorely underdeveloped brain just figured he loveddddddddddd work! I mean, why wouldnt he? He got to travel to exciting places like Finland,  San Francisco, and New Jersey (I had a thing for diners when I was a kid...so what?)! He had something called an "expense account" and sounded like the boss. Pretty sweet gig, IMO. But of course, his long hours and constant high stakes work environment sometimes wore on my mom and me. Hed miss some of my high school plays (and who could blame him??) and sometimes wasnt able to make it home on weekends if work was especially chaotic. So I went through a long period of not appreciating my dad. I guess I just figured if he wanted to be more involved, he would.
But then, I went off to college--a very expensive college that my parents paid out-of-state tuition for and never made me cover a cent of, btw--and moved to D.C. and started working my own jobs. And then, something clicked one day. I started to understand what made it worth it to my dad to put up with incompetent staff, delayed flights, and shitty hotel room service. It made sense to me why he checked his Blackberry constantly and took calls in the middle of dinner. It was because he wanted to give my mom and me EVERYTHING. He never wanted to have to say "no" or "maybe next time." He was determined to give us whatever life we could have imagined. And I think this dance lesson crystalized my dads whole being perfectly: do whatever it takes to make my family happy. Even if that means learning to dance.
My dad suffers from "White Man No-Rythmia," but he didnt let that stop him last week. He carefully studied the jitterbug steps the instructor taught him and practiced them over and over, counting out "and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8" till I told him that usually you only start the count at 5, until we finally ran out of time. He worked just as hard in those 90 minutes as he does for work (which, from my description is obviously a shit ton), just so he could be prepared for our one dance at my wedding, where he will walk me down the aisle and pass me off to be Kyles problem. I dont tell him often enough, but I really love him and Im proud to call him my Dad. Even if I will never understand the Subway sandwich thing.

Leave a comment with your birthday wishes for the ol guy!!

How to make Healthier Traditional Fish n Chips

Fish and chips are an all time British favourite take away meal. Chips are usually chunky pieces of potato deep fried, the fish is usually cod, haddock, plaice or coley (white fish) coated in a thick batter and deep fried. Once cooked you sprinkle with salt and malt vinegar, you can eat with mushy peas, bread or just a little tomato ketchup.

You can buy fish and chips from what we Brits call the chippy. In the old days fish and chips were wrapped up in newspaper. Today fish and chips must be sold in a polystyrene tray then wrapped in white paper. You can also eat a portion of chips in cardboard cone.

As you can understand with all this deep frying going on, fish and chips from the local chip shop or chippy has to be a treat and not a meal you eat everyday. But no longer do you have to long for that delicious chippy meal.

Chef Jeena has a fabulous fish and chips recipe that is almost guilt free.

Chefs healthy fish and chips recipe consists of fresh white fish being coated in flour and shallow fried in olive or rapeseed oil. The healthy chips are lightly coated with healthy oil and oven baked instead of deep fried.

This recipe is so very easy and quick to cook so no excuses......get on your apron and taste some homemade healthy fish and chips.