rice, glorious rice!

I LOVE rice. I grew up in Beaumont, Texas, which has to be the rice capital of the world! My grandmother is from South Louisiana where she undoubtedly ate a lot of rice growing up too. When I got married my husband (northeast Texan) used to tease me and say that I would eat rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This wasn’t too far from the truth. A favorite breakfast in Southeast Texas is eggs and rice. This is a great way to use up rice that’s leftover from dinner the night before. Basically, you scrambled an egg in butter or oil and added the rice and seasoning and maybe some cooked, crumbled bacon, making a stir fry of sorts. When I was a young girl, cayenne pepper was my seasoning of choice except when I had my brief love affair with what I thought was an exotic seasoning at the time—cinnamon.

The rice I grew up eating was a pretty standard long grained white rice. I didn’t know about much else. During my “hippie” stage in the ‘70’s I discovered brown rice, but I didn’t really know how to cook it properly and so I didn’t like it. Today my pantry contains not only long-grained white rice, but jasmine rice, Arborio rice, basmati rice, wild rice, long-grained brown rice, short-grained brown rice—I love them all. Check out Rice 101, a primer on rice varieties and tips on storing and cooking rice.


Almond Rice Pilaf

1/2 cup Almonds, slivered and toasted
2 tbsp Butter
2 cup Long Grain White Rice
1/2 cup Onions, chopped finely
1 can Low Sodium Chicken Broth
1/2 cup Water
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Flat Leaf Parsley, chopped

Melt butter in skillet over low heat. Add onion and cook until softened.

Add rice, cook and stir until rice is lightly browned and fragrant.

Add broth, water and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat and boil two minutes. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, covered, 20 minutes.

Stir in almonds and parsley.

Serves 4

fun, funky and functional!

I found these great sherbet-colored melamine mixing bowls while scrounging around TJ Maxx--one of my favorite places to shop for kitchen stuff. If I think hard enough, I can remember my grandmother having similar bowls in her kitchen when I was a little girl. I remember seeing a slight indentation on the side of one bowl where it got too close to the stove (these aren't heat resistant!). These are so fun to use and durable too!