Glorified Rice

 Glorified Rice has always been a favorite of Lyle’s. A friend of his Mom used to make it and share with them. The Meta Givens Encyclopedia of Cooking has the recipe I always use to make it. I have updated the directions a little as these are older books.

 Simple to make I would have to say it is more of a dessert type pudding and that is what we eat it as, or at least with a cold lunch type of meal. We often have it with cold chicken or lunch meat sandwiches as a side to fill out a light lunch. 

 You could use the frozen whipped topping in this recipe but real whipped cream is easy to make and so much better for you, why not give it a try.

Glorified Rice

2 cups cooked rice

¼ pound marshmallows cut in quarters if large

9 ounce can crushed pineapple (1 cup) well drained

½ cup whipping cream

¼ cup sugar

Maraschino cherries if desired for topping

 Turn warm rice into a 3 quart bowl. Stir in marshmallows. Then whip cream until almost stiff, then add sugar in 2 or 3 batches and continue whipping until just stiff. Cut and fold cream into rice, then add the drained pineapple folding in lightly. Cover bowl and chill. Serve cold with mashed fruit or maraschino cherries on top.

Makes 5 to 6 servings

From the Garden...Cornhusker Bean/Corn Salad

Some good salads don’t have salad oil or prepared dressing. Many sweet-sour vegetable salads appear on Midwestern buffets and tables, and often are prepared from pantry ingredients.  This is one that also uses corn relish as an ingredient. It’s from the 1974 Farm Journal "The Thrifty Cook" , one of my very favorite cookbooks.
If you have your own home canned or purchased bean salad, you can mix 2 pints of bean salad to a half pint of corn relish and skip the dressing. If you don't have corn relish, use some drained canned Mexicorn, and double the dressing.  I keep some jars of canned bean salad and corn relish in the refrigerator all the time – they are always cold and ready to help fill out a meal. Serve it in a pretty bowl; don’t waste money on a lettuce liner that people don’t eat anyway.
The corn relish recipe is HERE.

Cornhusker Bean/Corn Salad

1 Pint Green Beans -- cut, drained  (15 oz can)

1 Pint Kidney Beans -- drained and rinsed (15 oz can)

1/2 Pint Corn Relish -- 1 cup

1/4 Cup Chopped Onion

1 Tablespoon Sugar

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1/8 Teaspoon Pepper

1 Tablespoon Vinegar

Combine all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours. Will keep a few days in the refrigerator.

Just right with ham or pork, and a good companion for chicken and hamburgers.
Yield: "1 Quart"    8 servings, 1/2 cup each.

May 2010 Cost if all ingredients except corn relish are purchased:  $ 2.05 or 26¢ per serving.

Per Serving : 218 Calories; 1g Fat (2.5% calories from fat); 12g Protein; 43g Carbohydrate; 13g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 270mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fat; 1 Other Carbohydrates.

Tomato Rice

 Bettie grew up eating Spanish Rice out of a can and so does not like Spanish Rice at all. However, she was willing to try some homemade and as Lyle and I are both rice eaters I was sure willing to try to make some. This is a little different from the recipe I made for years, but we all thought it was excellent.    Another time I think I will add some sliced black olives in the last few minutes of cooking time. This is the amount for three servings it will double easily.

Tomato Rice

¾ cup rice

 ¼ cup chopped onion

½ diced green or yellow pepper

1 small clove garlic peeled and cut in half (for stronger garlic flavor mince)

 ¾ cup water

½ of a 14.5 can of diced tomatoes undrained*

½ teaspoon chili powder

½ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste

Sliced Black olives and/or Jalapeños may be added the last few minutes of cooking tine if desired

  In small saucepan sauté rice, onion and chopped pepper and clove of garlic in  about a tablespoon of oil five minutes or until rice is turning translucent and vegetables are getting tender. Add water to pan and cover and simmer 15 minutes or until almost tender. 

  Add diced tomatoes, with juice, chili powder, salt and pepper. Bring back to a simmer, add the olives if using. Cover and cook for 3 to 4 minutes more or until rice is tender. 

  Fish out the garlic clove before serving if you left it whole or in two pieces.

3 Servings

*The rest of the tomatoes can be frozen for another use.

Use It Up…Rice

There are so many ways and cuisines that use rice, that it’s probably impossible to find a cook who doesn’t have it in their kitchen.  Cooked rice freezes beautifully, and it’s great to keep on hand.  We freeze ours flat in quart plastic freezer bags, in 1 or 2 cup portions.

Cooking rice is easy too…and it makes sense to prepare extra for quicker meals.  I just pour my frozen cooked rice into a covered dish suitable for the microwave and heat it a few minutes until it’s steaming, stirring once or twice.  If you just need cooked rice for adding to a recipe, let it thaw without heating.

Here are some great savory recipes that use rice and stretch a meal with a low cost ingredient.

Chinese Fried Rice

Vegetarian Fried Rice

Beef Fried Rice

Sausage with Peppers, Onions and Rice

Creamy Porcupine Meatballs

Chicken Rice Soup

Green Rice Timbales

Chicken Rice Casserole

Vegetable Brown Rice

Sunday in Iowa...

Winter wash...

like our mother's used to do it...and Myrna and I remember helping,

near Cantril, Iowa

Cookbook Reviews...Fleischmann’s Yeast Best-Ever Breads.

One of my favorite go-to bread-baking books is Fleischmann’s Yeast Best-Ever Breads.  A large paperback, with 79 pages, it was published in 1993, 125 years of Fleischmann’s being in business.  My copy is very well used - I think I sent for it with an offer on a yeast package or magazine advertisement.

Back Cover of Book

This book is pretty up-to-date, with directions for cake, dry and rapid rise yeast.  They use a variety of methods, including bread machines and food  processors, as well as traditions methods, rapid rise “one-rise” methods, electric mixer methods and no-knead batter methods, as well as Cool-rise and refrigerator doughs, freezer doughs, sourdough recipes and even an English muffin bread recipe made in the microwave!  There is something for every baker in this book.  Methods are accurate, photos are beautiful, and it’s hard to put this book down.  If you can pick this up at a used book sale, buy it!

Here are some recipes I tried from this book:

Bouquet Coffee Cake








Spring Holiday Braids

Lemon Nut Twists






Nutty Orange Wheat Bread

Family Favorites...Skillet Pasta Fagioli

  Southern Living Quick and Easy had this recipe for Skillet Pasta Fagioli which I decided to try. Really it is a glorified casserole, but done in one pan. I had to look up what Fagioli was, Pasta with beans. 

  This is somewhat different in that it is not a soup as several recipes I saw were, and that it has buttermilk and chili powder in it. Seems like a strange combination with the oregano and thyme, but it works. Some grated Parmesan cheese was good with it.

  I made the full recipe and it was enough for five of us with some left for lunches. 

  If the picture looks familiar, it is because I used it for a post about the biscuits. I plated everything up as that is the easiest when you are feeding 5 people in a small kitchen. Hence, no separate picture of the casserole or biscuits. Don’t let the list of ingredients scare you, it is quick to put together, remember one pan!

Skillet-Style Pasta Fagioli

1 pound of pork sausage or ground beef

1 medium onion, diced

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 16 ounce can of tomatoes*

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup of uncooked elbow macaroni

1 (16 ounce) can of kidney beans

1 ½ teaspoon sugar

1 ½ teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 teaspoon fennel seeds (optional)

½ teaspoon each dried oregano and thyme

  Brown meat, onion, garlic, in large skillet; drain of any grease. Add remaining ingredients; stir. Cover; place on high heat until steaming. Reduce heat to low and simmer 25 minutes or until macaroni is cooked. 

Yield 6 to 8 servings

* Canned tomatoes and canned kidney beans are now in smaller size cans. I added an ounce and a half of water to make up for the smaller amount of tomatoes, and just used the size of kidney beans that I had. They are now 15 ounces. You have to add the extra ounce of water so there is enough liquid for the macaroni.

Taco Joes Tater Nests

 The second recipe I made with the Taco Joe meat mixture was for Taco Topped Tater Nests. Very good, easy to make, uses instant potatoes, which I do use when the potatoes are getting withered and nasty.

 The taco meat is already cooked and it takes no time to mix up the potatoes. The biggest amount of time went into making the potato nests. I put them in the oven to heat but you could certainly do them in the microwave. You are just heating them to make sure they are hot and melt the cheese. 

 The sour cream gave the potatoes a nice taste and texture. I froze the extras to reheat on a night when I don’t feel like cooking.

 Add a salad and a light dessert, maybe fruit and you have a meal without a lot of fuss and time spent.

Taco-Topped Tater Nests

2 cups water

¼ teaspoon garlic salt

½ cup dairy sour cream

2 cups instant mashed potato flakes

2 cups Taco Joes meat mixture (left from your Taco Joes)

2 ounces shredded cheddar cheese

 Heat oven to 350° or heat in microwave. Lightly grease six 10 ounce custard cups or ramekins. In medium saucepan combine water and garlic salt; bring to a rolling boil. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream, blending well. With fork stir in potato flakes until blended.Spoon potato mixture evenly into the 6 dishes. With a spoon make a well in the center of each dish leaving some potato on the bottom of the dish. Spoon about ⅓ cup of the meat mixture into each dish. Sprinkle with cheese.

 Bake at 350° 10 to 15 minutes until hot and cheese is melted. Or heat in microwave until cheese melts.

  If using microwave, heat the meat mixture for a few seconds before spooning into dishes.

From the Garden...Fiesta Pasta Salad with Corn Relish

Here’s another way to use your canned corn relish. It’s colorful and easy.  If you use plain corn, add couple tablespoons of vinegar.  The corn relish recipe is HERE.
Fiesta Pasta Salad with Corn Relish

6 ounces Pasta -- small shells or bowties
1 Half Pint Fiesta Corn Relish

¼ cup Mayonnaise

¼ cup Sour Cream -- or yogurt

½ teaspoon Garlic -- minced

½ teaspoon Basil Leaves

½ each Red or Green Bell Pepper
½ cup Frozen Green Peas -- thawed
¼ cup Green Onion -- chopped
• Cook pasta al dente, drain over peas, rinse and cool.
• Combine remaining ingredients, stir in pasta and peas, chill several hours.
Yield: 4 servings
May 2010 cost: $1.68 or 42¢ per serving if using homemade corn relish.
Per Serving: 365 Calories; 16g Fat (37.4% calories from fat); 8g Protein; 51g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 11mg Cholesterol; 112mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1 1/2 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.