Wow!

I haven't posted in a long time.

It's been busy in my house & I haven't had a lot of computer time in the past few weeks. And on the rare occasions I can get to the computer, I've spent catching up with an old friend I haven't talked to since 7th grade!

facebook is an amazing thing.

So, in the past two weeks I've still tried new recipes, but I did the quick and dirty versions of them to save time and a little money. Eventually, I'm sure I'll do them the slow and clean way, but since I'm pretty happy with the results I got, I think I'll stick to my way for now.

The first thing I tried was Dragon's Rice Pudding.

Now let me say, my mothers rice pudding is a wonderful thing. This is total comfort food for me & it's what I want to eat on the occasions I need my mama.

However

my mothers rice pudding recipe is...difficult. It requires kitchen equipment I don't own
(ie: corning wear and/or a casserole dish. since i'm vegetarian i don't own such things) and although I do love rice pudding, it's really not worth going out & buying these items I'll never use for anything other than rice pudding.

So, I had been searching around for a rice pudding recipe I could do on the stove top. And Voila! Dragon had one posted that's perfect! (have i mentioned how much i love Dragons blog? No? Well, I do! Great recipes there!)

Unfortunately, the craving for it was high, and resources were low. So I made do with what I had.

And this is what I did:

Cranberry and Lemon Rice Pudding by Dragon

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups water
2 cups soy milk
3 strips of lemon rind
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup short-grain rice
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 large egg, beaten

Directions:

1. In a saucepan combine water, milk, lemon, cinnamon and salt. Cover and bring it to a boil, over medium heat.

2. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the rice. Cook the rice, uncovered for about 25-30 minutes or until the rice is almost tender. Stir often.

3. Add the sugar and cranberries. Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove the pan from the heat.

4. Stir in the egg quickly until well combined. Return the pan to the heat until the rice is slightly thickened. Stir constantly. Remove the lemon rind. Cool the rice to your desired temperature.

Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with ground cinnamon and/or lemon zest.

Let me just say that this is sinfully good. No, really! It's seriously that good! I brought some to work to share with my friend there & those were her exact words!

The pudding is on the left in the picture up there. That's my little wanna-be bento box. I spend way to much free time oogling bento sites. some day i'll go there. some day...

on the right hand side of the picture is the other new recipe I tried.
Again, this is the quick and dirty version of the origianal which you can find at Buff Chickpea

YaYa's Potatoes

1/2 a bag of red potatoes
2 onions, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup vegetable broth

1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
Sea salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place the cut up potatoes in a greased baking dish Set aside while you make the lemon dressing.

In a medium bowl, combine olive oil, lemon juice, broth, oregano, garlic, and a little salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the potatoes, and give everything a good toss.

Sprinkle with additional kosher salt and cracked black pepper and put into your preheated oven.

Bake for 30 minutes, give the potatoes a toss, then bake for an additional 45-50 minutes, tossing every 20 minutes or so.

Personally, I really liked these. Never, thought they were ok. He didn't hate them, and he ate them, but he said he likes the crash potatoes better. But I made them again anyway for me, because they're fast, yummy, filling and re-heat really well!