Cooking Handicaps and Green Bean and Rice Casserole

Do you want to know something about me that is really strange?  Maybe not really strange, but it boggles my mind and my husband's too.  I can't cook rice to save my life.  Yes, it's true.  Whether it's regular rice cooked in a pot, instant rice or boil in the bag rice, if I'm involved, it's a disaster.  Either it comes out gummy or it's cooked on the outside and hard in the middle.  The only way I can cook rice is in a rice cooker.

A.J. has told me, "Katherine, you could take an old shoe, make taste good.  I don't understand why you can't cook rice!".  ~Me either, sheesh~.  My mother stood over me one time to see what I was doing wrong.  She said I did everything exactly how she did and even she couldn't understand why I had a gummy mess.

As most mothers do, she figured out a way for her child to overcome this handicap and gave me a rice cooker for Christmas.  Seriously, she really did.  For about 20 years that little rice cooker turned out many perfect pots of  rice.  It drowned like a lot of my small kitchen applicances from Katrina flooding.  A rice cooker was not on the top of the list of necessities that had to be replaced.  Besides, the brand I had was no long made and I was afraid of buying a rice cooker that made suckier rice than I did.

Finally, after two years of  either eating my poor attempt at rice or buying plain white rice from Chinese restaurants, I researched and made "the" purchase.  So now my rice loving family has one less worry on their minds and I have one less stressor in my life.

If you have picky eaters that love rice, here's an evil plot!  Lace their rice with bacon, cheese and vegetables.  The won't be able to resist.

Cook 2 cups of white rice.  Brown four strips of bacon, the real stuff.  Drain, cool, crumble and set aside.  Reserve 1 tablespoon of bacon grease in the skillet and melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium-high heat.

Brown 1/2 cup of chopped onions, 1 can of drained cut green beans and 1/2 cup of mushrooms.  I used some baby bellas I had in the fridge.  A note about the green beans.  I used the cut beans because you want them to be approximately bite size.  They are also sturdier in the skillet than the French-style green beans.  Season with salt and pepper, remove from heat once the onions start to wilt.

Place the cooked rice in a prepared casserole dish and pour the green beans over the rice.  Gently fold in the green beans into the rice.

Add 1 cup of sour cream, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire.

1 tablespoon of hot sauce (optional).

1 tablespoon lemon juice.  Fold and evenly combine all ingredients.

Sprinkle the crumbled bacon over the top.

Complete the garnishing with Panko crumbs and Asiago cheese for a salty crunchy top!

Bake at the universal oven temperature of 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

So tell me, what is your cooking handicap?

Have a fantastic weekend!  Happy Father's Day!

How Long Has It Been Since You Went Old School?

Thank all of you for you kind comments about the kitchen.  I will do my best to post pictures Thursday afternoon or Friday morning of the real stuff that happens in there.

Quite a few of you mentioned you would like to turn this into an event.  So....for anyone interested, post as many pictures as you like of your kitchen as you are preparing the feats of all feasts, feel free to include your dining area, your guests, the whole enchilada!

Post by Friday and let me know in the comment section if you would like to patrticipate so I can be sure to visit your blog.

How many of you have had a Carrot and Rasin Salad recently?  This is an old school salad that still rocks!  I was yenning for this big time last week.

Peel 4 carrots and slice in the food processor or grater.  Add in 1/2 cup of raisins.  Stir in 1-1/2 tablespoons of mayonnaise.  That's all there is to it!  This keeps in the fridge for about 2 days.  Yes, you can keep coming back for more!

Some recipes call for lemon juice.  I don't normally add lemon juice but I did this time and won't ever do it again.  It made the salad too tart and it didn't have that nutty, comforting feeling that I was anticipating.

Other tweaks you can add are chopped pecans or chunks of pineapple.

This is a Fall salad that I truly enjoy...hope you try it soon!

C'mon in and Visit the Cafe'!

Welcome to the Cafe'!  C'mon on in and visit. 

My blogging friend Penny from Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen, invited her blogging friends to show where the magic happens or as some may feel, heartbeat of the home.

This is where I play, work, ok it's Command Central.  It's small, but very cozy and I really like the way it is set up.  There is ample counter space and everything is nearby, even for my short arms.

C'mon, I'll show you.

This is what you see when you come in through the back door.  The turkey plate was my grandmother's.  As fragile as it is, I am still amazed it it survived how many times it was moved (4 times)  from when our homes was destroyed by Katrina until we arrived in Tennessee to our new home.

 

Walking around the bar and entering la cucina, you can see the dining room or as we call it in Tennessee, the Fancy Eatin' Room.

I really like the placement of the sink.  I can watch TV, I can holler for people in the Family Room and to the left is the sorority wing of the house.  The girls have to pass by to get anywhere else in the house; good way to keep track of them.

 

To the right of the sink is the beverage station and my tunes.  Coffee pot, wine and soft drinks.  What would you like to drink?

Moving to the right, this where most of the pictures are taken and where I chop and drop.

I'm still campaigning for a gas stove.  If you're having a stove giveaway, please drop me a line!  The house came with this stove...don't buy a glass top on purpose.  When you stir, the pots slide all over the place.  You spend way too much time making sure your pots and pans are sitting properly on the burner.

This looks into the eating area and the back door.  The bay window is one of my favorite features because we get so much light.  This window faces Northwest.  Between the light from these windows and the light from the dining room window, you don't need to turn on lights during the day.  I also like the downlights near the windows, can you see them?  They are on a dimmer.  I don't like bright lights at dinner, dimmer lights make it more relaxing.

Maybe I'll take some pictures next Thrusday when all hell is breaking loose in here and I'm up to my elbows in giblets!

Tag You're It!

April from Abby Sweets tagged me for a meme, so here we go...

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Ok Abby...
*I love to cook. Big surpise, I know...
*I like to sit on my front porch, talk to my husband, drink coffee and at gaze at the mountains.
*I love hanging out with my daughters, they are my “budz”.
*I love long dinners with really good friends and a good glass of wine.
*I am blessed to have such wonderful friends.
*I am afraid of clowns.
Now, I am supposed to tag 6 more people...

John from My Viewfinder
Lanny from Lagniappe
Paula from It's All Gouda
Prudy from Prudence Pennywise
Leah from A Corner of My Kitchen
Lori from Lori's Daily Photo