Vegetarian Entre

This is a great vegetarian dish that doesn't call for 16 ingredients, take all day to fix, and leave you with a pile of dishes.  It's a roasted garlic/cauliflower/pasta dish with pepper flakes, lemon juice and lots of Parmesan cheese.  You roast two bulbs of garlic in a hot hot (500 degrees oven)  in foil, then remove the garlic and roast the cauliflower, coated with olive oil and cut into 1/8ths in the same pan in the same 500 degree oven.  
Meanwhile you have toasted 1/4-1/3 cup walnuts. Chop after they cool.  Cook the pasta, make sauce of the garlic, lemon juice and hot pepper flakes and mix everything together and add plenty of Parmesan and serve with more Parmesan. Garnish with walnuts.
 I'm making a salad with iceberg lettuce, grape tomatoes and avocado to add some green to the menu.  Sounds good, doesn't it?   Avocados on sale lately.  Good healthy oils for you in the winter.  

We had tacos last night with all the trimmings:  bean/pepper/onion for the vegetarian guest and ours likewise, but with some sauteed and cut up tri-tip steak.  I serve lightly sauteed corn tortillas, salsa, sour cream, grated cheddar, lettuce, tomato, avocado, scallions and cilantro to make as we like.  And we sure as hell like. 

Chili Mac: a great one-skillet casserole

During the holiday rush, when shopping, wrapping, cards, and lots of baking harry us, it's nice to have a go to dish for dinner that's fast, economical and doesn't dirty every dish in the kitchen.  May I offer up Chili Mac?

My recipe is from (I think) the Boston Globe and is attributed to Keri Fisher.  Thanks, Keri, we needed this.
Keri Fisher recipes

The recipe serves 4, but we ate and ate last night and there's still more than enough for a second meal.  I just  found the recipe on the web. Chili Mac Recipe

I followed the recipe except I had diced fire-roasted tomatoes.  Noticed the cans are now (grrrr!) 14.5 ounces instead of a pound, so I added a few cherry tomatoes, chopped.  I always buy good quality ground beef from the butcher counter.  Used ancho chili powder, and the Mexican cheese blend.  It was so cheesy we didn't need extra,  Serve with a nice salad.  Ours was mesclun with cherry tomatoes and cukes and some feta cheese sprinkled thereon.

The recipe is not too spicy for kids, but not too bland for adults.  We really relished it.  Yum! 

Old Time Rice Pudding

This is an unexpectedly delicious rice pudding, due to the caramelization  of the milk and sugar.  It's from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook when I was a bride.  Use any kind of rice in the pantry.  Milk should be whole milk or 2%.  You can use  2/3 cup of brown sugar instead of the white sugar, grated orange rind instead of lemon, cinnamon or cardamon instead of nutmeg, and golden raisins or currants instead of dark raisins.  This is known as "making do" and it can yield some delicious surprises.  The first hour requires a bit of stirring, but after that the oven does its work.  Serve with heavy cream for a real treat.

Old-time Rice Pudding

1/2 cup rice
 4 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 t. grated lemon peel
1/4 t. nutmet
1/2 cup seeded raisins.

Note:  t. = teaspoon

Combine rice, milk, sugar, and salt; pour into greased 11/2 -qurt baking dish.  Bake in slow oven (350 degrees F.) for 1  hour, stirring several time.
Add lemon peel, nutmeg, and raisins; continue baking 2 to 21/2 hours.  Makes 6 servings.