Mother’s Day 2006
Happy day to all you mothers! I’m having a good one myself. First, my wonderful family gave me a copy of The Candle Cafe Cookbook, which looks like it will be a great source of inspiration, the newest Pearl Jam CD, which is playing as I type, and a cute card that my daughter picked out herself at PetSmart. Then my husband made breakfast: Scrambled tofu from Vegan with a Vengeance, wrapped in tortillas and served with guacamole, with spicy hash browns on the side. It was great!
With all the kitchen duties being handled by the husband, I’ve had a little time to write up last night’s meal, which was simple but good. I used the rice cooker to make Brown and Wild Rice with Asparagus, a dish that practically cooks itself, and I freshened up a can of cannellini beans by adding fresh herbs for a simple side dish. And you know what? It was that simple bean dish that everyone wanted more of. Fresh herbs can really work wonders, even on canned beans.
Brown and Wild Rice with Asparagus
1 cup brown rice
1/2 cup wild rice
2 1/2 cups water
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sliced almonds, crushed
1 pound asparagus, trimmed and sliced into 2-inch pieces
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tbsp. lemon juice
additional sliced almonds for garnish
Put the brown and wild rices, water, salt, and crushed almonds into the rice cooker. Cook until the cooker turns from cook to warm. Add the asparagus on top of the rice, pour in the vegetable broth, cover and re-set to “cook.” Cook until the asparagus is tender but not overcooked. Remove from rice cooker and toss gently with lemon juice. Garnish with more almonds
Cannellini Beans with Fresh Basil and Oregano
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
olive oil spray
1 19-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed well
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 tbsp. chopped fresh oregano
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Sauté the onion and garlic in a pan lightly sprayed or brushed with olive oil for 3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and cook over medium heat until liquid is reduced somewhat, about 6 minutes. Serve warm.
Ann
April 7, 2010 at 7:04 pmI just found your website / blog and your recipes look great. I made these two for dinner tonight and they were awesome. I had some red pepper in the fridge so I added that to the bean recipe and it was great too. Thank you so much for all these great recipes!
Kellyzkool
May 25, 2010 at 10:47 amThis bean dish was even better than I expected. I had a ton of roasted veggies to use up but was looking for an easy protein dish to serve with them, and this was just right. I used parsley and basil since that is what I had and I got great feedback on this! Thanks again!
Elessar Tetramariner
September 23, 2010 at 4:37 pmI am the asparagus fan in my house (pencil-thin green stalks only, please), and, as I have just served up my wild rice, mushroom, celery, almonds, herbs & cheese casserole, it might be a few weeks before I try this. However, it looks incredibly tasty, and I especially like the shredded potato topping idea. Sadly my wife L does *not* like to eat smoked anything (very much including paprika), so I suggest a sweet Hungarian, or Chimayo (New Mexican) chile powder, if anyone else has that problem.
My acquaintance, English musician Michael Wookey, need s a substantial loan to press his 3rd full-length cd in France in early October, so he’s coming up from Southhampton for a fat check and I am serving him the last of the killer enchiladas I made 3 baking dished of a couple weeks ago with my friend Carol who was visiting from near Sydney, Australia. I can provide that recipe, but it does involving dairy. Could be modified.
Melody
December 12, 2010 at 5:23 pmHello, Susan. I’ve been lurking on your blog for years. I’d been toying with the idea of going meat-free for a long time and I finally made the decision to do it this year. Your blog has been a wonderful resource. I’m writing to let you know that I found a picture of your Brown and Wild Rice with Asparagus on another site but I didn’t see any credit given to you. I just wanted to make sure you knew about it, in case your work was being used without your permission.
Here’s the site:
http://www.laaloosh.com/2009/03/24/weight-watchers-wild-rice-barley-and-asparagus-pilaf-recipe/
It’s being called Wild Rice, Barley, and Asparagus Pilaf. They may have changed the recipe, but that’s still your picture. I’d recognize your photography from a mile away….the pictures are partly why I visit blog so much 🙂
Anyway, you have an amazing blog. I hope you and your family have a Happy Holiday.
Pat B
May 15, 2012 at 11:28 amThis looks yummy. I just bought a pressure cooker last week and also some asparagus on my last grocery trip. We need a quick meal for tonight and I’m going to try this by fixing the asparagus on the stove top while the rice is cooking in the cooker. Thanks for your blog. This is my favorite web site!
Carolyn
May 16, 2012 at 5:15 pmDidn’t try the cannellini beans recipe tonight, but the rice and asparagus dish was amazing! Loved how simple it was and how nothing overpowered any flavour. Looking forward to trying another recipe from this blog soon! 🙂
Abe Rodriguez
July 15, 2013 at 2:50 pmJust made this! The almonds give the rice a buttery flavor, it’s great!
frogger@nc.rr.com
February 4, 2014 at 2:07 pmThank you so much for all this wonderful information and great recipes. I look forward to trying many of them. I am hoping that you will always add a way to “add to recipe box” because I am technically challenged and do not know “Pinterest.” I’m doing good to just do this. ((~.~)) I suspect that might be harder with older recipes that your reference, but if it is possible, it would be just awesome and keep me from saving things in two places. Thanks for considering this request. Best to you!
Susan Voisin
February 4, 2014 at 3:08 pmHi Frogger–good news! You can add any recipe to your recipe box on this site. Just click the link at the top, under the title and below my name and the date, that says “Add to Recipe Box.”
Mary
February 4, 2014 at 5:17 pmWow…. Thank you so much for this speedy reply! I will try that tonight. I LOVE your blog and have recommended it to several people.
Mary