Spanish Rice - Let the Mayhem Begin!

Well, this year it was April that brought the chaos with it, but April-hem just didn't have the same ring to it.  I’m sure May won’t disappoint, though.  Hopefully I can at least get through it this year without a cross country move.  But as you’ll see, I didn’t waste any time getting started with the Mayhem anyway.  But don’t worry, it had a happy ending.  No, not like that, you pervs!  Delicious Spanish rice that’s super simple and is all cooked in one pan. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• ½ of a medium onion, diced
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups rice
• 2 Tablespoons chili powder
• ½ can green chilies (about 2 Tablespoons)
• ½ can diced tomatoes (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 ½ cups water

*This is perfect for making the same week as Mexironi and Cheese because they both use half cans of the same stuff. 

In a pan over medium heat, put 2 Tablespoons of olive oil followed by the diced onion. 

Sprinkle ½ teaspoon salt over the top and cook until it’s translucent, then add the garlic.

Stir that in and pour in the rice. 

Stir the rice so that every grain is coated with a bit of oil.  (Does that look like a lot of rice for this size pan?  Nah… it’ll be fine.)

Sprinkle on the chili powder. 

And once again, stir until the rice is all evenly coated. 

Add the chilies and tomatoes.

Stir those in and add the liquid. 

Umm… I said it’ll be fine, right?  Well, here goes nothing.  (May-hem!)

Bring it just to a simmer, then turn the heat to low, and pop on the lid. 

Leave it for 25 minutes.  No peeking!  Well, no lifting the lid, anyway.  This is why I love glass lids. 

Turn the heat off and leave it for another 5-10 minutes.  Then finally, you can remove the lid.  See, I told you it would be fine.  (whew!!)

And lastly, fluff it with a fork.  (D’oh!)  If your pan is as full as mine, you’ll have to fluff it into a big bowl.  Although, I highly recommend either using a bigger pan, or halving the recipe.  Either way it will be fabulous.    

Here at Authors Kitchen, we just can't have May without the hem.  Which month usually brings the most chaos for you?   
 

It's almost cookie time

Engineers are lazy.

I'm not sure if you've seen the wiener dog and the tennis ball launcher, but that's the best example I've seen on the internet lately. People see it as so innovative and creative... dude invented a machine so he wouldn't have to throw a ball for the dog. Lazy as fuck.

Lemme tell you, if someone hadn't already invented a dishwasher, I'd have a prototype hooked up to my sink right now.

And when a prof gives tells me I have to do a 5 minute free form presentation on anything I want (as long as I can somehow tie it to the class material), I spend hours trying to figure out how I can do this without actually doing any work.

Totally figured out how to have cookies be my schoolwork.

Which covers off this week's blog post.

Double lazy.

Ginger-Orange Brown Sugar Cookies

totally lazed out on the name too.

• 1/2 c butter
• 1 c brown sugar
• 1 tsp fresh grated ginger
• zest of one orange
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp orange juice
• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

This is a bit of a variation on a typical sugar cookie. The brown sugar makes it a lot more caramelly, but also means you really have to watch them in the oven. Which you should preheat to 325. Lower temp for the brown sugar too.

Cream the butter and sugar with the ginger and the orange zest.

Beat in the egg and vanilla until it's light and fluffy and looks like it would make an awesome icing for a cake.

Don't forget the oj.

There was no baking powder in the picture. Dammit.

The dry ingredients will turn this into a very soft dough. Very soft. Might be worth letting it chill in the fidge for an hour or so, but I was impatient so I started rolling it.

If I was going to cut this into anything other than rectangles, I would have chilled it.

But, rectangles. Easiest thing you can cut a cookie into. Lasy person's cookie shape. Only drop cookies are lazier, but I had a goal here so I had to cut them.

And bake them. For barely 10 minutes.

I really need an oven thermometer. I looked for one today, but all I could find were fridge thermometers. Fridge? Really? Have to admit, I've never worried about that temperature. Brown sugar cookies in a nearly antique oven with serious calibration issues, I worry about.

Once they were cooled, I had to turn them into strain gauges.

Yes, strain gauges.

Yes, strain gauges. This is a school project remember.

But from this angle, they look like scary monsters.

The other way, and we have happy little music notes...

A bit of melted chocolate in a small sammich bag goes a long way. But be careful about explosions.

For another purpose, I'd say make these circles and put the chocolate around the edges. The bittersweet chocolate works really well with the zesty orange, and the fresh ginger (yeah, you could use dried, but seriously, try the fresh) gives the familiar warmth but with a sharpness that seems to lighten the usually warm and heavy spice.

I'm going to have to make these again once I'm done school. Perfect for sharing at work.

What's your favourite lazy way out of work?