The Simplest Side Dish You'll Ever Make... and One of the Tastiest

Two Ingredient Rice Au Gratin 

If you haven't figured out that quick and easy, yet homemade from real-food ingredients is the rule of the kitchen and cuisine here at Potluck Paradise headquarters, we've not been doing our job very well.  We'd almost always rather eat something we've made than pull a microwave dish from the freezer or even go out to eat. 

When we're in a hurry we take most of our inspiration from what's in the cupboard, freezer, or fridge and we frequently fall back on the time-tested dishes we've found in our research into foods prepared and loved in kitchens dating back to the 1820s. 

We fell in love with this two-ingredient dish from the wheat and potato saving days of World War I. Back then rice was an uncommon ingredient in Midwestern kitchens. The home economics faculty members at the University of Minnesota were charged with finding ways to help homemakers "win the war with food."  They published a number of recipes. This simple dish was among them. It has a feel of macaroni and cheese, without the bother of boiling the macaroni and cooking up the cheese-laden white sauce. 

It couldn't be easier. Leftover rice and grated cheese. And a microwave... or you could use the oven. 

Rice Au Gratin

1 cup leftover rice -- we like brown rice

2 ounces grated cheese -- we like cheddar cheese 

The key to success is to have the rice in a layer not more than an inch thick.  Pat into a lightly greased  microwave safe pan. Sprinkle with cheese and microwave on medium until the cheese melts. 

Easy to increase -- using 2 ounces of cheese for each cup of rice. 

Copyright 2015 Rae Katherine Eighmey. All rights reserved.

Two Tablespoons of Butter Convert Leftover Bits of "This and That" into Gourmet-Worthy Dinner

Herb Butter: 

Sauted onions, garlic, and celery with dried basil and diced parsley 

If you've been following our February is National Potluck Month posts you may be thinking, "I've seen this dish before.  Actually, I saw it yesterday."  

Well, you'd be right. You can scroll down to the previous post to find the simple recipe.This was not the story I planned to tell today, but I discovered with delight that making the herb butter yesterday enabled me to get dinner on the table today in ten minutes. 

We'd had a larger lunch than normal and so I thought we might just skip supper. But then we both got a bit peckish. I started rummaging about in the fridge and bumped into two small zucchini.  I could saute them in some of the herb butter. So I sliced them and tossed them into a skillet with the butter and cooked over medium heat for a few minutes and then lowered the heat and put on the lid. Needed more than just the zucchini, so I pulled out the last little bit of ham.  I had thought I'd chop and make it into a sandwich spread. Instead, I sliced it thinly and tossed it into the zucchini.  One more look in the fridge uncovered the last bits of asparagus -- maybe ten thin spears that had been "just too much" for dinner two nights ago. So into the skillet they went, too. 

The entire dish cooked in less than ten minutes. With some bread and a bit of cole slaw made for the sack of cabbage and bottled dressing, we had a fine meal. 

But we didn't eat it all. There is enough left to be combined with a couple of eggs to make a free-form omelet for lunch tomorrow. 

All made possible with a bit of herb butter that had just the right flavors to unite and elevate the simple leftovers into a delightful dinner. 

I don't know what is more Potluck Paradise Perfect than that!

Great Spice Blends Created Nearly 100 Years Apart Easily Enhance Meats and Vegetables

Spices blend following an 1857 recipe

pepper, dry mustard, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg

When we were doing research into recipes from the 1850s, 60's and 70s, we encountered a number of articles in cookbooks, and farming or women's magazines of the day offering up spice blends. These home concocted mixes of seasonings are often a fusion of herb and spice. Some featured dried herbs as well as ground spices. All of them lend a delicious difference to pots of soup, sauces, or as with the spice blend below to "forcemeats and gravy."

A forcement is a kind of small meatball with crumbs of buttered bread bound together with beaten egg. Victorian soups weren't complete unless they had a couple of forcemeat balls leading a savory spiciness to rich broth.  Well, here at Potluck Paradise headquarters we're not often into dusting off the soup tureen, but we have found that forcemeat makes a nice stuffing for broiled mushroom caps or they are quite tasty by themselves as a small appetizer meatball.

When we were studying kitchens and homemaking during the 1950s, we found other kinds of blends to dress up cooked vegetables. Here, busy cooks seeking to add a bit of elegance to fresh or canned vegetables could toss the pound of carrots with a quarter of a cup of mint jelly. Or they could cook up this compound butter to toss with green beans, asparagus, or other green vegetable.  Once made, it is easy to keep on hand in the refrigerator for a couple of days or in the freezer for weeks. Freeze it in a flat container and then you can easily slice off a gold and green "bar" to toss into the drained vegetables.

1857 Herb Blend for Forcemeat and Gravy

1/2 cup ground black pepper
1/4 cup ground ginger
1/4 cup ground nutmeg
1/4 cup ground cinnamon
1/8 cup cloves

Mix the spices in a container and store in a dry place. When ready to use add a half teaspoon to a cup of gravy. For making meatballs with a pound of meat, start with 1/2 teaspoon for mild and 1 teaspoon for strong flavor.

1950s Herb Butter Blend

1 stick butter
1/4 cup minced celery
3/4 cup minced onion
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried basel
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

Melt the butter in a medium frying pan. Add the celery and onion and cook about five minutes until the onion is transparent. Add the remaining ingredients, lower heat and cover. Cook for ten minutes, stirring from time to time.  Store in refrigerator of freezer. Use about a tablespoon to a serving of vegetables.

The Two-Quart Glass Bowl -- Potluck and Cooking Essential

Here at Potluck Paradise headquarters our favorite piece of cooking equipment is our classic Pyrex casserole dish.

We actually have several.  We picked up the one in the picture in the 1980s when we were toting loads of food to potlucks. We have a couple of smaller ones in fashionable smoked-looking glass. We even have one from our mother's kitchen back in the 1960s. We use them for basic casserole making--scalloped potatoes, tater tot hot dish, corn and tomato casserole. We use them to microwave leftovers. 

They are also the perfect thing to cook broccoli and cauliflower in the microwave. Break up into pieces, put a bit of water in the bowl, cover and microwave on medium until done. Again, one of our multi-tasking tricks. No need to stand around in the kitchen watching a pot on the stove when there are loads of other things to do around the house. 

These versatile dishes can stand in as a mixing bowl or even a rustic centerpiece. Just don't use them to cook on top of the stove!!

Our "February is National Potluck Month 2015" is coming to an end.

We've covered a fair amount of ground during these three weeks. We've offered up desserts and treats, non-alcoholic beverages, main dishes that are inexpensive and darn tasty, and offered some thoughts for getting the most from your cooking endeavors. 

During this last week we'll have some more quick ideas for spiffing up leftovers and meals, a take on a classic dish everyone loves, and a totally magic cake.  

Thanks for coming along with us.  As we like to say here at headquarters: 

"Potluck Paradise -- It's a book!  It's a blog! It's a state of mind!"

Turning Dessert into Veggie Side Dish-- Hint from a Well-Stocked Freezer

So we're seriously patting ourselves on the back over this genius insight here at Potluck Paradise headquarters. We sang the praises of our quick-from-the-freezer Apple Crisp earlier in the month (February 11 to be exact -- you can link from the blog topic below in the right column)

We do really love this dessert, but lately thoughts of pending swimsuit season have had us skipping treats as an unnecessary added course.  So what were we to do with the 37 bags of quick pie filling taking up space in the freezer?  Sure, it will be some months before we have fresh, local, picked-from-the-orchard pie apples and working in the garden will burn off calories so we can indulge again. Maybe there was a way to use some of them up.

And then... we spied the two small sweet potatoes in the veggie bin, hardly a serving and a half between them. Apples and sweet potatoes are a great combination.  So we quickly peeled, diced, and steamed in the microwave. Then cooked the pie filling in the microwave as well and tossed the two together. Some pecan bits on top!  A superior side dish in a microwave minute -- or ten.

We had converted those two potatoes and pie filling into at least four servings. Not bad.

Low Salt "Soup-er" Pot Roast

There's nothing better than pot roast fresh from the oven . . . unless it is smelling the pot roast cooking all afternoon knowing there will be a wonderful dinner without much effort. OR wait. .. wait... the thought of the amazing leftovers you'll have for a couple more meals--maybe another dinner, or a couple of great hot roast beef sandwiches for lunch. That's why we always buy a five or six pound roast to cook here in Potluck Paradise headquarters. Sure you can make this with a two or three pounder, but it doesn't take that much longer to cook for delicious extras.  Potluck perfection!

Years ago we made this classic pot roast simply seasoned with canned and dry soup and wrapped up in foil a couple of times a month here at Potluck Paradise headquarters. But then we got concerned about too much salt in our food, so we just stopped. Every once in a while, we'd think about making it, but the idea of close to a day's worth of salt in a single serving made us shove the recipe back in the box.

But food makers have gotten hep. It is now possible to buy low and no salt soups. And if you can't find them where you live, we've found a couple of tricks.

Souper Pot Roast

1 4 to 5-pound chuck roast
2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup -- low sodium
2 envelopes dry onion soup mix -- low sodium
 OR if you can't find low sodium sift the soup mix through a sieve
        capturing the dry onions and saving the salty seasoning part
        in a small bowl.   And have an envelope of non-sodium beef broth
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup red wine

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.  Line a baking pan with heavy duty aluminum foil allowing enough to wrap totally around the meat. Put the meat on the foil. Sprinkle evenly with the low sodium onion soup mix (OR the onions only from the full sodium version and a pinch or two of the sifted out seasoning and one envelope of the non-sodium beef broth mix) Spoon the mushroom soup over the top of the meat. Pour water and wine around the edges.  Seal the foil tightly.  Bake until done, about 3 to 4 hours depending on the size of the roast.
To serve: put the meat on a platter and stir the juices remaining in the pan to make a rich gravy.

Egg and Rice Omelet--A Potluck Paradise Vegetarian Favorite for Lent

From time to time our attention shifts to options for meatless meals here at Potluck Paradise headquarters.  And as Lent starts during this National Month of Potluck celebrating, we thought we'd share this recipe that deliciously combines leftover rice and stretches just 2, count 'em TWO eggs and topped with a bit of cheese sauce to make a very filling and delicious dish for two 

We found the original recipe in the March 1911 edition of the Boston Cooking School Magazine. It looked tempting, but it looked even more tempting when we realized that we had a cup of so of cooked rice in the fridge that we didn't quite know what we were going to do with it. 

Presto! a solution.... and lunch. 

Rice Omelet with Cheese Sauce 

2 eggs, separated

1 cup cooked brown rice, at room temperature

1 tablespoon water

a couple of grinds black pepper

dash salt, optional

1 tablespoon butter

About the pan and cooking method. I used my calphalon 8-inch omelet pan and it worked very well. The sides on the pan slope from a 5 1/2-inch base to a 7 1/2-inch inside diameter top. The original 1911 recipe says to finish cooking the omelet in the oven. I opted for a simpler method and just put a lid over it until it set.  The trick of stovetop cooking is to make sure the heat is low enough at this point that the bottom doesn't urn while you are waiting for the center to finish cooking. 

Instructions 

In a small mixing bowl beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks and set aside. In a medium mixing bowl lightly beat the egg yolks with salt, pepper, and water. Stir in the rice and mix well until all the grains are separated and coated with the yolk mixture. Gently fold the egg whites into the rice mixture. Melt the butter in omelet pan and swirl it up around the sides. Spoon the mixture into the pan and cook first over medium heat and then, once the bottom has set, continue on low heat, covering the pan with a lid, or putting it into a pre-heated 350 degree oven until the middle is set. 

To serve

Make a shallow cut through the omelet, cutting at the one-third mark. Pour cheese sauce over the larger area and then carefully fold the remaining third over the top. And then, with another carefully, remove to the plate. 

This is simple and elegant, in a homespun way. The crust is crispy and the filling surprisingly light. I made the cheese sauce with cheddar cheese. Swiss would be nice with some sauted mushrooms on the side. 

Cheese Sauce

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1/2 cup grated cheese -- more or less to taste

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and then stir in the flour. Cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently, so that the flour begins to cook, but doesn't brown. Gradually add the milk and continue cooking and stirring until the sauce thickens. Stir in the cheese.  Leftover sauce can be refrigerated for a week, or stored in the freezer for a month.