Olive Oil Rice: It Tastes Very Nice

Lately, I've been craving plain rice. I don't know why, but it's good. Nice, simple with a creamy-ish texture...

Yeah, anyway, while I like plain rice, the rest of you might be going O_O, X_x, >_<, or something of that nature. Not everyone likes the taste of plain rice or they think it's no use (useless or not good), and sometimes I don't want plain rice either. So I came up with a nifty way to make rice taste different and good. Hooray for me.

You should uh, probably read this BEFORE you start making your rice.

Take however much rice you're going to eat and put it in a bowl. It doesn't matter if it's white or brown, but I personally like the taste better when it's white. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of water and a small amount of butter. I'm gonna say half to a whole teaspoon depending on the amount of rice, how much you like the taste of butter, blah blah blah. Then drizzle about a teaspoon (depending on the amount and stuff) of olive oil on the rice. Add salt if it pleases ya. Put it in the microwave, covered with a damp napkin or paper towel for two minutes on high (depending on the rice, the strength of your microwave, yammer yammer yammer). Then go do something for two minutes. I'm not responsible for how bored you get.

Two minutes are up? Aye, that's good. Take it out carefully and stir it around. If there's still water at the bottom, you can put it back in for a minute or two, but I personally don't care about the water. Most of the water, at any rate, should've steamed the rice and made it nice and fluffy and soft and stuff. The rice shouldn't be too oily or too overpowering with olive-y taste, 'cause that's nasty, but have a light sheen on it and a slight olive oil taste. Of course, unless you like it like that. I prefer to eat it with a spoon, but you know, that's just me. Chopsticks, forks, bread, your hands (don't burn 'em), whatever you want.

You could eat this by itself or with a meal. Hmm. I suddenly envisioned this rice sitting on a cream-colored plate with beef tenderloin and steamed broccoli. Maybe with ginger ale in a Coca-Cola cup? Or maybe some sauteed fish and spinach with garlic aside some juice in said Coca-Cola cup? Meat and vegetables mixed in the rice would be good with a cup of Pepsi in aforementioned Coca-Cola cup?

..................... Darn it, now I'm hungry.

Later.

Snacks and Pasta

Me again. You know, I figured since this thing is called The Cooking Shed, it would be dumb if I didn't have any food related posts. But that's just me.

Snacks, huh? The so-called evil of healthy living? No way. If you eat something healthful in a reasonable serving, it's actually beneficial. It keeps your metabolism running and that helps burn fat. Plus, you're not hungry between whatever meal and whatever meal and then you overdo it later.

Now I'm not saying eat 24 hours straight, 'cause you'll make yourself sick and that's just... not very smart. But if you're hungry and it's not, say dinner time yet, get some tea or an apple or a frozen yogurt or something light. I personally like tea and tortilla chips; they have a nice amount of fiber. But drink something with your 'lots of fiber,' people, or you, your intestines, and everybody else will regret it.

Now I have a recipe for pasta. Read it BEFORE you start making it.

Boil a medium pot of water. Salt it to taste and pour in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.
Pour in each needed serving size small pasta, like rotini, shells, etc., and cook for at least 10 minutes or until the pasta is soft but not falling apart.
That's right. Past al dente.
Strain it, then put it back in the pot to keep it warm. Add 1/2 tsp of dried parsley (fresh is a bit hard to eat and gets stuck in your teeth -.-') per serving and a 1/3 of a tsp of dillweed per serving. Be careful mixing it; it might collapse on you if you're too rough. Put it in some nice-looking bowls and you're done!

Here're some variations:

More Traditonal Preparation: Just cook it until it's al dente this time.
Heartier Preparation: Chop up half a chicken breast or some crabmeat for every two servings. Don't eat this preparation too often. It get very old very quickly. I've only eaten it three times in my life and I'm already sick of it.
Just Plain Weird Preparation: Cook this in two different pots. Put five drops of one food coloring in one pot, five drops of another in the other pot. You could split it even more, in thirds, fourths... but after a while, it starts to look nasty... And creepy...
Sideshow Preparation: Just make this as a side dish.

That's pretty much it.

Later.