Strawberry Rice Pudding

Hey oh!

A while back I made this delicious rice pudding recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, La Tartine Gourmande and now that I have been tweaking my blog a bit, I realize I never posted the recipe! Well, here is the delicious and easy to make strawberry rice pudding recipe. It's a dessert that is the perfect combination of sweet and tart. I'm not usually a fan of rice pudding, but this is one I will be making (and eating) again. 

My boyfriend also seemed to enjoy it, although he sampled it a couple of days after I made it. This is really something you should eat the same day, especially after it is made, as it is still nice and warm. But if you must save it, a couple of days didn't alter the taste too much. 

Ingredients: (serves 4)

• 6 tablespoons risotto rice, Carnaroli or Arborio
• 2 full cups whole milk, (or half soy milk, half unsweetened coconut milk)
• 10 green cardamom pods (I used cardamom powder and used less than the amount of 10 pods)
• 10.5 oz strawberries, hulled
• 1 tablespoon lime juice (optional)
• 1/2 cup blond cane sugar + 2 tablespoons
• 1/8 cup water
• Grated coconut (optional)

Directions:

• In a small pot, dissolve 1/2 cup sugar with the water and bring to a gentle boil.
• Wash and dice half of the strawberries. Add them to the syrup with four cardamom pods and the lime juice. Simmer on low heat for about fifteen minutes. Let cool and remove the cardamom pods.
• In the meantime, rinse the rice under cold water.
• Bring the milk to a first boil with 6 cardamom pods and then slowly pour the rice in. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the rice is cooked but stays al dente. Remove the cardamom pods and mix in the rest of the sugar. Let slightly cool in a bowl.
• When the cooked strawberries are cooked, mix them with the rice (or serve the rice and top with the cooked strawberries.)
• Add the remainder fresh strawberries, sliced. Serve with grated coconut if you like.

I couldn't find cute little jars to serve my rice pudding in, so i bought some microwave safe Gerber baby food jars. I discarded the contents, washed and removed the labels, and used them as containers. They are only about $.89 each, so it was a pretty affordable alternative! I will admit that I bought the applesauce flavor thinking I could eat the contents and use the jars, but that applesauce didn't taste like the applesauce I was imagining... I'll remember that for when I have kids. Until then, I'll stick to some rice pudding and perhaps some REAL applesauce =)

A Weekend Stew

Hi all,

This weekend I was feeling a little off and needed some TLC so i prepared a delicious beef stew for my love and I. He usually cooks us a lovely meal but I wanted to make something for us since he's been having long weeks at work. This stew is really easy to make and very healthy too. Best part is you will have plenty of left overs! Perfect meal to end a long week and to warm you up on cold winter days <3

Recipe courtesy of the book Homemade

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 onion thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
• 3lbs of stew meat (I buy a pre-packaged and pre-cut stew meat available at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods)
• 1 tablespoon of all purpose flour
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 1/4 cups of button mushrooms, sliced
• 3/4 cups + 2 tbsp of red wine
• 1 28 oz can of chopped tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons of finely chopped rosemary

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Place a dutch oven (cast iron casserole such as Le Creuset. I have one from Sur La Table) over medium heat and add the olive oil, onion, garlic and red bell pepper. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes or until tender.
3. Toss the chunks of beef in the flour, making sure they are thoroughly coated.
4. Remove the lid from the dutch oven, add the beef and season with salt and pepper. Cook until all sides of beef are brown.
5. Add the sliced mushrooms and let cook for an additional minute or 2.
6. Pour in the red wine and let simmer for 10 minutes. (I usually use a merlot)
7. Stir in the tomatoes and rosemary
8. Cook in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. (make sure you wear oven mittens when handling the casserole after it cooks in the oven, it will be very hot and you will burn yourself otherwise).

Serve and enjoy! I served the stew with some sliced Italian bread for dipping in the broth as well as a side arugula salad and some sparkling water. I feel like sparkling water makes the meals feel more like a date night =)

Holiday Wreath

Hi everyone!

Wow! It has been a really long time since i've made a post. Life has been a bit hectic, but I am hoping to get back into blogging now that I have some free time =).

How to make your own holiday wreath for under $20. What you'll need:

1. A plain wreath. I got mine for $8 at target. You can also recycle an old one by carefully removing the decorations, but I think the one at Target was the best choice.
2. Hot glue gun. You can find some small inexpensive ones at places like JoAnn's Fabrics or Michael's.
3. Pine cones, flowers, berries, ribbon, bells, anything you want to decorate your wreath with. I found some glitter pine cones with berries for decorating Christmas trees at Target. They were only $3 each, and I bought 2 of those. I also bought a box of red berries and a pair of glittery doves for $2. I got the bell at Pier 1 for $1.
4. Scissors and twine.

Directions:

• Take a look at the materials you bought and think about how you want to place them on your wreath. Scissors come in handy for cutting pieces to fit your wreath and for changing the functionality of those pieces too. The pine cones and berries I bought were attached to this plastic branch originally intended to be placed on a tree, but I cut the pieces I wanted to use off and discarded the rest. 
• Once I had the lay out of the pieces picked out, I started hot gluing each piece onto the wreath. Make sure you have a popsicle stick or something you can use to press some of the pieces to the wreath since the glue will be hot. 
• I cut off the string that was attached to the dove (it was originally a tree ornament) and hot glued it to the wreath. I left this for last, because I wanted the dove to stand out and not be obstructed by some of the berries or pine cones.
• Lastly, tied the bell to the wreath with some twine. I also used cut off a big piece of twine to attach the wreath to my door since I don't have a special wreath hanger. I just wrapped the twine around a top section of the wreath a couple of times and then tied that to my door and double knotted it. The wreath isn't very heavy, so the twine has been working just fine! And once the Holidays are over, I can simply cut the twine to remove the wreath.

Here is a before and after look:

Before

After

I was totally excited by and in love with my wreath! It makes the entrance to my little apartment look so cheery =)