Kids Dish

I like the idea of bananas because they are portable, filling and healthy, thus they make a great snack on the go. They are also cheap, and while I prefer to buy local produce in the season, we’re not quite at the height of fruit season yet and while the berries are plentiful, the cherries require pitting now that Sam has gone ahead and eaten several pits, resulting in a rather uncomfortable night. There’s not much else around yet so supermarket fruits it is. Of course Sam has decided against bananas again.

He ate half of one last week but the rest of the bunch has been sitting in the fruit basket getting riper and riper. I thought about making some smoothies, but of course I never got around to it. I moved the almost completely brown bananas to the fridge and figured I’d make muffins or banana bread. But I was uninspired by the thought of banana quick bread and remembered a recipe I’d seen online for Elvis cake- a peanut butter banana cake with chocolate chips.

I made it last night and it’s fantastic, but the icing was overly sweet. Here’s the recipe slightly modified- I plan on making it again.

Elvis Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1/2 cup butter or shortening
1 cup milk
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
2-3 mashed bananas
1/2 tsp banana extract
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips, more for sprinkling on the finished cake

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In a large bowl, cream sugar and shortening until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating just to combine. Stir in vanilla, mashed bananas, and banana extract. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter evenly between two greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let cool completely.

Frosting
2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 cup of smooth peanut butter.
2 cups of powdered sugar
Up to 2 Tbs milk

In an electric mixer cream together the butter and peanut butter until smooth and fully incorporated. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time and use milk to adjust the consistency to your liking. Using natural peanut butter will result in a frosting that’s not quite as sweet but it may be a little grainy.

My baby is one month old. It’s kind of tough to do a monthly update for a month because at one month not much happens. Babies are still so fetal, and my little one-month-old is no exception. But he’s getting so, so big. He’s grown out of some of his diapers already and moved to a more generous snap setting on the diapers that were so huge just a few weeks before. His face is losing that newborn puffiness and starting to look more like the baby he’s going to become. His hair, while still dark, has lightened considerably from black to brown. His eyes are still a dark navy blue, a blue that makes me wonder what color his eyes will become.

He still spends the majority of the day sleeping, but when he’s awake he spends his time looking around with those dark blue eyes. He’s mostly calm and content and very rarely cries for reasons I can’t figure out immediately. He’s a good sleeper and naps on his own for hours at a time in his crib, the pack n play in my bedroom, or on a mat on the floor. At night he wakes to eat twice between 11 and 6 but generally goes back to sleep immediately after nursing for a few minutes. Last night he pleased me by sleeping for a good six-hour stretch. I am grateful.

He nurses quickly and efficiently and doesn’t spend a lot of time just hanging out on the breast, which I really appreciate. The quick and efficient nursing makes him pretty gassy which leads to spectacular spit ups once or twice a day. It’s astounding how much liquid can spew from a newborn’s mouth without them really noticing or caring. The pooping seems to have slowed down, and while there’s still plenty of poop (one of the downsides of parenting) I no longer have to change three diapers in a 30-minute period because of it.

The poor little guy hasn’t had the best health so far. He’s already had a staph infection, a nasty yeast rash (which the other pediatrician in the office told me was not yeast when I brought him in the first time. Two days later she wrote me the prescription for the yeast cream and it promptly went away), and now he’s got a cough. The same cough his brother and I both have. It’s awful to hear his little body coughing, especially since I know how much it hurts. But it hasn’t seemed to affect his mood and it hasn’t affected his sleep.

He’s really pretty strong. He surprised everyone by lifting his head and looking around immediately after his birth and he’s continued to show off his impressive head control since. When he’s on his belly he pushes up on his arms and looks around. He’s also got strong legs. Sometimes when he sleeps he’ll push himself several inches forward. One day he turned a full 90 degrees. I’ve also seen him turn from his back to his side. He’s so advanced. (doesn’t every parent say that about their kid?)

My little baby is growing up. It’s amazing how easily and how immediately we loved him. I’ll miss the newborn stage when it’s over. I love how soft and cuddly he is and how perfectly he fits under my chin. But I can’t wait to see what he’ll be like as he grows.

I apologize for the long absence, but I went and had a baby. The arrival of number two basically put all cooking on hold and I’ve been relying on the freezer stash, pasta, and the kindness of others for meals these last four weeks. Now we’re in the middle of a god-awful heat wave and the idea of cooking makes sweaty, even in the air conditioning.

The good news is that last week was the first week of the Red Earth Farm CSA share for the season. We signed up for a partial share this season, since with a newborn in hand and a toddler underfoot I didn’t think I’d be able to preserve all of the extras we’d be unable to eat. My partial share included a bunch of pak choi, a bag of perpetual spinach, a head each of red leaf and green leaf lettuce, a bunch of radishes and green onions.

The CSA is also offering fruit, egg, herb/flower shares and yogurt shares this season. The herb/flower share is new this season and all flowers and herbs are organically grown on the farm. The yogurt share, also new, is a partnership with Pequea Valley Farm in Lancaster. The cows on the Lancaster farm are grass fed and hormone and antibiotic free. CSA members can choose from a plain share and a variety flavor share that includes two quarts of yogurt biweekly. The buying club through the farm is currently offering cheese from Oak Shade Cheese and medicines and other herbal products from Avena Botanicals.

I’m sort of sad that we didn’t go ahead and buy a fruit share, but last summer’s fruit share just wasn’t worth it until late summer/early fall when each share had tons of apples and pears. I guess there’s always the buying club and the farmer’s market up the street. No shortage of local produce, it just requires some extra legwork on my part.

I’ve got a chicken defrosting in the fridge. It’s the last of the garage freezer stash of foods to be cooked. Everything else in there is cooked and ready to go for when this baby decides to make an appearance. I’m not due for a week, but I am ready to not be pregnant any more. I am cranky, sore and impatient and I’m finding it difficult to maintain the current level of organization in my house.

My thoughts have turned to things that are rumored to start labor. I’ve been using Evening Primrose Oil for two weeks and drinking lots of Raspberry Leaf Tea. The tea has brought on contractions but nothing that’s caused me to think the baby may actually want out. I’ve been walking up and down the stairs in my house repeatedly- usually with a very vacuum cleaner in tow, and aside from today when the weather just wouldn’t support it, I’ve been walking as much as I can. I’m not crazy enough to try castor oil but there are foods that are supposed to bring on labor.

Spicy foods are often rumored to jumpstart labor and today I ate the majority of a can of pineapple hoping that would start things. The eggplant Parmesan I made a week and a half ago didn’t do its job but I’ve heard great things about this recipe for Scalini’s Eggplant Parmigiana. Apparently 300 women have gone into labor within days of eating it. Sadly, I don’t think it will work until my due date has come and gone, but I may have to give it a try later in the week.

Friday Food Meme

Which do you prefer?

01. CHEESE or CHOCOLATE? both
02. BLUEBERRIES or STRAWBERRIES? whichever is perfectly ripe, local and in season
03. COFFEE or TEA? Coffee, definitely
04. CORN MUFFIN or ENGLISH MUFFIN? English Muffin
05. PANCAKES or FRENCH TOAST? Pancakes- I only like French toast if it’s perfectly crisp on the outside, which it never is.
06. YOGURT or CREAM CHEESE? cream cheese
07. RICE or PASTA? pasta
08. CAKE or PIE? cake, no contest
09. GROUND BEEF or GROUND TURKEY? ground beef
10. HOT DOGS or HAMBURGERS? hot dogs, gross as they are
11. JELLY or MARMALADE? I’m not really a fan of either
12. AMERICAN CHEESE or SWISS CHEESE? American, processed as it is.
13. DIET SODA or NO SODA? None. I can’t drink diet.
14. LEMONADE or ICED TEA? Iced tea
15. CHERRIES or GRAPES? cherries, but only if they’re perfectly ripe
16. CHOCOLATE QUIK or STRAWBERRY QUIK? chocolate
17. WAFFLES or PANCAKES? Belgian waffles
18. WHITE BREAD or WHOLE-GRAIN/WHEAT BREAD? Whole grain
19. PEAS or CARROTS? Peas
20. PUDDING or FRUIT-FLAVORED GELATIN? Pudding
21. COLD CEREAL or HOT CEREAL? Cold
22. KETCHUP or MUSTARD? Ketchup
23. MUSTARD or MAYONNAISE? Mustard. I can’t stand mayo unless it’s homemade.
24. MAYONNAISE or KETCHUP? ketchup
25. BLACK OLIVES or GREEN OLIVES? not a fan of olives
26. ONION or GARLIC? both
27. PLAIN BARBECUE or BARBECUE WITH SAUCE? Sauce
28. SCRAMBLED EGGS or FRIED EGGS? Fried
29. EGGS or EGG REPLACEMENTS? Eggs
30. MEAT or VEGETABLES? Depends on my mood
31. CHINESE TAKE-OUT or PIZZA? Pizza
32. SUSHI or DELI SANDWICH? Deli
33. WHITE CLAM CHOWDER or RED CLAM CHOWDER? neither
34. KEY LIME PIE or LEMON MERiNGUE PIE? Key lime
35. PIE & ICE CREAM or CAKE & ICE CREAM? Cake, definitely
36. WHIPPED CREAM or CAKE FROSTING? Frosting
37. HONEY or MAPLE SYRUP? Maple syrup

I’m on a cranky and pregnant cooking strike so you may see a bunch of food memes until I’m ready to start freezing meals for after the baby comes.

1. How do you like your eggs?

For breakfast they have to be cooked well, preferably served on bread with cheese and bacon.

2. How do you take your coffee/tea?

Milk and sugar

3. Favorite breakfast food:

Croissants, though I rarely get a chance to eat them.

4. Peanut butter - smooth or crunchy?

Crunchy if it’s natural, smooth if it’s the junky kind.

5. What kind of dressing on your salad?

I usually make my own vinaigrettes.

6. Coke or Pepsi?

Coke. No ice

7. You’re feeling lazy. What do you make?

Something from the freezer.

8. You’re feeling really lazy. What kind of pizza do you order?

Regular or pepperoni.

9. You feel like cooking. What do you make? A big meal?

A recipe I’ve been eyeing for a while. Sometimes it’s big, other times it’s just something that requires planning.

10. Do any foods bring back good memories?

Not really.

9. Do any foods bring back bad memories?

Luckily, no.

10. Do any foods remind you of someone?

Not that I can think of.

11. Is there a food you refuse to eat?

I won’t refuse to try it but I don’t like seafood.

12. What was your favorite food as a child?

Chocolate ice cream.

13. Is there a food that you hated as a child but now love?

I don’t know if there were foods I hated, but there were foods I refused to eat.

14. Is there a food that you loved as a child but now hate?

I didn’t love it, but I liked ham. Now it grosses me out.

15. Favorite fruit & vegetable:

Black cherries & broccoli

16. Favorite junk food:

Salt and pepper kettle cooked potato chips

17. Favorite between meal snack:

Crackers

18. Do you have any weird food habits?

I move the cheese from my pizza to the crust, eat the triangle part with the sauce first and the cheese and crust last.

19. You’re on a diet. What food(s) do you fill up on?

fruit and vegetables

20 . You’re off your diet. Now what would you like?

bread and butter

21. How spicy do you order Indian/Thai?

Medium to hot depending on my mood or who I’m sharing with

22. Can I get you a drink?

Margarita please.

23. Red wine or white?

Red, unless it’s hot and I want something chilled.

24. Favorite dessert?

Just about all of them, but I don’t like jellies, jams or preserves as cake filling.

25. The perfect nightcap?
Whiskey or wine

Woo-hoo! It’s National Something on a Stick Day. Straying from our usual frozen vegetarian corn dogs, I’ll leave you instead with a recipe for something only slightly healthier, Thai Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Thai Chicken Satay
1 1/2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breast

Marinade:
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp nam pla (fish sauce)

Combine the peanut butter, soy sauce, red chili paste, brown sugar, and lime juice in a food processor or blender. Puree to combine. While the motor is running, drizzle in the hot water to thin out the sauce, you may not need all of it. Pour the sauce into a nice serving bowl and garnish with the chopped peanuts.

I’m not fond of artificial colorings so celebrating St. Patty’s Day is more about eating foods that are naturally green than dropping food coloring into my recipes. Luckily I’ve got a freezer full of zucchini to make some delicious chocolate chip zucchini bread. This bread is moist and rich, more cake than bread. It can be made into mini loaves, muffins, or even cupcakes if you want to whip up a batch of cream cheese frosting (colored green, if you must.)

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread

* 3 eggs
* 2 cups white sugar (I always cut the sugar to one cup white and 1/2 cup packed brown sugar)
* 1 cup vegetable oil (I use half oil and half applesauce)
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups grated, well drained zucchini
* 1 cup toasted, chopped walnuts
* 1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
* 3 cups all-purpose flour (I use half whole wheat)
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Check after 25 minutes if you’re baking muffins (use liners- the tops break off easily if you just grease muffin pans) and 40 minutes if you use mini loaf pans. Depending on how well you drain the zucchini the bread could take longer to bake so don’t be alarmed if it takes an hour or more. If your kids don’t like nuts, finely chop them for a few pulses in the food processor. You’ll get the nutty flavor without the tell-tale chunks.

On a whim I picked up a bunch of leeks from the produce stand last week and now I don’t know what to do with them. I planned on making a nice, hearty, wintery leek and potato soup but then I used all of my potatoes to make a last minute Shepherd’s Pie. Ordinarily I’d just use the leeks in recipes that call for onions, but I’ve still got half of a five pound bag of organic onions in the pantry that look like they’re getting ready to sprout so I’ve been erring on the side of using them first.

Last week my mom came to visit and we took Sam to the bookstore to play with the trains. My mom went to the cafe to get some coffees for us and returned with a few stratas as well. Ordinarily I’m not a fan of most egg dishes, especially when I’m pregnant, but the strata, made with spinach, artichoke hearts and roasted peppers was delicious. Sam liked it too.

Back to the leeks. I’ve also got half a dozen eggs from local, pastured chickens in the fridge. I’ve been using them for cooking and baking as needed, but I keep reading that high quality eggs should be showcased in dishes that are egg focused. Again, I don’t love eggs, but perhaps this recipe for a Leek and Swiss Chard Tart that uses frozen puff pastry could help change my mind. I’m a sucker for anything in puff pastry. If I finely chopped the handful of baby carrots I have remaining from the five pound bag I bought (please someone remind me that I need to stay far, far away from five pound bags of anything perishable) I could add some color and texture and save some more veggies from the compost bin.

Just after writing about my failures to properly nourish Sam he shocked me by eating pretty well yesterday. He’s still lacking in dairy and didn’t have much interest even in the yogurt “Popsicle” I offered him, (Yes, I just freeze regular yogurt in an ice pop mold to make it seem like a special treat.) but he ate a real lunch that didn’t come out of snack boxes and a real dinner to go with it.

For lunch he had four veggie corn dogs that he dipped in ketchup. They are ridiculously high in sodium, but very high in protein and low in fat since they’re not real hot dogs. Protein is something that Sam’s diet is seriously lacking since he’s not a fan of meat or tofu so I’ll take it where I can get it.

Later as a snack he filled up on pretzels and a few potato chips, but then he requested spinach nuggets and ate 3 of them. They’re also higher in sodium than I’d like, but the first ingredient is spinach, which is a bonus, and they’re a decent source of fiber and protein.

He followed up the spinach nuggets with a few baby carrots and a bowl of frozen blueberries. Then after insisting he didn’t want to eat it he surprised Bob and I by eating half of what was on Bob’s plate. Dinner was Shepherd’s pie. I finely processed carrots, celery, onion and garlic to add to the meat and topped it with corn, peas and mashed potatoes. Sam loved it and could barely wait until it was cool enough to eat. He didn’t like the side dish- balsamic glazed carrots-a dish he usually loves, but I was so excited by the protein intake I didn’t care. Besides, he ate spinach nuggets for a snack after deciding he didn’t want potato chips. Who am I to complain?

What we’ve eaten so far this week.

Monday

breakfast:
Sam- two bowls of cheerios with milk
Me- two slices of whole grain toast with butter

lunch-
Sam- dried cranberries, raisins and apricots. Cheddar Bunnies, half an apple, some pretzels
Me- cupcake, pretzels with hummus, the other half of Sam’s apple, a peach

Snack
Sam- frozen strawberries and blueberries, pretzels

Dinner-
Sam- bacon and chard lifted from the pizza, 6 spinach nuggets,
Me- Butternut squash, bacon, rosemary and chard phyllo pizza

Tuesday
Breakfast
Sam- 1.5 waffles with butter and syrup, pretzels
Me- the other half of Sam’s waffle

Lunch
Sam- dried cranberries and raisins, half an apple, cheddar bunnies
Me- grilled cheese on wheat, potato chips, the other half of the apple

Snack
Sam- pretzels, potato chips, V8 fusion strawberry banana juice

Dinner-
Sam- vegetable fried rice, broccoli
Me- brown rice, chicken with broccoli, spring roll, steamed dumplings

Wednesday
Breakfast
Sam- waffle with butter and syrup, two plums
Me- granola bar, potato chips

Snack-
Sam- potato chips, dried cranberries

Lunch
Sam- cheddar bunnies, apple
Me- Spinach and artichoke strata

Snack
Sam- pretzels

Dinner
Sam- vegetable fried rice, broccoli
Me- brown rice, chicken and broccoli, steamed dumplings

Clearly we are both seriously overloaded with salty snacks, deficient in dairy and protein, full of carbohydrates, lacking in vegetable matter (though Sam sort of made up for it with the spinach nuggets) and a little bit short on fruit (though Sam makes up for the fresh fruit with the dried fruit he’s into.) I hate to play the pregnancy card, but it’s hard to make sure everyone’s eating well when preparing food is currently more of a hassle than a pleasure. I’m not quite sure of how to sneak more dairy products into Sam. He’s been anti-cheese and yogurt for the past few months and he’s been on a chocolate milk strike. Maybe some smoothies?

At least we’re both taking multi-vitamins, the only bread in the house is whole grain, and the potato chips are low sodium. But really, this list is sort of pathetic and embarrassing.

Double posted from Farm to Philly

One of the unfortunate side effects of pregnancy for me is an aversion to most vegetable matter. Ordinarily I cook several vegetable heavy meatless meals a week, but since learning I was pregnant in September we’ve mostly eaten take out pizza, meals involving ground beef, and cheesy pasta dishes. This does not bother my husband at all. My taste for vegetables eventually returned, but my desire to buy and prepare food other than pizza and cookies has been lackluster at best. I used to go out of my way to shop at the farmer’s market in Ardmore every week. Now I’m feeling ambitious if I manage to stop in to the Marketplace at East Falls on our way to the zoo or Smith Playhouse. Our refrigerator has never been so bare. One week we even forgot to get our Meadow Run Farm monthly meat order from the pick up site and sheepishly found it still on the porch the next day. It’s a good thing it’s cold outside.

Yesterday, after eating a cupcake and Utz (local!) pretzels with Bobbi’s (local!) hummus for lunch I figured it was time to cook something that wouldn’t be found on a school cafeteria menu. I knew I had a butternut squash still in the dark cabinet beneath the pantry and decided to use it. I found a recipe for Butternut Squash, Bacon, Rosemary and Phyllo Pizza on Epicurious and scoured the kitchen and freezer in the garage for the rest of the ingredients.

In the freezer I unearthed some bacon from Meadow Run and my rosemary plant is still thriving out back. I didn’t have scallions or red onion, but I had a regular onion that I sautéed in reserved bacon drippings with a clove of garlic from my CSA I found hiding behind the squash. There was half of a package of phyllo dough in the freezer, and to add some greens to the dish (since I had no intention of making anything other than the pizza for dinner) I pulled out some Swiss Chard I’d frozen early in the fall when I couldn’t bring myself to eat it.

I’m pretty good with phyllo so the whole thing took about an hour from start to finish. I wasn’t sure at first, but after my second slice I decided the pizza was delicious. It could have used a bit more rosemary, and the squash puree needed some seasoning other than salt and pepper, but on the whole it was good. Really, I’m a sucker for just about anything made with phyllo dough. (And it was a lot easier to make than the butternut squash and caramelized onion that filled my house with smoke last month.) I would definitely make it again as party appetizer using phyllo cups instead of sheets.

The local ingredients were bacon from Meadow Run Farm, butternut squash, garlic and Swiss chard from Red Earth Farm CSA and rosemary from my backyard.

Tomorrow is the day that I pick up my monthly meat order from Meadow Run Farm. Meadow Run, a local farm, offers humanely raised, pastured meats, the only kind of meat I feel comfortable buying to prepare at home. I’ll admit that since I’ve been pregnant I’ve been pretty lax about eating meat out and about, but on the whole I prefer to eat meats that come from animals who eat the things they’re meant to eat and are treated as respectfully as animals meant for food can be treated.

The New York Times reports that a California company issued a recall of 143 million pounds of beef, the largest recall in history. Some of the meat recalled was to be used in school lunch programs.The recall was spurred by the Humane Society of the United States who distributed an undercover video on Jan. 30 that showed workers abusing sick cows.

It was prompted by a Department of Agriculture investigation that found that Westland/Hallmark did not always alert federal veterinarians when its cows became unable to walk after passing inspection, as required.

Cows that cannot walk are banned for use in the food supply because they pose an added risk of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a fatal disease that eats away at the brain. There have been three confirmed cases of infected cattle in this country since 2003.

I don’t know if the abuse in this particular case was an isolated incident, or if this type of animal abuse is widespread. I’m just glad I know where the meat I purchase comes from. The idea of my son eating meat that comes from the sick, abused animals in this video is horrifying.

You can find locally raised, pastured meats through Eat Wild.

Two days ago I started my second batch of the no-knead bread.

Based on suggestions that it would rise better in a smaller vessel I baked it in my smaller cast iron dutch oven instead of my enormous, Le Creuset enameled oven. But even baked in my smaller dutch oven it came out sort of flat. It never seemed to rise. After two hours I moved it upstairs to above the wood stove, hoping the heat would give it some incentive, but after a four hour second rise it never even came close.

Last night it spread out. It definitely expanded and took up more space than it did after being shaped, but never puffed up like it should. I started to troubleshoot. Was the yeast active? I mixed a bit with water and sugar and it started to bubble almost immediately? Was it the wrong kind of yeast? According to the original recipe, no, but according to a follow-up article in the NYT, active dry yeast is fine. Did it stay flat because my house is too cold? My house temperature is between 59-60 degrees most of the time, not the recommended 70 degrees, but the follow-up article does suggest that any temperature is fine. I even added more yeast this time in the hopes that it would make a difference.

The only difference between this attempt and the last failed attempt was that the bread, flat as it was, tasted amazing and had a bread like texture instead of being dense and hard like a rock. It’s seriously delicious. It may be flat as a pancake, but at 11 pm, when I finally took it out of the oven after letting it “rise” for an additional 2 hours, we had to stop ourselves from eating the whole thing right then and there.

I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Based on the videos there’s nothing wrong with my technique. I have no problems making yeast breads ordinarily, but this one just seems to elude me. Give it a shot and let me know how you make out.

Getting back to a few things from last week, the bread recipe was a disaster. It did not rise. Maybe my yeast was dead? Maybe my kitchen was too cold? Perhaps I just screwed up the very simple recipe somehow? I will try again because I’m a glutton for punishment. I’ll let you know if round two is any better.

As for the Arroz Con Pollo, it was great. I ended up throwing in a ham steak from my freezer instead of the chorizo sausage and it worked out really well. Honestly, I don’t particularly care for ham. I don’t mind most pork products, but ham just tastes kind of gross to me. In this recipe I didn’t mind it, and Sam who’s still not much of a meat eater ate it too.

Arroz Con Pollo

*Check the instructions on the rice package for the proportions of liquid to rice. They can range from 1:1 to 2:1. If your rice calls for 2 cups of water for every cup of rice, then for this recipe, use 4 cups of stock for 2 cups of rice.

Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 5 minutes.