Hockey Night

On the nights Dave plays hockey I often try not to make anything too heavy. Tonight we had "Spanish Rice" and artichokes. The rice recipe was introduced to me by my mom not long ago and is great for making large batches to have as leftovers. It is also surprisingly good, given that the ingredients don't look like anything so special. The recipe is based off of the Spanish Rice side dish in the Fanny Farmer cookbook. I like to make it with chicken sausage and brown rice, though, and eat is as a main dish. Turkey kielbasa works pretty good, too.

Spanish Rice
4 chicken sausage links
2 onions, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups brown rice
1 36oz can of tomato puree
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400. Spray a large oven proof dish with non-stick cooking spray. Sautee the onion, carrot, and celery with the olive oil on medium-low until softened - 5 minutes or so. Meanwhile, cut or break up the chicken sausage and sautee until cooked through. Combine all ingredients in the oven-proof dish, mix, and put in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove and stir. Put it back in the oven for another 30 minutes.

We didn't really need the artichokes and could have easily been satisfied with just the rice but tonight was the last opportunity to eat them before Sunday. We had artichokes already earlier in the week but I kept seeing them at the grocery store - they were HUGE and beautiful and I couldn't stop myself. I love artichokes. I can't think of a single vegetable that is more fun to eat or interesting to look at. I know that many people prefer to dip the leaves in melted butter or hollandaise sauce but in my family we always just mixed mayonnaise with a little mustard. I add a little lemon juice, too. I guess it is kind of a poor man's hollandaise.

Dave almost threw away his artichoke before getting to the heart/bottom (gasp!). He was standing over the garbage when he asked me if I wanted the rest of his artichoke. Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you joking?! I couldn't believe he was going to just dump it in the trash before getting to the very best part. Turned out he was out of dipping sauce. Dave is kind of lazy when it comes to food preparation which is why it is my domain. I convinced him to make some more (he squirted some Miracle Whip into a dish - sigh). Then I gave him instructions on how to gently remove the bristly choke with a fork. He is so patient.. I think I tell him how to eat the artichoke every time we have them. The bottoms were huge and delicious, though, and even veggie-averse Eva took a bite.