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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The Best Laid Plans

There's a saying that if you want to make G-d smile, tell him your plans. Today, G-d was having a big ole laugh on my behalf.

It started with lunch. A couple weeks back I got an email at work. There was going to be an art exhibit outside my office during the month of February. I forwarded the email to Thatboy and asked if he wanted to make a lunch date out of it. He agreed, and today was the day we were supposed to go.

We planned to meet at the post office, because Thatboy had to mail the anniversary gift for his parents that I spent all weekend working on. That was the first laugh. I convinced Thatboy the post office would have a box big enough for the gift. I was wrong. Which had us then running to the supermarket to pick up some brown paper bags to wrap the gift in. Except the supermarket no longer carries brown paper bags. Sooooo that was a bust.

We headed back to look a the exhibit, and it was GONE. G-O-N-E. With no explanation (I even looked at the email again when I got back to my office and it definitely says it would be up until February 28 - laugh 3, if you're keeping track.)

My next plan involved leaving work at a reasonable time. Even I should have known better than this one. I was going to stop off at the store and grab a duck, roast it while I hit the gym with Thatboy. I got home about 2 hours later than that plan. Too late to stop for ducks. Too late for roasts. Too late for the gym.

And I got cranky on my way home, thinking of how the day had gone so far from planned. I didn't want to deal with anything, least of all dinner. I wanted something easy and comforting. I kept thinking about baked pasta - even though we had had pasta for lunch. When Thatboy called to see if he could do anything to help with dinner (because he was already home from the gym) I asked if he could cook up some rice. He is a fantastic rice cooker.

Thinking of the rice and cheese from the other night, I figured I'd play with that. Adding some parsley and onion for a little more flavor than just cheese (although there is nothing wrong with cheese). Using an egg gives it a rich silkiness and also helps it puff up a bit. And for something completely unplanned, it came out pretty damn good!


Cheesy Baked Rice
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1 cup milk
4 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup swiss cheese, grated
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 cup parsley, chiffonade
1 egg, beaten
salt

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray a casserole dish with baking spray. Combine all the ingredients.
2. Pour into casserole and bake 40 minutes.

3 comments:

  1. That rice looks gorgeous and is easy to do, so that's a winner anyway. I'm sorry things didn't go as planned. Unfortunately stuff like that happens.
    Have a great day. Blessings...Mary

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  2. That rice looks so good! Sorry to hear that your day didn't go at all like you planned. I hate when that happens.

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  3. Sometimes the best laid plans go awry for a reason. And sometimes that reason is so that you can get down and dirty in the kitchen. This looks delicious!

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