Wild Rice w/ Dried Cranberries, Green Onions and Pecans with Drop Biscuits

Ingredients:

1/3 c. Pecans, roasted

1 c. Wild Rice

1 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/3 c. dried Cranberries

2 tbsp. Green Onion (white & green parts)

kosher salt & black pepper to taste

1 c. plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose Flour

1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 1/2 tsp. Sugar

3/4 tsp. Kosher Salt

1 c. chilled Heavy Cream

so, I started off with the biscuits because I thought I could multitask both parts of my meal and have them done at the same time.  first rule: read your recipe in its entirety BEFORE undertaking your meal.  (you should also read the cooking instructions for your rice.)

the biscuits turned out pretty good, though I think they had too much salt in them.  and I love salt, I just don't love tasting it in every bite.  the recipe had a variation that called for 3/4 c. Cheddar cheese and 2 tbsp. of dried Dill (you also have to add an extra 2 tbsp. of flour to batter), of course I did this version!  I know you don't go to Red Lobster for the seafood- you go for the biscuits!  (guilty.)  I'm glad I added the extra ingredients as I think they biscuits would have just tasted like buttery salt.  and that brings up and interesting point, my biscuits tasted like BUTTER.  I'm not sure how because it's definitely NOT an ingredient.  that said, I doubt you'll need to add butter if you made these.  though I don't think I enjoyed them as much as the writers did, I did eat 3 of them while I was waiting for my rice to cook.

1 c. heavy cream

"drop" biscuits

pale golden on the top, golden brown on the bottom

fluffy on the inside!  YAY!

onto the rice.  I seriously messed this part up.  first off, I didn't buy wild rice, I bought a wild rice blend.  and while the recipe said you COULD do this, I wish I HADN'T done it because I feel it would have tasted better with just wild rice.  second, I didn't read the recipe in it's entirety- this rice takes 45 min. to cook (not including the boil time beforehand)!!!   eeks!  third, I burned the pecans.  (would now be a good time to also mention that I forgot to set the timer for the rice?)

this is what burnt pecans look like.  in case you were wondering...

my favorite part about the rice was the green onion.  how delicious do onions smell when heat hits them!?  oh. my. god.  the cranberries were also a nice touch, I just wish they were a little sweeter in the bites.  I didn't like the pecans in the dish (not because I burned them- I had more), I just didn't like the texture or crunch of them in my rice.

 check out our cute oil bottle from Bread and Badger!

I don't think I'll make the rice again.  I will definitely try the biscuits, without the dill and cheddar cheese, for biscuits and gravy one morning.

what I liked about these recipes: they are VERY easy.  seriously, this has to be one of the easier cookbooks I have worked out of.  the ingredients are simple and the instructions are easy.  so far.

I promised we would address Jake's dislikes with foods as we go along...  I chose this recipe for several reasons, the first being "onion" is in the ingredients list.  second, he HATES nuts mixed in his food.  and more specifically HATES pecans.  third, cranberries.

I have also come up with a method of organization for my cookbook.  the pink tabs are for recipes that I can make for myself.  blue tabs will be for Jake.  yellow tabs will be recipes we have already tried.  I figured I needed to do this because I'm not starting at one end and working my way to the other end and I also don't want repeats since I have 8 more cookbooks to go.

I pulled a recipe off of Food Network today.  I'm making that one next!

until then...  

read your labels BEFORE you start cooking!

~pam