Kitchen Experiments

While in graduate school I picked up many life-giving skills. Amongst my learning in the spiritual disciplines, American church history, Christian ethics and social justice, I also attained zen-like heights of being able to take anything that I happen to have sitting in my kitchen and turning it into a relatively well-balanced meal. This morning I proved to myself that this particular skill still resides with me.

I was laying in bed last night feeding Mercy when I realized that something was bothering me. When I searched my mind a bit more deeply, I realized that what had me so mind-tangled and distracted was a batch of rice that a friend had brought over for dinner along with a roast and some wonderful vegetables. The roast and vegetables were long gone but the rice was still sitting in its foil container looking pretty sad and lonely. It was a good batch of wild rice mixed with pine nuts and sesame seeds but it had gone dry over the last couple of days. It wasn't necessarily the state of the rice that was bothering me, but the fact that I knew in a couple of days it would get tossed, along with a few other un-eaten items in our fridge. So, I started to go through all of the possible uses for this particular rice. I fell asleep with this on the brain and when I woke up this morning I found myself very excited to open the fridge and cupboards to see what I could throw together. When Joseph came home at lunch and I had gotten Mercy down for a little nap, I did just that and here's the recipe I came up with.

Kitchen Sink Wild Rice Salad

4 cups cooked wild rice

1 cup raw pine nuts

1-2 cups dried raisins, yellow raisins, currents and cranberries (pre-mixed from Trader Joes)

1 green apple, finely diced

1 yellow bell pepper, finely diced

1/2 avocado, cubed

2-3 basil leaves, chopped very fine

1/2 - 1 cup of any brand of Raspberry Vinaigrette

(this would be great with left-over chicken as well, but I didn't have any)

Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl and let chill for an hour or so to mix the flavors. You can also throw in any left-over veggies that are sitting around. That's why it's called a kitchen sink salad. Enjoy!!!