Back into the Kitchen

Great news! I finally have a working oven. I can go into the kitchen without wanting to cry. Hopefully that means a lot more cooking and blog posting. I'm going to be making Red Beans and Rice this evening, adapted from a food network recipe by Robert Irvine (found here):

Red Beans and Rice

What You Need:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 large cloves garlic, minced (I love garlic and always use more)
- 1 large red onion, diced
- 3 stalk celery, diced
- 2 green bell pepper, diced
- 2 (1-pound) cans red kidney beans
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce (more or less depending on your taste, I've also done 1-2 tablespoons chili powder instead)
- 2 1/2 cups chicken stock (water will do)
- 1 cup white rice
- 1 tablespoon butter

What You Do:
1. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large saucepan.
2. Saute garlic, onion, celery, and bell pepper until tender.
3. Stir in kidney beans, onion powder, salt, pepper, and hot sauce.
4. Reduce heat to low and let mixture simmer slowly while you cook the rice.
5. Bring the chicken stock to a boil and stir in rice and butter.
6. Return to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 20 minutes without removing the lid. 7. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.
8. Fold rice and beans gently together and transfer to a serving dish.

Yay! Look at the new stove!

Yum!