So I was browsing all sorts of random web pages, looking what to make next, when I stumbled upon this page, and thought everyone likes cheezy rice.  However, I didn’t really make it at all what that web page suggests, using a lot less cheese (for some reason me and my friends go light on the cheese) and a lot more veggies.  It went something like this:

  • Two poblano chilies
  • One anaheim chili
  • Half a broccoli
  • Half a cauliflower
  • Onions, garlic
  • A whole bunch of rice
  • Half a bunch of cilantro
  • A small wheel of “farmer’s cheese” that I found at the supermarket
  • The only bell pepper I found in the store that I thought was worth taking home
  • Some oil, some butter

I took all the green ingredients and threw them in the blender.  The bell pepper, being orange rather than green, and was very tasty, I thought this may be even more perfect not blended, so I didn’t, and was bemoaning my lack of a green bell pepper for blending.  I blended them all up and added water to smooth it a little and make my blender a little less cranky.

I put this “green liquid” into a large pan with a bunch of rice, added some butter, and cooked as per normal rice.  Now, I’ve been using a rice cooker for a very long time, and the only reason I didn’t use my rice cooker is that it’s simply not big enough.  My method for cooking rice kind of goes like this–bring to a boil (with rice in water), turn down to very low but hot enough so it keeps the heat, put the lid on, and don’t take the lid off to check–the steam will go into the air rather than the rice if you do this–so what I do is listen for the boiling.  The second I don’t hear the pot bubbling anymore I take off the rice.

While I’m doing this I chop all the veggies.

I’m not as good as this as I used to be, so I ended up with a brown layer on bottom.  No matter, I caught it quickly enough so that the burnt flavor did not spread to the whole pot of rice, but my dishwashers will be angry, anyway I put the rice into a lasagna tray, and added all the vegetables.  Then I shred the cheese and cover the whole mess with cheese, and put the tray into the oven.

Hm, dinner will be late today.  The website says it takes twenty minutes to bake, and I did leave it in there for twenty minutes, but they are a bunch of liars.  The cheese was melted and some things were slightly baked but it lacked the well baked-crunchy corners style.  But since I was running late anyway I served it then, though I think another twenty minutes would have been good.

I also did a spinach salad.

It was tasty, though this is not my most fabulous dish ever, it was a quick and easy thing to do!  A couple days after, I tried a similar experiment in my rice cooker–ran everything through the blender, all the veggies and rice into the rice cooker, let it go, and hey–tasty!  Didn’t bake or cheesify it for myself, though, I just took that blend to work.  I do have to say this is not filling–which makes it difficult “take to work” food–though perhaps if I added tons of cheese that might work better.

And one more thought before you attempt this at home–don’t, in a room full of mexicans, pronounce the “h” in “horno”.  I said (in thier ears) “arroz al-jorno” and great laughter ensued.