Put it in the oven and forgetaboutit

Today I was off (yeah) but that does not include my playing personal driver to the G Man. So twice I made the trek into town, once to deliver and once to pick-up. Argh! The only redeeming thing was that it allowed me to make my monthly run to Bob's Red Mill (www.bobsredmill.com) and Dave's Killer Bread (www.daveskillerbread.com) and a quick stop at Cash and Carry. I got Teff and Spelt at Bob's so that I can try out my new - used - bread machine. And some wonderful bread from Dave's. Num. And veggies at Cash and Carry.

So before I left for the "pick-up" portion of the day I new I would have a hungry hippo on my hands and wanted something that would take no effort on my part. I am also attempting (this is when you either snicker or just just outright laugh) to clean out the inside freezer. Rummaging around I found a package with three smallish pieces of meat. Fine, that would work.

I knew there was Kale (or Chard), whatever, in the fridge and I always have lots of rice choices on hand. So I took a nice oval baker, put approximately 1/2 cup of rinsed Lundberg Countrywild (www.lundberg.com) rice mix (nice because it has some wild rice in it!), the Chard-Kale finely sliced, brazed the three pieces of meat with a sprinkle of Spike and some sea salt (which turned out to be beef) put those on top and then covered the whole thing with a container of Mushroom gravy (Pacific Natural Food's)www.pacificnaturalfoods.com. I needed more liquid, so I added some water and about a tsp. of Better than Bouillon Beef stock. Then I covered the whole thing with foil, put it on a cookie sheet (I knew it would boil over) and put into a 350 oven for however long I was going to gone on my journey. Bingo-bango - dinner done!

It was delicious. Really. Thus proving once again that you do not have to spend a lot of time to make a nice meal. I served it with a super salad and rye rolls from Bob's.

I do have to explain the "inside" fridge remark. When I was growing up we made the drive from the Central Coast of California to Los Angeles to visit my grandparents. They lived in a rented bungalow near Griffith Park and a very noisy freeway overpass and a Helms' bakery. Really, the actual HUGE bakery, with the trucks in and out all night. But I digress. The house was neat, you walked from room to room and it had those old-fashion push button switches for the lights. And the kitchen was pretty big with a screen porch that was large enough to store thing in. And thus, when things were "outside" they were on that porch. With "Dicky" the canary. Though I now know that there were many "Dickys". I miss that house and my grandparents.