Wild Rice Salad

This salad is made with brown and wild rices, and a medley of vegetables. With beans added it can be the main dish. And it's awesome rolled up in a lettuce leaf. I served it tonight with tuna cakes, which Panda alluded to in a culinary conversation with her friends. They are made exactly like meatballs, but using tuna instead of ground meat. Breadcrumbs, minced onion, chopped parsley, a little parmesan, an egg or even mayonnaise to bind it all.  Form into patties and fry in olive oil until golden brown. Done.

Wild Rice Salad

• 1 1/2 cups cooked wild rice, made according to package directions
• 3 cups cooked brown rice, made according to package directions
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 1/2 seedless cucumber, quartered and sliced
• 6 oz red cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Place all ingredients in bowl and toss well with any vinaigrette of choice.

Serve.

Manning the Kitchen

Pandagirl has ballet class late on Thursdays so dinner is in the hands of my husband. And they are very capable hands. There are few things sexier than a man who knows his way around the kitchen...one of them is a man who knows his way around the kitchen and plays guitar but I digress...

Jeeps has a very decent repertoire of dinners and beats me flat-out at making omelets. Tonight Panda and I came home to tuna cakes, cous-cous and steamed broccoli.

And he cleaned up, too.

Dinner 1-28

Tuna cakes are a fallback dinner around here. They're easy and versatile and adapt to whatever you have around the pantry. I'd give you a recipe but really it's like making meatloaf: you just throw it together. Two cans of tuna, half a chopped onion (or dried minced onion). Chopped red pepper. And/or some thawed frozen corn. And/or some drained, rinsed black beans. And/or some scallions. Got some leftover steamed cauliflower or broccoli? Hell, chop it up and throw it in the bowl. Seasonings, or seasoned bread crumbs. Eggs to hold it together. A little mayo if you're short on eggs.

There's no wrong way to make these.

Form into patties and fry them up. You can make them little to stuff inside a taco shell. Or make big ones to eat on a roll with lettuce and tomato.