Herself's Recipes

This is a quick and easy side dish. I usually serve it with tacos or fajitas.

1 cup rice
2 cups water
1 can ( 16oz ) diced tomatoes
1/2 onion
1/2 pepper

Dice the onion and pepper.

Put the rice, onion and pepper into a skillet with a bit of oil and fry until onions are clear and rice is just browning.

Put rice, tomatoes, water, onion and pepper into a large microwave bowl. Cook for about 15 minutes.

Check every 3 or so minutes after until rice is tender and water is gone. Add more water if needed.

This is more of a US SouthWest dish than Spanish. A version is common to Mexico but does not have the onions, peppers and tomato chunks. A tomato paste is added instead.

This dish is clearly derived from Spanish Paella. Paella is a rice dish cooked in one pan with vegetables and meat, usually chicken. Meat is cooked first, then vegetables are added and finally the rice.

Often served as an appetizer in Italian restaurants we use this as a meal on hot summer nights. I’ve seen it served a hundred different ways. Some or all of the below items are combined to make a cold platter. Then everyone sitting down can take or not the parts he/she chooses.

Fresh cut tomatoes ( about an hour before serving sprinkle a tiny bit of salt on the tomatoes followed by a little olive oil, this will bring out the flavor more )

Sliced fresh mozzarella cheese layered over tomato slices

Roasted peppers ( Slice peppers really thin and coat with equal amounts of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then slowly roast ~350 till cooked through. Red peppers work best )

Marinated mushrooms ( Slice fresh mushrooms and add 1/2 cup oil, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 2 Tbsp fresh basil, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1 tsp spicy mustard — marinate overnight )

Cold cuts ( prosciutto, sopressata, corned beef, ham, leftover steak from the grill &c )

Sliced provolone cheese

Wine grapes

Sliced honey dew melon or cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto

Assorted olives

Sliced red onion

Layer all or some subset of these on a platter which is layered with enough lettuce that people can add lettuce to their plates if desired.

Also put some oil and vinegar on the table as dressing.

Antipasto means – before the meal.