Recipe: Wild Rice Casserole

Wild rice needs little adornment; serve this casserole with duck or game. You could even tuck pieces of leftover duck or game into the casserole as it bakes and serve as a main course.

¼ lb butter

½ C finely chopped onion

2 C sliced mushrooms

1 C wild rice

3 C chicken broth

1 t salt

½ t freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 325° F. Butter a 1-½-quart casserole. Melt the butter in a skillet, add the onion, and cook until soft. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, until they darken. Put the onion and mushrooms into the casserole with remaining ingredients. Cover and bake for 1 hour or until the broth is absorbed and the rice is tender.

Serves 4

Recipe: Boston Baked Beans

2 C navy beans, small white beans, or Great Northern beans

Water for soaking

1 t salt, approximately

¼ lb. salt pork

2 t dry mustard

5 T dark-brown sugar

4 T molasses

Wash the beans. Soak overnight or use the short method. Add salt, stir, and drain, reserving the liquid. Preheat the oven to 300° F. Cut off a third of the salt pork and place the piece on the bottom of a bean pot. Add the beans to the pot. Blend the mustard, brown sugar, and molasses with the reserved bean liquid and pour over the beans. Cut several gashes in the remaining piece of salt pork and place on top of the beans. Cover and bake for about 6 hours, adding water as needed. Uncover, for the final hour of cooking so the pork will become brown and crisp. Taste and correct seasoning.

Serves 8

Recipe: THALIPEETH

A nutritious pancake made with 3 kinds of flours.
Cooking Time : 7 minutes.
Preparation Time : 4 minutes.
Makes 4 thalipeeth.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons Bengal gram flour (besan)
3 tablespoons millet flour (jowar)
3 tablespoons wheat flour (gehun ka atta)
1 small onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
2 green chillies, finely chopped
salt to taste

Other ingredients
oil for cooking
home-made white butter to serve

Method

1. Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl and add enough water to make a thick batter.

2. Heat and grease a non-stick tava.

3. Spread a layer of the batter to form a pancake of 4 mm. thickness.

4. Cook on both sides till golden brown, using a little oil.

5. Repeat to make 3 more thalipeeth.

6. Serve hot with a dollop of home-made white butter.

Recipe: COCONUT PULAO

A delicious Goan style pulao.
Cooking Time : 6 minutes.
Preparation Time : 4 minutes.

Serves 2.

Ingredients
1 cup Basmati rice
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves
25 mm. (1") stick cinnamon
2 green cardamoms
1/4 cup green peas
1 carrot, sliced
1 cup thick coconut milk
2 tablespoons cashewnuts - fried lightly
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon oil
salt to taste

For the garnish
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
2 tablespoons grated coconut
2 to 3 lemon wedges

Method
1. Wash the rice and keep aside.

2. Put 1 1/2 cups of water to boil.

3. Heat the butter and oil in a pressure cooker, add the onion, cloves, cinnamon and cardamoms and fry till the onion becomes translucent.

4. Add the green peas and carrot and fry for some time.

5. Then add the rice, coconut milk, cahsewnuts, 1 1/2 cups of hot water and salt and pressure cook for 1 whistle. Allow the steam to escape before opening.

6. Serve hot garnished with the coriander, coconut and lemon wedges.

Moses and President Bush

Recently while going through an airport during one of his many trips,
President George W. Bush encountered a man with long hair, wearing a
white robe and sandals, holding a staff.

President Bush went up to the man and said, "Aren't you Moses?" The
man never answered but just kept staring straight ahead.

Again the President said, "Moses!" in a loud voice. The man just
kept staring ahead, never answering the President.

Bush pulled a Secret Service agent aside and pointing to the robed
man asked him, "Doesn't that man look like Moses to you?"

The Secret Service agent agreed.

"Well," said the President, "every time I say his name, he just keeps
staring straight ahead and refuses to speak.

"Watch!" Again the President yelled, "Moses!" and again the man
stared ahead and didn't answer.

The Secret Service agent went up to the man in the white robe and
whispered, "You look just like Moses. Are you Moses?"

The man leaned over and whispered back ...

"Yes, I am Moses. However, the last time I talked to a bush, I spent
40 years wandering in the desert, and ended up leading my people to
the only spot in the entire Middle East where there is no oil."

TEN SIGNS HE WANTS TO GET LAID

1. Watching a nature show where animals fornicate, he keeps winking and doing the eyebrow thing.

2. When you ask him what kind of car he likes to drive, he solemnly replies, "The skin bus to tuna town," and then laughs until he cries.

3. You note that integrity is so important in a man, he replies that what he looks for in a "chick" is "you know."

4. He whispers,"you' re beautiful," to your thighs, then glances up at your face and says, "oh you, too."

5. When you comment on the rarity of men these days who seek mature relationships, he giggles quite a bit.

6. In conversation with others, he refers to you as his "quality tail."

7. Washing dishes after you've cooked him dinner for the first time, you reach behind you totake the paper towels off the paper-towel rod and then realize that you don't own a paper-towel rod.

8. When you're insulted by his "motel" suggestion at the end of your first date, he looks impressed and says, "hotel."

9. When you proudly recount your glorious high school valedictory speech to him, he praises "your multi-talented mouth."

10. When you tell him what you do for a living, he stares at your breasts and loudly asks, "What do they do?"

COMPULSIVE GAMBLER

The compulsive gambler walked into a gay bar, ordered a drink and struck up a conversation with a fellow at the bar.

When his companion went to take a leak, the gambler turned to the guy n the other side of him and said boldly, "I bet you $200 you've got terrible hemorrhoids. "

Knowing this wasn't the case, the man readily agreed to the bet, stood up and pulled down his pants.

The gambler looked and looked, didn't find a single hemorrhoid. He promptly handed over the $200 and headed for the men's room.

The winner sat back down on his bar stool and delightfully recounted the story to his friend on his return.

To his surprise, his friend pales.

"That son-of-a-bitch! " he cried. "Just ten minutes ago he bet me a $1,000 he'd have you drop your pants in the middle of the bar...!"