Recipe + Vintage Apron: Wild Rice

Minnesota Wild Rice Hot Dish
Wild Rice is one of those amazing autumn ingredients that I rarely use during other times of year. Today, I was feeling in love with all things Minnesota. Overjoyed with the beauty of this state and the warmth of the people. I decided to make a meal dedicated to only MN grown and loved ingredients. Starting with MN cultivated wild rice. My mother makes a mean wild rice, every thanksgiving I look forward to her delicacy. So this one is dedicated to my mother, in Vietnam, who I am sure would love to be enjoying some MN grown food.






Ingredients:

1 cup MN cultivated wild rice
7 cups (Minnesota) tap water
1 cups fresh locally bog grown cranberries or dried cranberries for more sweetness
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1 bunch of celery
3 sprigs of rosemary
3 sprigs of sage
1 clove of garlic
10 Minnesota grown mushrooms
1 small crisp apple from the apple orchard
drizzle of olive oil

Preheat oven to 375. Wash and drain wild rice, add to boiling water for 20 minutes until partially cooked. I like to add some sage and rosemary to the water to infuse the flavor. Saute the mushrooms, celery and pumpkin seeds. Then put wild rice and water into an oven casserole dish (or if you are from MN "hotdish"). Add the rest of the ingredients chopped up, put into oven for about an hour then drain and uncover for another 15 minutes.


a few notes: since this is a new and made up recipe, next time, I  might use dried cranberries or less of the fresh ones, their taste, while exciting, was overpoweringly bitter.

This would be a great addition to any Thanksgiving, and a happy departure from the meat based holiday.

-Ladybird

The Happenings: Camp

Alex and I spent the weekend at Lost Lake. It was the last weekend they were officially open for the season (I guess if you are brave you can go throughout the winter as well) and it was the first time I have seen Mt. Hood up close since moving to Portland. The drive there was beautiful, we passed many orchards filled with pear, plum, and apple trees. We pitched our tent in the dark, zipped our sleeping bags together (they fit perfectly), and roasted marshmallows by the fire. I had the idea of using Halloween candy (almond joy, kit kat, and reese's) in addition to plain chocolate for our s'mores and boy were they tasty. It was so very chilly at night, it had to be in the thirties, and our wool blanket inside our sleeping bags was a necessity. I wore exactly two pairs of pants, two pairs of wool socks, four shirts, and a wool hat to bed and it was still a bit nippy. During the day, however, the weather was absolutely perfect. The sky was blue, the leaves were changing colors on the hills, and the trees were taller than skyscrapers all around. Out on the lake, we went fishing for rainbow trout, drank some pumpkin beer, and paddled our old row boat enjoying the view. On our way home we saw a barn owl, just sitting on a fence post alongside the road, at the old farm where I dream of having a photo shoot for our shop. Fields of wheat, dark brown horses, and an old barn in need of a new coat of paint.

I love being away from it all for a while, simplifying life, if even for a few days. My vintage scarf really kept the unwashed hair at bay.

-Twill