A hello and some favorite rice dishes

It's been so long!

Hurricane Ike destroyed our cable lines. A month an a half later and we just got our Internet two days ago.

It was rough after the storm but we are fortunate in that our home is fine and we are all safe. To donate to the hurricane relief fund click here.

To get back into the blogger mindset I am doing a blog today on rice dishes.

Rice is a side dish and main dish in our household. We eat it at least three times a week. I have three recipes that are my favorite that I thought I would share.

Parmesan Rice: Stir in 1 cup of chopped parsley, 1/4 cup each of sliced green onions and grated Parmesan cheese into 4 cups (this is for my family of seven) of hot rice. Salt and pepper to taste.

Spicy Rice: Saute half a small white onion, two cloves of garlic and two seeded jalapeno peppers To 4 cups of hot rice add 1 cup of chicken broth, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin, and 1 tablespoon of fresh chopped cilantro. Salt to taste-use fresh ground pepper to really make this rice stand out.

Cucumber mint Rice: Make a dressing using 3 tablespoons white-wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Add 1/2 olive oil in a stream, whisk until everything in combined. Add dressing to 4 cups of cold rice. Toss in 3 seeded, chopped cucumbers with 3/4 cup of fresh minced mint leaves.

Enjoy!