a little slice of heaven...

I want to make a cookbook. I have the name already. It's all the recipes I've used for the last 40 years of cooking. They're all fabulous, tested, and can be personally vouched for. I'll make it so you can add recipes as you go along (somehow). I have a spiral notebook of all the recipes I'd like to try - I tape them onto pages. If I like them, I leave them in. If I don't like them, I rip the page out. I also have too many cookbooks, with a few fabulous recipes in each of them. I went through a stack of them, ripped out my favorite recipes, and also the ones I'd like to try. The loose recipes I keep in the FRONT of my spiral notebook, the loose recipes I HAVEN'T tried I keep in the BACK of my notebook. I'm making my way through ALL of those untried recipes to see if there are any golden nuggets I can snatch and add to my new cookbook. Last night was "Sri Wasano's Infamous Indonesian Rice Salad," taken from one of Molly Katzen's cookbooks (The Moosewood?). While there were several seemingly strange and random ingredients, I took a chance, and voila - perfection in a bowl! I share it with you because I care:

Combine 2 cups brown rice and 3 cups water, and cook until tender.

While the rice cooks, combine in a large bowl:
1/2 cup peanut oil
3 T. Chinese sesame oil (I don't know if mine was CHINESE, but it worked)
1/2 cup orange juice
1 medium clove garlic, crushed
1/2 t. crushed red hot pepper (I always use less - just one shake)
2 T. tamari
1 t. salt (the tamari is salty already, so I left this out)
1-2 T. honey (I used agave nectar)

Add the hot rice to the bowlful of dressing. Mix well and add:

2-3 scallions, minced
2 stalks celery, finely minced
1/2 lb. fresh mung bean sprouts (I don't know if Steve bought MUNG, but they were the bigger kind)
1/2 c. raisins
1/2 c. chopped peanuts
1/2 c. toasted cashew pieces (we didn't have any, so I used raw pecan pieces, and it was delish)
2 T. sesame seeds (I used black, and it looked really posh)
1 each cut up green and red pepper
1 c. thinly slice water chestnuts

Even our 8 year loved this salad - it's a touch heavy on the dressing, so you may want to add more rice/scallions/celery/bean sprouts/peppers. I can't wait to serve this at our next potluck! Tasty tasty tasty...