It's never bad when there's leftover rice

So my birthday was earlier this week, and to "celebrate" (it might be more honest if I say "thank people for putting up with me for 30 years") my husband and I decided to have our families come over for dinner. It's a great idea: experimenting with recipes and foods, having the chance to entertain, and enjoying some nice conversation with a warming glass of red wine. But cooking for a group of people always leads to one thing (for me that is): leftovers. I must admit that my mom always taught me that it's better to have too much than too little. Well, too much we did have. We were left with a large Corning-ware bowl full of a brown and wild rice mix.

I guess at first I had to question whether or not it was the rice, and if everyone just didn't want to eat it. But considering how much we started with (I definitely made a whole lot of extra rice), I was lucky there wasn't even more left over.

Actually, I may be using "lucky" in the wrong context here. I've actually come to realize how great leftover rice can be. Everything mixes well with rice. Everything. Want some sweetness? Make rice pudding. Add some raisins. Beef, pork, fish, eggs, any kind of vegetable; they all mix well with rice. So with this is mind, my "bad luck" was actually quite...lucky. I had a whole bowl of rice to use for dinner today. Meaning, I had a lot less to do and think about while making dinner.

Leftover rice+kale and mushrooms needing to be used up soon+some already peeled and cut up carrots that I didn't eat at lunch today=an easy mix of rice and veggies (with pieces of fresh parmesan cheese thrown in to add a little saltiness to it). I even threw in a poached egg on top for that extra dose of protein and a variety in texture.

Oh rice, thank you for being so easy to use and so easy to mix with anything I have on hand. And for that little bit of rice that I still have left...get ready for some rice pudding!!

And by the way, for next year's birthday, we'll definitely be dining out!