Beautiful Rice

We had a great dinner Saturday with our new friends Lucia and Peter and their adorable girlies Eva and Felicity.

There was guacamole with feta + Bryan's "homemade" tortilla chips (he cuts up corn tortillas and fries them in our little backyard fryer -- not so healthy but so yummy.) He also turned out a mighty fine green chili chicken casserole. A few of you have asked for this recipe, but he literally does it different every single time, so he's promised to work up an actual recipe to share soon!

I had a particular weakness for the homemade margaritas and the beautiful rice though...It was my first time to make this rice; it's my dear friend Kristie's recipe, and friends, it's easy and incredibly, incredibly good.

The rice is a perfect (and obvious) accompaniment for Mexican food, but I think you could replace some (not all) of the cilantro with more spinach and serve it along side any number of things. I'll be adding this to our regular repertoire for sure!

Beautiful Rice (or Arroz Verde)

• 1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro
• 1 cup packed fresh spinach
• 1 1/4 cups homemade or organic chicken broth ( my favorite is pacific organic free range)
• 1 1/4 cups organic skim milk
• 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• 2 TBS unsalted butter
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups organic long grain rice
• 1/4 minced onion
• 1 clove minced garlic

Put the cilantro, spinach, and broth in a blender and puree, add milk and salt and blend until combined.

Heat the butter and olive oil in a heavy medium-sized pan, when butter is melted, add the rice and saute 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the onion and garlic and saute 1 minute longer.

Add the blender mix, stir well, bring to a boil. Turn to very low heat, cover and cook for 20 min
Stir carefully and cook for another 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes until ready to serve.