Mexican Rice Salad

Now that the weather is nice, we are grilling more and more. It's so nice to kick back after a long week with a beer outside in our backyard. If bribed with peanut butter, Archer will even sit quietly out there with us. I wanted to create a low maintenance side dish that would pair well with all sorts of grilled goodies. I adore wild rice and decided to dress it up with some healthy Mexican flavors. Black beans, corn, pepper and carrots all combine for a filling and tasty salad. Packed with filling protein and fiber, this can easily be a great main dish or a side.

This recipe is extremely versitile. It can be served warm or cold and will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days. I made a big batch and enjoyed it for lunch with some mixed greens.

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Caprese Grilled Cheese

As I mentioned last week, April is National Grilled Cheese Month. Until last week, I had not eaten a grilled cheese sandwich for a decade, but after our experiments last weekend I'm hooked! I made another batch of my broccoli white bean soup from last week to last us through the weekend. This afternoon, I was heating it up and totally craving grilled cheese. I had just bought some yummy Vermont Maplebrook Mozzarella so I decided to use that. The cheese inspired me to make a caprese grilled cheese with some ripe plum tomatoes and fresh basil. It was soooo simple and soooo tasty.

There are many ways to make delicious grilled cheese. My Grandma Jackie is famous for her grilled cheese. As a kid she would just make us sandwich after sandwich. We couldn't get enough. I think it was the combination of a ton of butter and this special press/weight thing she had. It was made of cast iron and super heavy. It was so perfect for making thin, crispy grilled cheese. I don't have one of those but I do have a small cast iron skillet. So to press my sandwich I just put a piece of tinfoil over the top and pressed down with the smaller skillet. It worked perfectly!

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