The First Rainy Days of Mud Season, Oven "Fried" rice and Chocolate Orange Bread (again)

Yesterday was a much needed rainy day as the last few weeks had been hot, sunny and unusually dry for spring in Northern Maine.  Both the landscape and my home were ready for a rainy day. Somehow I managed to avoid getting scorched by the dry heat, but the local landscape hadn't been so lucky.  For 2 weeks we had been under an extreme fire hazard warning, and there was at least one forest fire raging just across the Canadian border.  My home had also suffered because of the beautiful, summer-like weather.  No way was I going to be stuck inside cooking and cleaning when I could be outside grilling, spring cleaning the yard and prepping for my first garden.  It was just too nice to be inside so the house work, aside from laundry, was set aside to wait for a rainy day.

We started the day the same as always.  Isagenix.  Mike and I have both written about our morning ritual before so I won't bore you with the details.  Saturday is a bit of a splurge day.  We have coffee and a light brunch so I pulled out some scones out of the freezer.  These were left over from my baking last week.  I was really curious to see how well they handled being frozen, and a few hours later we found out.  The scone itself was still delicious. The texture was a little crumblier than when it was fresh, but the flavor was very good.  The Lemon drizzle, while still very good, had lost that bright lemon flavor and really was better when fresh. Still, they were good enough that we couldn't stop at just one. We both ate 2. Good thing we had a busy day planned to help burn those extra calories.

Between Breakfast and Brunch we gave the house some much needed love.  Everything, and I really do mean everything, had been covered in yellow pollen. Pollen is sticky.  Did you know that?  So everything had to be washed twice, including the floors.  Sadly, because of this we only managed to clean half the house yesterday and will finish up the rest today.

During breaks in the cleaning, waiting for floors to dry, etc., I plotted and schemed food for the week.  Scanning the refrigerator, freezers and pantry I came up with a few ideas. The left over roasted chicken would be transformed into oven fried rice.  I already had most of the ingredients on hand, but would need some mushrooms.  Recipe below.

While I was going to be going to the grocery store anyway, I thought I would plan the meals for the week.  Google is my friend.  I picked up ingredients to make Salt Cod & Chorizo Chowder. I already had some salt cod and chorizo in the freezer.  And also on the list, Chicken & Mushrooms in Tarragon cream. Yum.  I will share both of those recipes after I have tested them since they may need tweaking.

Because we had eaten all the scones I also needed a brunch recipe for today so I decided to try the Chocolate Orange Swirl Bread from All Day I Dream About Food.  Last time I had tried it I had forgotten to add the protein powder and it still tasted delicious, if a little on the sweet side for our personal tastes, so I was excited to see how it would turn out if I actually included all the ingredients.

The first recipe I made is from my mom.  The recipe card she wrote out for me years ago simply has the title as Rice. Because really, this was the rice we always ate growing up.  The ingredients list is short and the prep very easy, even with a few tweaks I made yesterday.  Once popped into the over it needs very little attention. Other than an occasional stir, it can be ignored for about an hour.  The perfect dish to make the house smell yummy while you are busy with other chores.

Rice - Oven "Fried"

• 2 cups long grain rice.  My mom would have used white rice, but I didn't have any so I used brown. The only adjustment needed for this switch is in the cooking time.  Brown rice will take longer. 
• 1 package onion soup mix.  This is what the original recipe called for, but when I couldn't find an onion soup mix that didn't have ingredients I would prefer not to eat I decided to make my own.  If you are not bothered by MSG, you can use the a store bought mix, otherwise I will include my recipe below. 
• 1 8 ounce can mushrooms, with juice. 
• 1/3 cup soy sauce.  I used Gluten Free. 
• 1/3 cup oil.  Whatever you use for cooking every day.  I used grape seed. 
• 3 1/3 cups water
• Cooked chicken or beef - Optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place all ingredients in a covered dish. Stir. Bake for about 1 hour, or until the liquid is absorbed, stirring every 20 minutes or so. Using brown rice, my cooking time ended up being about 2 hours.  Cooking times will vary depending on the rice used and on the oven so keep an eye on it.

The rice was soooooo GOOD. Mike and I couldn't stop eating straight from the pan.  Good thing we aren't sharing it with anyone else.

Home Made Onion Soup Mix (Equivalent of one onion soup mix envelope)

2 Gluten free and MSG free Beef Bouillon Cubes, crushed or otherwise blended into a powder, or equivalent powdered beef bouillon
1 teaspoon garlic powder (not garlic salt)
1 teaspoon dried parsley
3 tablespoons dried onions

Mix everything together and use the whole recipe in the rice.  Make extra to have on hand if you like

Chocolate Orange Bread - Tweaked

The original recipe can be found here. Chocolate Orange Swirl Bread

Yield: 16 servings

Chocolate Swirl and Glaze
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Kelly's Notes: My modification to the glaze was to omit the sweetener. If you like sweeter sweets, check out the original recipe.  I have provided the link above.

Orange Bread
3 cups almond flour
1/3 cup vanilla whey protein powder. I used Isagenix IsaPro.
1½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated Stevia Based Baking blend (Original recipe recommended Swerve Sweetener or erythritol, but I can't get either of those locally)
3 large eggs
Zest of medium orange
20 drops stevia extract
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup milk (dairy or almond)

Kelly's Notes: With the bread I again decreased the amount of sweetener.  I also used whole fat cows milk instead of the almond milk called for in the original recipe.

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 300F and grease a loaf pan well.
• In a small saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate and butter together until smooth. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla extract and set aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, protein powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, I used a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth. Add granulated sweetener and beat until lighter and well-combined, about 2 minutes.
• Beat in eggs, one at time, scraping down beaters and sides of bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
• Beat in orange zest and stevia extract.
• Beat in half of the almond flour mixture, then beat in orange juice and milk. Beat in remaining almond flour mixture until well combined.
• Spread half the batter into the prepared pan, and then dollop with about 2/3 of the chocolate glaze. Use a knife to swirl the chocolate into the batter.  
• Top with remaining batter, and swirl a bit more, then smooth the top.
• Bake 55 to 60 minutes, or until top is deep golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan 5 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• Drizzle with remaining chocolate glaze.

My only complaint with this recipe is the serving size.  1/16, really?  I could have eaten the whole loaf.

I have not been able to get the bread to have a swirled effect using the technique above.  This technique works really well with thinner cake batters, but with this loaf I ended up just having a chocolate layer both times that I tried it.  Still tastes delicious.  If you try this recipe and manage to get the swirl effect to work, please share your technique.

Sorry I don't have any pictures to share.  I think we are going to have to buy a camera.  A real one, as all pictures shared so far have been taken with a phone.

And guess what.  It's raining again today.

I hope you will try these and if you do, please share your experience.  Did you make your own tweaks? How did it turn out?