Spicy avocado rice makes a colorful and creative side dish

Coppin' a meal: Think outside the box with homemade macoroni and cheese

Some things are supposed to come in a box. Shoes are one example. Rings, computers and board games also come in boxes, as they should. But macaroni and cheese? I suppose an argument could be made for convenience. Kraft is easy, Kraft is quick, Kraft is cheap, and Kraft gathers all the ingredients you need together, packaging them in expedient, individual plastic bags. But macaroni and cheese from scratch does not take particularly long to make, none of the ingredients require much prep time, and macaroni and cheese from scratch tastes infinitely better than macaroni and cheese from a box. It's sort of like the time that I bought a frozen pack of Wyngz. They did not taste particularly good, and I asked myself why I hadn't bought real chicken wings, instead of a product that appeared to be created by a fourth grader using imaginative spellyngz. So make your own macaroni and cheese using this recipe. Because if you don't, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon.

Coppin' a meal: Rich and buttery, ‘Millie cookies’ make for an indulgent dessert

My great-grandmother used to make these cookies, which is how my family came to call them "Millie cookies." The recipe, however, sounds like something out of Paula Deen's kitchen. The cookies require two sticks of butter and the dough is so rich that you don't even need to butter the cookie sheet to prevent sticking. They've become less popular in my house since the late '90s—when my parents realized cholesterol was a thing—but these cookies were a constant part of my childhood.

Coppin' a meal

Spicy avocado rice makes a colorful and creative side dish

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

Joshua Burger-Caplan

Columnist

February 10, 2012

While the New England weather might be cold, gray and depressing, I find that eating colorful, cheerful foods can make the winter months seem less dark and drab, and this spicy avocado rice is definitely colorful. It is, in fact, almost disconcertingly green.

My roommates have been giving me guff because I haven't yet cooked this at Bowdoin, but instead made it while I was home over break.

It can, however, be easily cooked on campus in an apartment kitchen, and as such, I feel absolutely no guilt.

It is a little bit better if you are able to purée the cilantro using a food processor, which is something that most Bowdoin kitchens probably are not equipped to do.

However, this will not really change the taste of the rice, simply its coloration. And as they say in "The Sound of Music," "the wool from the black sheep is just as warm."

At home, I served the rice with fish: very fresh sea bass, cooked simply with lemon and a little salt and pepper.

It would have gone just as well with chicken, however, and will probably be tasty no matter what you serve it with, within the realm of reason.

If you are planning your meal around something more gamey, such as venison, then I would recommend you look elsewhere for a side dish.

But as it isn't deer-hunting season here in Maine, I think that this rice will fit well with most ordinary meats.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup red pepper, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, whole

1 or 2 tbsp olive oil

2 cups cooked long-grain rice

1/4 cup cilantro

1 avocado

Step one:

In a saucepan, place the garlic, onion and olive oil. Cook at high heat until a little after the onion turns soft and translucent. Remove the garlic from the saucepan.

Step two:

Turn the heat down to low. Put the cooked rice into the saucepan, and stir until the rice has been completely coated in the oil.

Step three:

Cut or, if possible, purée the cilantro, and pour it into the saucepan with the rice.

Step four:

Cube your avocado, and pour it into the saucepan. Turn the heat up to medium, and stir until the avocado has dissolved and coats the rice.

Step Five:

Remove from heat and serve, adding sriracha to taste. Serve with the meat of your choice.

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