Baby Ali hits the big time

And I'm back in business! I woke up today with that Christmas morning feeling of anticipation. All day I looked forward to the whuuump of the paper hitting the front door so I could unwrap it and see how my column turned out. This is the picture my editors used, but they cut the wipes out of the background. I am officially a columnist. Sigh.

When I showed Sam his picture in the paper he flapped his arm enthusiastically. He doesn't care about fame and fortune, he just likes to play with paper. He got the coupons while I studied the changes in my column. It's been awhile since I've been edited. It feels so good to be back in the game and working toward making a living writing. For now, though, it's a good thing Matt's willing to work his butt off because the column gig isn't exactly going to pay the mortgage. At least not yet. Who knows, maybe someone will see how damn adorable Sam is and, ta-da, thus begins his modeling career as one of America's Top Coolest Babies. Why is that not a show already?

A little note about dinner tonight - I planned to make this Easy Mexican Rice & Bean Bake. I may have mentioned my bad habit of not totally reading recipes. I scanned the recipe this afternoon, figured I had all the necessary ingredients and called it a plan. As I started putting things together I realized there'd been a little error in my calculating. I did not have the called for pinto beans. I did, however, have garbanzo beans. Hmmmm. The old me would've scrapped the whole thing and thrown away what I'd already started making. (Sorry, mom). Then, I would've declared dinner ruined and called in reinforcement/Papa Murphy's. But this new resourceful me decided to throw in the garbanzo beans making it more of a Mexican-Mediterranean Rice and Bean Bake. Results? Delicious.

Mediterranean-Mexican Rice and Bean Bake

adapted from Betty Crocker's Good and Easy Cookbook (thank you Mrs. Goodman)

Serves 6

2 cups cooked brown (or white) rice

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups salsa (i used the mango salsa i had - thank you mami) or picante sauce

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (4 ounces)

1 can (15-16 ounces) pinto beans (or, you know, whatever) drained

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350. Grease square baking dish.

2. Mix rice, eggs, 1/2 cup of the salsa/picante sauce and 1/2 cup of cheese; press in bottom of baking dish

3. Mix beans and remaining 1 cup salsa/picante sauce; spoon over rice mixture. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and chili powder

4. Bake uncovered 20 to 35 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Stats:

Prep: allegedly 10 minutes

Bake: 35 minutes

1 serving = 260 calories (unless garbanzo beans are significantly different than pinto beans in calories)

Comments

[mel]

Congrats on the column!! I can't wait to read it and the picture is fabulous- shows so much love. I love in your recipe directions you say allegedly!

[andrea]

i read your column online. right about now it was wonderful to read that this parenting stuff is tough! it is nice to know that someone else out there has debated the leaving and turning up the monitor-even though i couldn't stand to be away from kellen just to go fill my car up with gas!
these little babes just wrap us up right away don't they?!
What a learning experience!

[rose]

Congrats on the column, sweetie! I'm so proud of you!