Southwest Sunday

It's a dreary, cool but humid, nasty semi-rainy Sunday at the Little Lake House. I am done canning for a few days so it's time to clean up the kitchen and cook a real meal. A quick look through the pantry and a suggestion from The Chef and we're having pan roasted boneless pork country style ribs and Spanish rice.

The pork really doesn't have a recipe, per se. I started with a package of 6 boneless country style pork ribs, rubbed them liberally with a good barbeque meat rub and seared in a hot cast iron skillet. Once they were nicely seared, I popped them in the oven at 400 degrees to finish. It took about 15 minutes to reach that perfect, juicy 145 degrees for perfect pork.

Meanwhile, I got started on The Chef's Spanish Rice. You will need-

• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped bell pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 cup rice (not instant)
• chili powder
• cumin
• 1 1/2 cups chopped tomato, reserve juice
• water
• cooking oil

Start by heating a tablespoon or two of oil in a deep skillet or stockpot. Add onion, peppers and garlic and saute for a couple minutes until softened. Add rice, chili powder and cumin to taste- we like spicy so I used about 3 tb chili powder and several dashes of cumin and stirred well. 

Add tomatoes to pot- I used a quart a home-canned chopped tomatoes and saved the liquid, but you can use store-bought or fresh tomatoes. Add enough water to juice to make 2 1/2 cups and add that to pot. Bring to boil, reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer 15-20 minutes until rice is done. Stir occasionally and add more water if needed to prevent sticking.

Serve the rice with the pork and enjoy!