July 30, 2014

Baked Rice Pilaf

So the story goes like this: I decided to make this super fantastic rice pilaf along with roasted brussels sprouts and broiled tilapia for dinner last night. It’s summer and I’m “trying” to eat lighter, leaner and well… yeah.

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Now I know Pat isn’t a fan of tilapia. He’ll eat it because he’s a good guy like that but unless it has a batter, crust or some sort of seasoning to mask the fish-flavor then he’s not that excited about it like he would be if I had made let’s say meatloaf. But I really wanted a light summery meal even though the weather is feeling more like fall these days… ringing in at a chilly 62 degrees. Hence the sweater in the above photo. Brrrr.

So I saw him pull in the driveway as I was coming up our side-hill from just plucking a few newly ripened grape tomatoes. After seeing him I headed inside and topped the tilapia with the garlic, lemon butter and slid it in under the broiler. I rounded the corner coming out of the kitchen to greet him and there he was standing there with a dozen roses. I mean… you guys, we’ve been married for 13 years and I’ve been with him for 19 and the last time I got roses was well over 10 years ago. And there he was handing me a bouquet of flowers, my eyes filling up with tears and he simply said “just because”. Gah! I was a blubbering mess… totally surprised and totally happy.

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He told me he skipped lunch, got out of work early and stopped to pick the flowers up on his way home. My face literally fell… HE. SKIPPED. LUNCH. And here I was serving him fish, vegetables and rice. Not the first meal anyone would pick after not eating for 10 hours. I felt SO BAD. So I broke the news to him and offered that if he was still hungry after dinner that I’d ride into town with him so he could pick up something more filling. He quickly took me up on my offer (I mean the guy bought me roses). This in turn meant I would have leftovers and that’s always fine by me