eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Hi,

Happy new year!

Well, the college football madness is in full swing, the weather has been miserable, the gorged Christmas credit-card bills will be arriving soon... Maybe we need a break from this time of year. How about an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, (Papilio glaucus)? Now that gives the ol' eyeballs a change!

(Remember, you can see this image on our Flickr site. Most of the 1,600 plus images are available in several sizes including the 1600 x 1200 pixel format.)

And just to keep things interesting and a tad different... For Christmas, Gordon et al were kind enough to send me scads of wild rice along with a couple of family recipes. The recipe we used (excellent by the way) follows, along with my future rendition...

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Cal's Wild Rice

• 2 cups of real Minnesota wild rice (not that black stuff) well rinsed. (Put rice in pan and add water. Drain and repeat until water is clear - this may be 4 or 5 times.) Drain last time.
• 4 cups boiling water
• 1 cup fresh sliced button mushrooms
• .25 cup chopped green onion
• .25 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
• .50 cup dried cranberries. We use "Craisins"
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• .33 cup pine nuts, toasted

1. In a large, covered saucepan, cook wild rice in boiling salted water for about 20 minutes or till rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, cook mushrooms, onion and celery in hot oil for 5 minutes or till tender.
3. Add the vegetable mixture, peas, cranberries and soy sauce to rice. Cook , uncovered, for 3 to 4 minutes more or till heated through and the remaining liquid is absorbed. Salt to taste.
4. To serve, transfer rice to a serving bowl. Top with nuts. Makes 14 servings. (To use left over rice, scramble an egg in a fry pan and chop in small pieces. Add the left over rice and heat through. Makes a complete meal.)

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CapeCodAlan's Wild Rice Dish (Cajun sort of)...

Prepare as above, but leave out the cranberries and pine nuts. Add lots of any/all of the following, (cooked appropriately...)

• chicken white meat
• chicken livers/hearts
• lima beans
• crawfish meat (the most underrated food on earth)
• shrimp
• sausage/linguica/chourico/bratwurst, etc.

Season carefully with hot sauce and perhaps a slight dash of A1 for the daring. Serve with beer that will not mask taste, but rather punctuate it - highly recommended is Tsingtao. (A good white wine would also fare well.)

I'll see you by those feeders. (I'll be the one wearing the "drool bucket"!)

CapeCodAlan