Central Plains

Central Plains... this is basically the entire middle of the country. With foods like Kansas City BBQ and yummy macaroni and cheese.

Wild rice was in a couple of recipes, have you ever tasted wild rice? I'm not really a fan. I remember the first time I ever tried wild rice, my mom made stuffing for Thanksgiving dinner with wild rice in it. I asked her why the stuffing had sticks in it. It is a long grain rice that is very stiff, it doesn't soften when cooked like most rice. You will know when its done because it pops, but watch out, its hot. We made a stuffing with wild rice and corn and wild rice cakes. The stuffing I felt the same way about the first time I tried it, ugh. The corn and rice cakes were pretty good though.

We made pork medallions with a blueberry sauce. Once again, I absolutely love to make jellies and fruit sauces. They are so delicious and for some reason I feel a great deal of pride after each one. Macaroni and cheese is always a favorite. This particular recipe made for an extremely creamy mac and cheese. It only called for cheddar, but I can't resist changing things up, so I added goat cheese. It gave it an amazing little kick. We made Brussels sprouts, and it always amazes me that so many vegetables recipes call for pork. I know it adds a nice flavor, but come on, take the healthiest thing on the plate then add a ham hawk. Which, by the way, is a pigs foot. I just don't understand the consumption of pork. They say you are what you eat, which means you are what you eat eats too. Pigs eat garbage.

And last, but definitely not least, for dessert we made a sour cream coffee cake. It was pretty good, but not a surprise, it didn't have enough cinnamon. Plus I'm not a huge fan of dried fruit, which this was filled with.