Holiday Rice With Fruit and Nuts

This has been a staple on my Thanksgiving table for over 20 years. It was my late Mother-in-law's favorite and she requested I bring it every year. She'll be missed this Thanksgiving.

Maple-Sage Holiday Rice with Fruit and Nuts

1/2 cup uncooked wild rice
1 1/2 cups vegetarian "un-chicken" broth
1 cup apple juice or orange juice
3/4 cup uncooked jasmine rice (white or brown)
2 Tablespoons Earth Balance
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pistachios, pine-nuts, pecans or hazelnuts

1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup dried cranberries or dried cherries
2 Tb. minced fresh sage (please use fresh if at ALL possible!!)
1 tsp. onion powder
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 tsp. all natural maple flavoring
1 Tb. brown sugar

*optional - 2 links Field Roast Apple-Sage Vegetarian Sausage, crumbled and browned

Rinse wild rice in fine strainer under cold running water. Drain. Combine wild rice, veg-chicken broth and apple juice in 2-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Reduce heat to low; simmer, covered, about 45 minutes or until rice is tender. Drain.

Meanwhile, cook jasmine rice with as much water as needed, in whatever manner works for you. (Sorry that's vague, the only way I can cook rice is in my rice cooker).

Melt Earth Balance in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion; cook and stir 10 - 12 minutes until tender and browned. Stir in nuts and sage. Cook and stir 2 minutes.

Add rice mixtures to skillet. Add remaining ingredients; cook and stir over medium heat about 2 minutes or until heated through, taste and adjust seasonings if needed.

This can be kept warm in casserole dish in the oven for an hour or so. The dried fruit will get a bit softer and less "chewy", so I usually add it right before serving, but that's a personal preference.

More Christmas... (and Stuffed Mushrooms!)

Christmas Dinner with my family:
(I always love my Mom's dinner table all set with the Holiday china...)

Famous Stuffed Mushrooms:

The stuffed mushrooms are not really famous, but very impressive - and so embarrassingly easy I hate to tell people...

• Buy a package of stuffing mix - whatever brand you can find that is vegetarian/vegan (some have chicken broth, but amazingly, many don't).
• Or make whatever type stuffing/dressing you like, using vegetable broth, of course... (A boxed-mix is just super easy and just the right size)
• Make stuffing/dressing according to directions on package and set aside to cool..
• Buy 20 largish (golf-ball size?) mushrooms.
• Pop the stems out of the mushrooms.
• Chop the stems fine.
• Chop 1/2 an onion and 1 stick celery just as fine.
• Saute in olive oil until soft.
• Add 2 cloves crushed garlic (I put it thru a garlic press - this totally makes the dish, using fresh garlic, but it's up to you) no need to cook it, it'll cook when they bake.
• Mix vegetables with the already made stuffing and 1/4 cup nutritional yeast.
• Stuff into mushroom caps. (If too dry, add a little vegetable broth)
• Pack down firm and mound up in each mushroom. It will shrink.
• Put in baking dish, drizzle a little olive oil around.
• Bake for 25 - 30 min at 375 until mushrooms look softer and cooked.
• They will shrink and dry a little.

Thats it. Yum! Basically it's your fave stuffing or equivalent, and chopped mushroom stems and stuff. Though they don't look impressive here - sorta all jumbled together on this plate. Use your imagination.

My sister finished some last-minute gifts...

My Holiday "must-have": Fruit and Nut Holiday Rice <<-- Click for the recipe, it's an oldie that I posted several years ago...

My brother-in-law shovelling snow off my parent's deck. Took him all morning, there was a LOT of snow up there!!

And last, but, not least, the "Smoking German Figurines" that fascinate us every Christmas... (They have incense cones inside to provide the smoke and I just think they are DARLING!!)

Hope your Christmas was filled with family and friends!!