Lasagna, Liver, and Rice

Victor's birthday is March 29 (same as mine!) but we took advantage of spring break last weekend when the college boys were home and celebrated early with the family. At our house, the birthday kid gets to pick out the food for the special birthday meal. Victor chose lasagna, liver and onions, and apple crisp. Victor, the parents and the grandparents enjoyed the liver. Dennis, William, James, and Christina enjoyed the lasagna. We all enjoyed the apple crisp and our family's traditional angel food cake!! Victor was adamant that my birthday not be overlooked, insisting that I also have a special plate, help with the blowing out of the candles, and take turns with him in the gift opening ritual. Gotta love that boy, liver or not.

And now a story about Dennis. He is pictured above holding a partial bag of raw rice. I've been trying for 7 months to cook rice the way he likes it. I've asked for help from my Puerto Rican friend, looked up recipes on the Internet, and tried adding a little oil. I've tried long grain, short grain, white, brown- you name it. (Ok, ok, I've been pushing the brown rice but hey- I've never served them minute rice in any form!) We are experimenting with recipes for an IRIS (Iowa Resource for International Service) event on April 11 where we are to take Nigerian and Tanzanian dishes. So I found an oriental kind of white rice and decided to give it one more try, since both of the dishes we want to make for April 11 include rice in the recipe. Joy of Joys!!!! After the meal, Dennis said, "That was good rice!" I happily replied "Hallelujah!!" His response--"AMEN!" Gotta love him too!