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I was looking in the freezer.  Hmm….not much there.  However, there were pork sausages and frozen spinach.  I looked in the pantry:  a box of Cream of Rice with all of the cooking instructions in Spanish.  I also had some sea salt and expensive organic parmesan.  This is another example of high/low cooking.  It doesn’t all have to be cheap, and it doesn’t all have to be expensive, to be really good.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Cream of Rice Cereal

1 1/2 cups water

1/8 cup grated parmesan

sprinkle of sea salt

1/2 cup frozen spinach

4-6 frozen pork sausages (Check that it’s all pork or says, “Gluten-free” or “Made with no gluten-ingredients.”)

1 tablespoon of butter

Kitchen Apparati:

Cast iron pan

stove or burner

microwave

microwave safe-serving bowl

spoon

spatula

Directions:

Put the Cream of Rice cereal in the serving bowl and pour in the water.  Put the bowl in the microwave and set it to run on “high” for 2 1/2  minutes.  Put the 1/4 cup of the frozen spinach and the pork sausage into the cold cast-iron pan and turn the heat to the “high” setting.  When one minute has elapsed for the cooking time on the cereal, mix the rice cereal with a spoon and let the microwave run for another minute and a half.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the sausages should have started to thaw and the spinach will have started to melt.  Turn the heat down to “medium-high”  Push the thawed spinach to one side and add the other 1/4 cup of the spinach to the cast iron pan.

 Take the Cream of Rice cereal out of the microwave and throw in the 1/8 cup of parmesan, a tablespoon of butter, and a pinch of sea salt.  (The sea salt is to kill the “ricey” undertaste.  There is a reason all of the Spanish language instructions on the box say, “Para los bebes.”) Add another 1/4 cup of water if the cereal doesn’t taste done.  Mix well.  Put the parmesan, butter, rice and salt mixture back into the microwave for 45 seconds on 50% power. 

Keep cooking the spinach until it starts to look a little charred.  It may smoke a bit.  Take the bowl of what-is-now-rice-polenta out of the microwave carefully, and push the polenta to one side.  Add the spinach to one side of the bowl and keep cooking the pork sausages until either they look done or the smoke alarm goes off.

Cost:  About $2.25 for two servings….and you can be smug.  You can get all of these particular gluten-free ingredients in a grocery store almost anywhere in the world.