Brown Rice Arancini

I dreamed about these brown rice arancini the other night.  Fun fact: until I met and married my Italian (and 1/2 French Canadian) husband, I never heard of arancini. 

I think we bought them at an Italian grocery store his Mom used to shop at.  We brought them home and deep fried them and they were spectacular.

Arancini are traditionally used with risotto, which isn’t complicated but takes 45 minutes to make.  One of the benefits of working from home is that I turned on my rice cooker at around 9:30 and the brown rice cooked while I was working. 

Once done, I spread the hot rice on baking sheet to cool before making the arancini.  Simply put half the rice in your palm, add the mini mozzarella balls, and add more rice on top, then roll it into a ball.

These were delicious.  I did need a bit more pasta sauce for dipping, but other than that, wouldn’t change a thing.  I may also try it with regular shredded mozzarella to see if the cheese would get more melty.

I kind of love how that photo turned out – it was the reflection of the trees on my glass deck table. 😀

My niece Claire would have graduated high school with all the bells and whistles this past Sunday.  Her senior trip to France got cancelled and well, pretty much every other fun thing her senior year – prom and graduation included.  Congrats Claire for all your hard work!  How gorgeous is she? 

Having fancy senior pictures is unknown to me.  It was just a regular school photo and I remember that I forgot that it was senior picture day.  I borrowed some makeup from my sister, and rummaged in the bottom of my locker to find this rumpled sweater and was like “I’m good!”

I literally cannot believe it’s been 34 years since that photo was taken above.  Where has the time gone?  I pretty much look the same – ha!

Well tomorrow is the BIG day.  MOVING DAY!  Hannah and Jacob officially closed on their townhouse today and the movers are coming tomorrow morning.  I still have to work, so it should be interesting, but it’s all good. 

They are ready to be on their own.  I remember how crushed they were two years ago when the house they were going to buy didn’t clear title – basically the son of the deceased owner didn’t have the right to sell the house.  They had everything boxed up because that’s what Hannah does – organizes everything.

I lived with boxes nearly floor to ceiling for about six months before Hannah finally got over the fact that they weren’t moving.  I felt so horrible for them.

So this time around I was kind of like “are you guys going to start packing?”  Basically all their stuff that was from two years ago is still boxed and ready to go.  But I feel like they were nervous that something would happen.  Once they got their closing statement, I was like “you guys are good!”  But even today there was some hesitation of the unknown.  I like that they asked me to go with them.

So here is another chapter to our lives.  New beginnings for them and well. for me too for that matter.

One question I get asked all the time on IG is “Biz, are you going to be alright by yourself?”

And to answer that question:  Yes, I will be alright.