Random Thoughts... Rice Patties with Herbed Goat Cheese

Rice Patties are a favorite fast dinner around here. They're a perfect way to use up cold rice. When I made some with brown rice that had been cooked in a tarragon and shallot infused stock, I almost couldn't stop. They where especially good cooked in garlic flavored olive oil. The real kicker...

They are blissful with herbed goat cheese. True confession, I love goat cheese, but rarely buy it. It's infrequently on sale and I can use that grocery money for other things. Saturday when I went shopping the "imported from France" high end goat cheese was on sale...big time. So I splurged. I got goat cheese that was rolled in French herbs and chives. It may have, in fact, been tenderly placed in the front compartment of my shopping cart on top of a billowy bag of fresh parsley to keep it from getting jostled during the rest of the shopping adventures. I'm pretty sure it slept quite peacefully. I did have to dodge a crazy old lady...You know how pandemonium breaks loose at the grocery store when goat cheese goes on sale, right? People throwing whole rotisserie chickens at each other under make-shift baguette fox holes. Can you see the raisins beaning through the air at breakneck speeds and knocking kids out cold. Okay...I may be exaggerating a bit. You'd have to have a mighty powerful pea shooter to get that kind of speed from a raisin. The rest of the tale is totally true. Okay, there weren't any chickens flying either. We all know that chickens can't fly.

That is just a long way of saying, "I almost forgot how much I truly adore that creamy tart cheese of glory." When it melts on the rice patties...well it's just heaven.

My seven year old son, Face, liked them too. However, he had his artfully displayed like this...

Yes my friends...that is ketchup. Should I be impressed he took the time to make it "chefy".
Should I be impressed he ate the whole thing? Should I be worried that he asked me to teach him how to make ketchup?! Is ketchup a vegetable or a fruit?! I know it's a food group. Putting it on the cheese of glory...well,that's hay nus blaspheme against the goat cheese. We can't have that. To my credit however, I bit my "big girl critic's tongue" and didn't say anything but , "hey nice color contrast on your plate kiddo." Though inside, I was secretly wishing he would scrape the ketchup off and at least give the withered remains of the cheese body to me for a proper burial...in my stomach.

That's all I have to say about that. Sigh...