Risotto with Friends on our Street

I am happy to report that I made the risotto following a recipe from Real Simple, and because our neighbors, Ashley and Nikki, took our daughters for the better half of the afternoon, I made enough for all of us and carried it over to their house. It is so quaint and very European to have your neighbors become your friends and do these impromptu visits with them, and to cook for each other, because you feel like cooking a large batch. The key to risotto is that you add onions to melted butter, toast your rice a bit in that buttery mix, and then add a large cup of wine, or two. So the first thing that goes into the rice is the wine. You then add small batches of broth and let the rice absorb it, one half-cup at a time, and you can even stir the rice, which creates the characteristic risotto texture. Some people don't like their rice sticky and are averse to risotto, but no such picky people live on our streets, and even if they were, it's risotto, so you have to have it a bit mushy. If it's not sticky and gooey enough yet, in the end you add a lot of cheese to it, and then ham, green peas, and then you are left with this gooey gloppity glop, which is delicious and creamy and soothes your soul. It was perfectly fit for this rainy, crazy April Sunday. And the same Pinot Grigio that I used for cooking went just perfectly with it. The only problem was that the broth I used was particularly salty, plus the ham was salty, and thus, the end result was a bit over-salted. Next time I will use just half of the broth and the rest will be just plain water. Even the kids liked it, but of course, they liked Ashley's home baked brownies a bit more. Oh, well.

After cooking this "all day" on Sunday, I finished preparing for the Mock Trial this morning and it went just fine... but it was during the lunch hour, so I was hungry and became very thirsty by the time I had to speak, and it sounded like I was exasperated when the judges asked me questions, when the real trouble was that my throat was dry and I got winded with so much talking. After the trial, I quickly warmed up some leftover risotto, and had a fine afternoon, with creamy mushy yumminess in my tummy. Life is definitely better with risotto.