Rice Dressing

Do certain foods and their smells bring back special memories like the do for me? The smell of rice dressing cooking in the kitchen definitely does for me! Rice dressing is another lebanese dish, usually a side dish. It is a staple at our family holidays and is usually paired with our turkeys on Thanksgiving and Christmas or with our BBQ chicken at Easter. The smell puts me back as a little girl in my Sittee's kitchen, sitting on the coveted orange stool my sisters and I would fight over watching my mom and Sittee cook and prepare for all of our Big FAT LEBANESE Holidays! Those were the days....Miss my Sittee everyday...
Rice dressing has become a staple in my house for my girls. THEY Love it. It is one of those things I like to make a big batch of at the beginning of the week and have in the fridge for the girls to eat on.
Recipe-
Sautee onion in olive oil until soft
Add 1 lb of your choice of ground meat (I do grass fed beef or lamb)
Break up meat and brown your meat all the way through
Once meat is cooked pour Kitchen Bouqet (liquid browning sauce you buy at the store) once around the pot (sorry, everything I cook is not by recipe but learned by watching so I never know measurements)
Season with salt, red pepper, garlic powder, and good amount of cinnamon
Stir so everything is mixed well
Add 1/2 cup of rice
Add water 3/4  way up the rice/meat mixture
Cook on med to let water cook out and cook the rice
Once the water is almost all the way cooked out, turn on low and cover pot and let finish cooking.
Top with chopped finely italian parsley

***Most of my family adds toasted pine nuts before adding water but since Jacquelyn has a nut allergy I do not add the pine nuts. But the true recipe calls for them.

This is what I served the girls for lunch. They love it with avocado and of course cucumbers!
You can always make a bigger batch, just use the 1 lb meat to 1/2 cup rice ratio.