I Stir My Rice…

When we make rice around here, unless it’s baked in the oven, we make it on the stove top. Mostly, we pour some long grain rice in a pot, pour in some broth, cover and bring to a boil. When it’s boiling, we take off the lid, stir the rice, reduce the heat to low, and replace the lid. Then you leave it until it’s done. Sometimes I go in and check the rice, lifting the lid and stirring the rice.

Every time someone is over visiting when they see this occur (unless they are members of Ted’s family…I think they all stir their rice, too) they react as though I were sticking my hand in an open flame…”WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!” Turns out, most people were taught that if you take the lid off of the rice while it’s still cooking, Satan will come up from the depths of Hell and steal your first born child. Being an atheist, however, I don’t believe in Satan, so I am free to stir my rice. You know what? I still have my child. And my rice turns out just fine, thank you very much for asking.

I wonder, though, what else I do that other people find SHOCKING? Or better yet, what do YOU do, that people say, Hmmm…didn’t know you could do that?

10 Comments

  • Gina

    You know, ever since I found Trader Joe’s Organic Brown Rice packets that you just put in the microwave for three minutes, I rarely make it on the stove anymore.

    I’m not sure there is anything I do that shocks people!

    Oh wait, didn’t people get shocked when I revealed that we take our shoes off over here? And that if possible, I prefer that we change out of dirty clothes to sit on the sofa and stuff?

  • Beenzzz

    I do the same thing with my rice. I had no idea that was a bad thing! Oh, I don’t make omelletes the right way. But I also don’t like gooey liquid chicken juice all over my plate either. 😉

  • Maya's Granny

    It’s wonderful the things you can learn from your own child. They certainly told me that stirring rice caused the sun to go nova.

    If I knew what I did that caused other people to to shocked, I might not do it. Probably you would know about me.

  • jay lassiter

    omg j, this is husterical. if you wanna stir your rice, it’s a free country. but i am here to tell you it’s not necessary. you give it a quick stir and put on the lid and have faith that it will be fine.
    and it will.

  • hellomelissa

    oops. i stir my rice, too. the only shocking and disgusting thing that i do is i don’t make my children bathe daily. send child protective services!! even admitting this is tantamount to abuse in many circles.

  • Cherry

    Oh the horror I heard in my voice that night when I witnessed the stirring. I was so embarrassed.

    And J… your rice was wonderful! I want my money back from culinary school. They were so wrong!

  • Susan in Italy

    I shockingly make polemnta by pouring it along with cold water and some salt into a pot and only then putting the whole thing on to the stove. It’s a lot easier not to get lumps that way than the suggested whisking into already boiling water.

    So I get that stirring rice doesn’t make BAD things happen. I’m wondering though, does it do any GOOD? It just seems easier not to stir than to stir. I mean, I’m just sayin’…

  • Melissa

    You know there are a lot of things I do or don’t do that shocks people, but I’ll go light here.

    I let my kids change clothes at often as they please. I let them wear bathing suits under their clothes or tutu’s to school. I paint my two and five year olds toenails once a week. Oh and I only use my microwave as a timer as I am convinced it will give someone cancer later in life. Really, I’ve had it for five years and it has never been used. It’s a $70 timer. 😉

  • Ml

    We have one of those handy dandy rice cookers. Plunk the rice in, liquid and whatever else, plug in and it cooks to perfection every time. Sometimes I put a cinnamon stick or a whole clove in the rice before cooking if we’re having curry with it…yesterday I put in a few drops of sesame oil because we were having stir fried shrimp.