Care Package

Is our government still sending CARE packages? Have you read 84 Charing Cross Road? I hope so, and yes, I did, respectively. I grew up with the happy knowledge that my government was helping our allies and former enemies, and I loved the diffident relationship between a British bookseller and a struggling American writer. So, when my own CARE package arrived from friends Wenirs and Ray last week, I was delighted.

Among the various goodies in the package were an herbed salami, a nicely nutty Gruyere cheese, salt caramels, a block of rich dark chocolate and a package of red rice from the Camargue region in France. As a girl, I was horse crazy and lusted after one of the white horses of the Camargue so, surprisingly, I knew where the Camargue was (southern France) and that the region is famous for its rice as well as its horses.

I cooked it up with onion and chicken stock to accompany a dinner of Cornish hens, which it did admirably, but the real home run with this rice as a breakfast food this morning. It has a nutty flavor and the outer hull is a little bit chewy with a creamy soft middle. The chicken stock enriched it and the onion sweetened it just a bit. With a dash of salt and a tad of butter, it made a sustaining breakfast and I felt well CAREd for. Thanks, Ray and Wenirs!