a peek inside the fishbowl

The Canadian Museum of Nature has an enduringly happy history with Ottawa families, and here at the Fishbowl as a longtime patron too.

I’m VERY pleased to share a great idea for your child’s next summer camp experience. Did you know the Museum of Nature offers some really interesting summer camps? There is HUGE kid appeal here for kids 6-14.

There are four themes from which to choose: Arctic, Bioluminescence, Canada’s Creatures, and Dinosaurs & Fossils. Each day camp has lots of themed-activities, hands-on learning, and special gallery exploration (including some behind-the-scenes stuff!).

I think the Museum of Nature is a wonderful day camp destination, especially for first-time campers, don’t you? It’s so nice to be able to send them kids to a familiar place where you know they’ll have a great time.

Interested? Registration opened this week, so don’t think about it too long. :) You can read more about these day camps on the Museum of Nature website.

I was browsing the aisles at Bulk Barn when I noticed a barrel full of organic black rice, and I was intrigued.

I have eaten wild rice this colour (I confess I don’t like it that much) but never anything like this. I’m no grain aficionado. We usually stick to whiter varieties of regular rice, including jasmine and basmati, and our go-to rice is usually a stickier variety that I make when we’re having ginger chicken. (A Joy of Cooking recipe, and it’s delish.)

I decided to cook some black rice as part of a #dailylunches dish. And I’m glad I did. Isn’t it pretty?

It’s not exactly black, but it’s close. The rice has a very deep browny purple and gives this dish an unusual hue.

I like the flavour of black rice. Black rice is grainier, denser, and less flooffier than its cousin Uncle Ben, and it’s for these exact reasons I would opt to use it in a salad like this one. It’s mild and a bit nutty, and a bit chewy too, but not unpleasantly so.

Sidebar: this is why I like Bulk Barn! I can buy a cup of something to try it out. No commitment or wastage. Woot!

(Wondering how to cook black rice? It’s easy. Combine 1 3/4 cups of water and one cup of rice in a pot that has a snug-fitting lid. Add a bit of salt and bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on low for 30 minutes. Let stand, covered, for a few minutes before fluffing and serving.)

The black rice salad recipe pictured above consists of:

• 1 cup cooked black rice
• a small splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar
• 3 leaves of kale, washed and chopped
• 1/2 avocado, diced and tossed with lime juice
• a handful of cranberries
• half an apple, chopped
• a smattering of pecan pieces

I prepared the kale while the rice was cooking. I took the oil and vinegar and mixed them together in a bowl and added the chopped kale to that, tossing and squashing it down with my fork. (Remember what I said about kale massage in this recent recipe!) And then I let it sit.

I added the warm rice (not hot) to the kale, and gently tossed in the other ingredients. That’s it!

Here are a few other black rice recipes that look intriguing from around the WWW, in case you’d like to try it out for yourself in a different kind of dish:

• Cumin-Scented Quinoa and Black Rice
• Easy Peanut Kale Rice Bowl
• Thai Black Rice Salad with Wild Salmon