Pork Tenderloin and Rice-A-Roni TJRecipes.com Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes

Pork Tenderloin and Rice-A-Roni TJRecipes.com Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes

 

Rice-A-Roni, The San Francisco Treat!  ™

I have heard that jingle more times than I could ever possibly count! Hearing the clang of a cable car bell immediately brings the jingle to mind. Good ol’ Golden Grain Macaroni Company. Rice-A-Roni is now owned by Quaker Oats which is owned by Pepsi. The San Francisco Treat is headquartered in Purchase, NY.

How sad.

Growing up in San Francisco, I rarely – if ever – actually ate Rice-A-Roni. My mom made her own faux-rice-a-roni dishes all the time by just breaking up spaghetti noodles and adding it to rice. She’d saute the rice and spaghetti in a bit of butter, add water, a bouillon cube and some chopped [fill-in-the-blank] and we’d have a tasty side dish with Sunday Chicken or whatever. Mama was an inventive cook.

Fast-forward a few years and I’m still making variations on a rice-a-roni theme…

Tonight, it was rice, broken up spaghetti, and a bit of onion. I sauteed about 3 ounces of broken spaghetti with 3/4 cup rice and then added 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth, a pinch of poultry seasoning, and a pinch of salt and pepper. I brought it to a boil, and then covered it and let it simmer on low for about 20 minutes. My own treat.

The rest of the meal was just as simple.

I cut a pork tenderloin into medallions and browned them in a skillet. I added a bit of homemade BBQ sauce and a splash of chicken broth and let them simmer until done. Green beans.

Done.

Back in the late ’60s, I actually knew the grandson of the founder of Golden Grain Macaroni – he and his lovely wife lived up the street from Pirro’s Pizzeria where I spent my time spinning pizzas and making every management mistake a young manager could make.

Small world.