Herbed Short-Grain Brown Rice

My mom is and has been for many years a dedicated reader of Cooking Light Magazine, and even though these days she eats a mostly vegetarian diet, she insists that she likes it better than Vegetarian Times.  As for me, everytime I think about subscribing to a food magazine, I'm like, "Then I could read about new recipes on a regular basis... oh.  That's what I do on Google Reader."  I do wonder about how the internet, and especially blogging, has changed the way cookbooks and food magazines work.  I'm also curious how copyright works when--in a much more obvious way than with, say, literature--most recipes are tweaked versions of other recipes. 

But the reason I bring up my mom's longstanding relationship with Cooking Light is because I'd been thinking about this rice recipe from the magazine that became a staple in my family growing up.  We took to calling it "Wife Rice," like the author herself did, which now just makes me itch to rename it "Domestic Partner Rice" or something.

Herbed Short-Grain Brown Rice

(adapted from Cooking Light's Herbed Basmati Rice )

Ingredients

2 tsp earth balance or olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup uncooked short grain brown rice 

1 cup water (or whatever your

2 TB finely minced onion

2 TB minced fresh parsley

2 tsp minced fresh basil
1 tsp minced fresh thyme (I used 1/2 tsp dried thyme)

1/4 teaspoon salt, to taste

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan, melt earth balance and saute garlic.  Briefly saute the rice, then add water and onion, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer 30 minutes or so (follow the instructions for your rice).
2. When rice is cooked, stir in herbs and add salt.  The other things I was making for dinner (Apricot Sesame Kale and Salad with Sauteed Portobellos and Ginger Miso Sesame Dressing) were both rather salty, so I actually didn't add any salt (and there's a little in earth balance already).  Serves 2-3.