Rice Balls with Lamb and Shitake Mushrooms

I'm playing the role of a bachelor tonight as the Dutchess and Zach

are in Nacogdoches for some grandparents visitin'.

To save money on dog/house sitting, I stayed home.

So I took advantage.  I usually have to take into account 3 people's

likes and dislikes and design menus around that.  Well tonight I was solo.

I went to Kroger not knowing what I wanted to make.  After looking

to see what was fresh and plentiful, I decided upon lamb and asparagus.

2 things that would normally cause strife in my home.  Dutchess doesn't 

like to eat lamb, and Zach is so against asparagus that he claims he

is allergic to it.

The cool thing about this meal is that I came up with it completely

on my own.  No recipes or internet suggestions or nothin!

They didn't have any lamb steak today, so I gravitated to the ground lamb.

I immediately thought about rice balls that had this lamb included.

I also got some shitake mushrooms, shallots & garlic.  

All of which I browned in the cast iron.

I put some arborio rice in the steamer and then combined the two and cooled it

in the freezer for about 5 minutes.

I sauteed some asparagus lightly with some cracked pepper.

These would eventually get wrapped up in crescent rolls.

The rice balls needed some dredging, so I set up

seasoned flour, eggs (with a little milk and water) and bread crumbs,

in that order.

This is what they looked like before the fry daddy.

I knew I needed some kind of mint, so I made some mint aioli.

Garden mint, mayo, s/p and olive oil in the blender did the trick.

I used a fancy kitchen tool to create zucchini shards and my plate was 

complete!  This was SO awesome!

The mint sauce was the standout, but the rice balls held their 

own as a close second.

Father fed himself!