Rice Pudding

Rice pudding is one of my favorite comfort foods. I remember when I was playing basketball in middle school our bus broke down about an hour away from home after a game. It was a cold, Idaho winter night and we were freezing on that bus while we waited for another one to come and take us home. When Jessica and I got home, Mom had this warm rice pudding waiting for us. We sat and ate it and talked. It's a good memory.

A few weeks after I had Aubrey the Relief Society asked me to make 32 cups of rice pudding for a dinner they were having. Looking in my cookbook, I see that I made eight times the original recipe. That's 16 cups of milk, 16 eggs, 4 cups of raisins, 42 ounces of evaporated milk, and 5 cups of sugar. To make it worse, I accidentally made twice as much rice as I needed. And then, I put the pudding in plastic airliner cups like they asked me to only to find that the hot mixture melted the cups and they were crazy shaped. Why didn't I think of that? I blame it on my postpartum brain and lack of sleep. It turned out that the dinner was not well attended due to a snow storm and they brought almost all of the pudding back to me. We ate it for a long time and were so sick of it. And I hadn't made it since until yesterday and it was so good. Just the way I remember it. I had one warm bowl full and was completely satisfied.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rice (leftover rice works best)

2 cups milk

5 1/3 ounces evaporated milk

1/2 cup raisins

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Scald milks together. Measure raisins into a strainer and set over boiling water long enough to plump them. Combine cornstarch, salt, and sugar. Stir into hot milk mixture, stirring constantly over medium heat until slightly thick and smooth. Add rice. Reheat to full boil. Remove from heat. Pour a 1/2 cup of hot rice mixture into beaten eggs while stirring rapidly. Return egg mixture to hot rice mixture while stirring. Continue to stir for about 2 minutes until thickened. Stir in raisins, spices, and vanilla. Ladle into bowls or dessert cups. Sprinkle with extra nutmeg or cinnamon. Serve either warm or cold. Makes eight 1/2 cup servings.