Creamy Rice Puddin'

So yesterday did anyone else notice the turn-of-the-century western (mostly Oklahoma) theme on Turner Classic Movies? I did, and we had it on in the background all day! From Tulsa, to Oklahoma! to the Rainmaker... well basically I was in the mood to churn my own butter by nightfall.

Since I didn't have anything in the house to churn butter from, I turned my attentions to the chinese leftovers in the fridge. After we polished most of them off, I came here to search slashfood for how to deliciously reconstitute my dried to shriveled white rice. Of course, I came across a recipe for rice pudding and got distracted and sucked in.

So rice pudding it was! I didn't take any pictures, but there are leftovers in my fridge and mmm, it is GOOD! I have made rice pudding before but this was like... ambrosia, it was DELICIOUS rice pudding. I made a few little alterations to their recipe.

So I grabbed a pot and added:
About 2 cups of 2 day old chinese white rice
~ half a cup of heavy cream
~ 2.5 cups of milk
half a cup of sugar
2 dashes of salt

I brought this to a boil, and of course, it boiled over and made the biggest, most horrifying burnt milk-everywhere mess in the world on my cooktop. Ugg. This was while I was feeding Arin prunes, and let's just say while I was shrieking and cleaning up the wreckage he got himself the prunes and flung spoonfuls of it all over his freshly-bathed newly PJ'd self. Another disaster, but one at a time...

So I rescued the pudding, and put it on the backburner to simmer. Since I lost so much liquid, I added in a healthy dose of half-n-half since I was now out of heavy cream, and a little bit more sugar. You know, just cause. The recipe says you can keep adding more liquid to make it creamier, and it all depends on how dry your rice was... mine was pretty dry.

Then I added in a few shakes of cinnamon and a teaspoon and a half of vanilla. I let it simmer and absorb for about 40 minutes... until the rice soaked up almost all the liquid and it got all gooey and delicious. It did start to burn on the bottom a tiny bit so I would recommend stirring at more regular intervals than I did (Rainmaker was on and I just had to see Katharine Hepburn's antics! Not to mention clean up a pruney Bobosaur).

So, all said and done, it came out SO good. I still have a crusty mess on the cooktop that I'll have to scrape off with a razor... but it was so worth it. If you like rice pudding, or any good down-home comfort food... make this! Especially if Oklahoma! or something is on TV.

And here's the link to the original slashfood recipe with more info:
Rice Pudding with Leftover Rice

How's this for Romance

Everyone in my family had a nice Valentine's Day planned. Mom and Carl went down to the Cape, Julie and Lauren went down to stay in Provincetown, Arin ate a TON of chocolate, and me... well, this about sums it up:


I got to spend the day cleaning toilets, doing laundry, dusting icky stuff and finally, cooking a big dinner. And I had a monster pile of pots and pans waiting for me bright and early this morning. Oh well, at least there are tons of yummy treats hanging around the house for me to feel better with!

I did get to make some chocolate covered strawberries (still haven't been eaten, except for the two that 'didn't make it' through the fudge dipping ;) and some of Bakerella's Oreo Truffles.

Mine came out very... rustic looking? I added some heavy cream to my Oreo stuffing so they were a bit moister than I think they technically should be, so dipping them was a challenge. Oh, and I didn't use white chocolate, not a big fan. I dipped some in milk chocolate, some in semi-dark chocolate (the strawberry dip) and some in melted Reese's peanut butter chips. The peanut butter is VERY yum!