Vanilla Rice Pudding with Cherries

Who doesn't have a favorite comfort food? For some it can be mac-n-cheese, a big heaping bowl of pasta or just a real good hamburger. One of mine and my step-daughter's favorite is rice pudding.  There is just something about homemade rice pudding that makes me feel all warm and comforted.  The basic recipe is just milk and rice.  And then you can get as creative as you want with the flavorings and toppings. 

This recipe is adopted from Ellie Krieger who is a nutritionist and cook book author.  I have made many various rice pudding recipes over the years. I like this one because it is very simplistic and full of flavor without any of the fat usually in rice pudding.

The rice used in this recipe is Arborio rice which is usually used in Risotto dishes because it becomes a rich creamy rice once cooked. The creaminess of this rice makes the recipe very rich and decadent without having to add high fat heavy cream which is typically used in most rice pudding recipes. Note; I have used brown rice in this recipe before and you will need to use full fat milk when using brown rice. Still wonderful.

Note: The prep pictures did not turn out well so I am going to deviate from my previous posts and just have pictures of the finished product.

Ingredients: 1 cup of Arborio rice
                  2 cups of water
                  3 cups of Vanilla soy milk (I used the Light Silk version)
                  1/4 cup of sugar
                  Pinch of salt
                  1 Cinnamon stick
                  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
                  1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
                  1/4 teaspoon ground Nutmeg

Extra materials: A dutch oven or heavy pot that can go from stove to oven.

Preheat oven to 375

Bring water to a boil in a medium, heavy bottomed, ovenproof saucepan or dutch oven. Add the rice and cover.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until the rice is almost cooked which should be about 20 minutes.

While rice is cooking, whisk together the soy milk, sugar and salt in a large bowl.  When the rice has cooked and still hot, add the soy milk mixture and cinnamon stick.  Cover and place in the oven.  Cook for 45 minutes.

Once rice is cooked remove from oven and remove cinnamon stick. Stir in the vanilla, ground cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Don't worry if the pudding is slightly liquidy, the liquid will continue to absorb into the rice and thicken as the pudding cools. 

This recipe serves 8.   2/3 cup servings.  Pudding will keep in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 3 days.

Once you have distributed rice among the bowls, you can dust with more cinnamon or nutmeg.

If you want extra flavor you can add cherry pie filling (as I have below) or blueberry filling on top of the rice  pudding. 

Enjoy!!!!!

Challah French Toast

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. Here in the South, breakfast is usually the biggest meal of the day. Especially on the weekends. The weekends provide time to make some homemade pancakes, french toast, waffles or a breakfast casserole. Along the side with some bacon or even just a fruit parfait with yogurt.  There are so many options to play with when it comes to breakfast.  I love french toast. One day I decided to make french toast with Challah bread and I was hooked!  The eggy richness of the bread goes so well with the milk batter that coats the bread. Day old bread is best as it will soak up all the flavor of any mixture you coat it in.

Ingredients:  - 1 loaf of Challah bread
                   - 6 extra-large eggs
                   - 1 1/2 cups of milk
                   - 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
                   - Pure Vermont Maple syrup (no Log Cabin or anything like that)
                   - 1 tablespoon of honey
                   - powdered sugar (as much as you desire)

1. Cut the Challah bread into 1 1/2 to 1 inch thick slices.  Place slices in a wide baking dish.

2. In a mix bowl whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla and honey together.  At this point if you want to add another flavor, such as cinnamon, go ahead and sprinkle some in.

3. Pour egg mixture over bread.  Let sit up to 5 minutes turning once.

4. On a griddle or large frying pan melt 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of oil (use canola or vegetable oil). This mixture prevents the butter from burning.  It is best to use flavorless oil like canola or vegetable to prevent any interference in the taste of the fried toast.   After frying the toast sprinkle powdered sugar on top (to your liking). 

5. Serve with warmed maple syrup and a side of fresh fruit. If you want to get real flavor you can serve with a homemade peach or strawberry syrup.

Enjoy!!!!!

Tomato Pasta Salad

I could eat tomatoes everyday.  I just love them. Not only do they taste wonderful, but they are red! Love making dishes with color in them.   This pasta salad has many variations like all other recipes I make.  This dish was inspired by one that The Barefoot Contessa makes.  Everything she makes is wonderful. This is a very light and healthy dish.  One that will not make you feel bloated and miserable after eating. This dish calls for angel hair pasta which I am not a fan of. I never can seem to cook angel hair pasta right. So I am using just thin spaghetti in this dish.  Also, I usually always use whole wheat in any pasta dish I make because whole wheat pasta has more fiber, is lower in sugar and just healthier to eat.  But you can choose whatever pasta you want.  This dish is wonderful with any of them.  I used regular egg pasta here just for photographic purposes.

Ingredients: 4 pints of cherry tomatoes, halved; 5 garlic cloves minced (or 2 tablespoons of minced garlic); 1 pound of thin spaghetti, 1/2 cup of good olive oil ( I love the taste of Filippo Berio), 20 fresh basil leaves,  salt and pepper to taste and 1 cup of fresh grated parmesan cheese or more to taste.

1. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half.Put tomatoes, olive oil, minced garlic and basil leaves in a non-reactive bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for up to 4 hours

3. Right before serving bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add 2 tablespoons to water and then add pasta.  Adding salt to the boiling water right before you put the pasta in is the only way to season the pasta.  I go very light on the salt.  It's up to you  how much salt you want to use.  Cook pasta al dented according to the directions on the package.  Drain pasta well.  After draining the pasta you can add the cheese now and let it melt within the pasta before adding the tomatoes or wait and add the cheese last.  I do both ways.

4. Put the past in a very large bowl and pour the tomatoes over the pasta.  Stir well.  Garnish with extra cheese or basil leaves if desired. Also add salt and pepper to taste. Remember, if you are using parmesan cheese, it is a salty cheese so be sure to taste the dish before adding  more sale.

This dish is meant to be served as a cold pasta salad, but I enjoy it warm also.

Enjoy!

Eton Mess with Strawberry

I love the color red.  Anything with red catches my eye. Especially a dessert.  An Eton Mess is an English boarding school dessert that can be made many ways.  The main ingredients are fruit, whipped cream and meringue. In this version I use strawberries. Just seeing the red strawberries mixed against the rich white whipped cream just puts a smile of my face.  Makes a whole lot of yumminess! Two of my favorite cookbook authors, Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa and Nigella Lawson make wonderful versions of this recipe.  This recipe is listed in many British cookbooks as well.  I have made this with blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. So far the strawberry version is my favorite. In most recipes the whip cream, fruit and meringue are layered.  In my version I just mix everything together with extra strawberries on top.

Ingredients: 4 cups of strawberries, 8 -10 meringue cookies or shells (use vanilla flavor in this recipe), 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 3 tablespoons of sugar. You can use vanilla sugar if you have some leaving out the vanilla extract. I never make  my own vanilla sugar which makes me pause to think that I should give that a try!  I also want to mention that in this recipe I used full fat heavy cream.  I am not a big fan of whip cream, but it just looks so darn pretty mixed with strawberries or in any other dessert really.  You can use half-and-half if you want to lighten it up some.  And let me mention that meringue cookies are already fat free without sacrificing flavor. :)

1. Cut the strawberries  and place in a non-reactive bowl. Then sprinkle 3 tabelspoons of sugar over the strawberries and give a stir.  Place non-stick wrap over bowl and place in fridge for 10 minutes or up to an hour so strawberries can macerate. Depending on how sweet you want the strawberries will determine how long you want to let them macerate.  This process with draw the natural sugar and juices out of the strawberries leaving you with sweet strawberries in their own juice.

2. While strawberries are macerating, put whip cream in mixer with a tablespoon of vanilla extract.  Whip until you have firm peaks.  This happens fast so do not walk away!

3. Once cream is whipped fold in up to a third of the strawberry mixture and crumbled meringue cookies. Put the mixture in any dessert dish you choose.  I like putting these kinds of desserts in different glasses just to mix it up! In the picture below you will see some in a stemless wine glass, a vintage milk glass and a dessert glass.  Just be creative and do whatever pleases you.  After filling your container put the rest of the strawberry mixture on top.  Like I mentioned before, this recipe usually calls for layering and that would be just as good if you choose to do it that way.

Enjoy!!!!