Recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. Superb with my homemade apple not-quite-butter.

In anticipation of spring and hopefully having a container garden on our porch, I ordered a bunch of things from Seed Savers Exchange:

• Genovese Basil
• Five Color Silverbeet Swiss Chard
• Yugoslavian Red Butterhead Lettuce
• Italian Heirloom Tomato
• Speckled Cranberry Beans
• Thai Hot Pepper
• Listada de Gandia Eggplant
• Dragon Carrot
• Tom Thumb Peas

And two little weirdo things:
• Two Inch Strawberry Popcorn
• Sunberries

Along with some flowers:
• Heirloom Flower Collection

I’m also going to try some fingerling potatoes in a bucket, as I was told it’s really easy to do.

I fully expect that most everything will die miserably, but as I’ve been able to keep 5 plants alive inside the house with the threat of two kitties about, I have hopes of some success. However, I am haunted by the basil I tried to grow when I last lived in Syracuse that was incinerated by the direct sunlight on the porch area.

Last week, we made meatballs with my Grandpa Collis. He sent over some capellini and meatballs a month or so ago and I noticed that the meatballs were extremely good, so I said he needed to show me his technique at some point. So last weekend we made 70 meatballs, ready to be plopped into my next batch of sauce (and they’ll also be appearing with my mom’s stuffed shells on New Year’s Day).

Some photos from the event (recipe not included in an effort to create legend):

Snow has FINALLY started to fall and stick around here. I’m sure we will be up to Golden Snowball levels soon, but it has been like spring around here in the past few weeks. I’m glad to see the snow, myself.

I used to shun rice pudding, for some reason. There are a number of things that I can’t imagine not liking now (brussels sprouts, chili, gravy), but we all must come into our own in our own time. Now I pour gravy all over my turkey and potatoes at Thanksgiving, make brussels sprouts often for dinner, and make a mean chili. And I make my mom’s recipe for rice pudding, which seems perfect and comforting as the snow starts to return.

———————————————————–

Mom’s Rice Pudding

1 qt milk
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup long-grained rice
½ cup raisins
1 cup evaporated milk
2 eggs- slightly beaten
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a saucepan, cook milk & salt until slightly heated. Stir in the rice. When the mixture reaches the boiling point, lower the heat & simmer about 15 minutes. Stir often. Add raisins & cook until rice is done (about 5 minutes).

In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, sugar, vanilla & evaporated milk. Stir some of rice mixture into egg mixture. Return this mixture to the one in the saucepan & cook slowly until it thickens a bit. Pour into a bowl. Refrigerate. Stir often as it cools.

• I have enjoyed using the little quarts of non-homogenized, cream on top, whole milk from Evans’, available from their farm and at the Syracuse Real Food Co-op.
• I realized when I made this today that what I thought was a can of evaporated milk was a can of condensed milk. Oops. Check your ingredients before you start! I used heavy cream in place of the evaporated milk and it turned out fine, if not more decadent.
• I like using golden raisins and I also, just for fun, used arborio rice today. Good!
• This recipe doubles well and that’s how my mom usually makes it.
• I like to warm mine up a little before eating.