Old-Fashioned Rice Pudding

Mom had to choose. Between Old Fashioned Rice Pudding or Pioneer Bread Pudding. Pretty much her two favorite desserts. Today, being her birthday, she had to choose.

You don't even have to use fancy Madagascar Vanilla, or exotic rice, or even Watkin's Cinnamon (one of the best!). Just plain old spice cupboard ingredients. I DO favor organic raisins, though. Mostly because grapes rank at the top of pesticide/chemical contaminated fruits. So it's good to go organic with grapes, and their sweet mutation - raisins. Anyway - here's a recipe you will definately enjoy.

Old-Fashioned Rice Pudding
In a saucepan, bring to a boil, stirring constantly:

4 1/2 c. milk

1/2 c. uncooked long grain rice

1/3 c. sugar

1 tsp. sea salt (optional)

Pour into a buttered 1 1/2 qt. baking dish. Cover, bake 45 min. at 325 degrees. Stir every 15 min. Add and stir in:

1/2 c. raisins

1 tsp. vanilla

Cover, bake another 15 min. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Serve warm or chilled. Warm with a scoop of icecream (Tillamook Vanilla Bean, of course) is preferable...
Store refrigerated, if there's any left.

I didn't tell her, I would probably have made BOTH of them...it IS her 84th birthday, after all!