Rice Pudding

Life has been interesting, if not exciting.  Let's see...  Some guy cut in front of Connie, causing Connie to slam on his brakes and the airbag sensor to go cattywampus.  That was two days in the shop.  Then, on our trip to the airport, we took a side trip through Crown Hill cemetery to visit Dad's grave and show my sister-in-law the highest point in the city. 

Just as we were leaving, it started to rain. 

I was riding in the backseat and had the window down to take photos.  The window wouldn't go up.  My chivalrous husband put the car in park and ran around and pulled the window up as far as it'd go.  (Two more days in the shop...)  We then went home and traded cars for the trip to take Barb to the airport.  She was here visiting for five days.  We got in loads of fun things like a trip to the State Fair with the whole crew.  And, dinner with Mom at The Friendly.  I had some fabulous fried catfish there... 

During Barb's visit, Annie the dog conned her into loads of treats.  Wee Mac the cat got in the grove too, showing Auntie Barbara he knows how to high five!

And, Barbs overfed her by more than a bit.  So, starting the day Barbs left and lasting for four days, Annie had diarrhea.  Lots of diarrhea.  My living room carpet looks like someone had a mudball fight in there.  Fortunately, once she picked a room, she pretty much stuck with it.  Then, she figured out at least one human would actually wake up and take her out in the middle of the night.  A human who forgot to turn off the alarm system and woke up the immediate neighborhood with the wailing of the sirens.  Ok, then.  A trip to see Doc was in order.  A VERY undignified examination of the doggie woggie ensued.  Meds were prescribed.  Excessive passing of gas followed.  That's fine except she was laying between my office and Connie's.  Both of us were ready for gas masks!  Now, Annie is starting to feel a bit better.  And, I'm thinking a good carpet cleaning will be happening - soon!

Midst all the fun and excitement, I barely cooked.  A barbecue for the kids.  Pork chops with peach glaze for Barb.  Pork fried rice with the leftover pork chops.  Not much exciting.  Totally forgot that Secret Recipe Club was sneaking up on me.  I'd perused my assigned blog and printed a few recipes.  I'd even put harissa on the grocery list thinking I'd make a soup that sounded good.  But, I kept going back to the rice pudding with dates and pistachios.  One, I've never made rice pudding.  Two, we both adore dates and pistachios.  Now, I had no business making a dessert after all the goodies we had while Barb was here.  But, rice pudding it was.  My assigned blog, SimplySensationalFood.com is by Nayna who lives in the UK and is a recipe author for City Connect Cambridge.  Her blog is vegetarian and measurements are given in grams etc.  I've copied her measurements here since I used the by guess and by gosh method of measuring...  And, I left out the saffron that Nayna called for.  That is one spice I really can't stand.  Guess if I had to choose one, choosing the most expensive one was the best idea!!  I was really pleased with this dessert.  The dates and nuts added just the right amount of crunchy/chewy/interesting topping.  And, the cardamom in the recipe was perfect.  I'd have included a link to the recipe but nowhere on the blog could I find an index...



Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

60 g short grain rice
250 ml water
400 ml cream
60 g sugar
1 t cardamom powder
4 almonds
6 pistachios
6 medjool dates
60 ml boiling water

Directions:

In a small saucepan, start simmering the cream and cardamom.  You don't want it to boil but you do want it to reduce.  In another saucepan, start water for your rice.  Cook the rice according to the package directions but add 5-10 minutes so it is VERY soft.  Drain the rice.  Add the sugar to the cream and stir until it's dissolved.  Add the drained rice.  Refrigerate so you're serving it cool.  An hour or so before serving the pudding, chop the dates and add them to the boiling water.  Remove them from the heat and allow them to sit for half an hour.  Mash them into the water.  Serve the pudding garnished with the date compote and the nuts.  As you can see, I chose to use sliced almonds that I'd toasted instead of plain almonds...

Thank you Nayna from Simply Sensational Food!

An InLinkz Link-up

Persimmon Pudding

The Invasion of the Grunions

The Grunions is the name that Connie has for the grandkids.  Connie called David to remind him that the Avatar exhibit at the Children’s museum would be closing in the third week of September.  He happened to be on vacation so suggested that they come over that Friday.  Bradley (aka The Kraken) is in kindergarten now, so they didn’t get to Indianapolis until 2:30, but they had plenty of time to go the museum.  The museum opened a new area called Playscape for pre-schoolers.  It was only opened to members on this day, but since David is a member, no problem.  The Avatar exhibit was cool, but nothing compared to Playscape.  The kids would have probably stayed there for hours on end.  There is a water area, music, climbing, sandbox, art, and an area that has building blocks, a “Reaction Contraption”, and a “Whirly Twirly Tower” and lots more.  Wicked cool!

After the museum it was back to the house for a run through the sprinkler.  Then, of course, Bradley needed his mojitos.  Connie has taught Bradley how to make mojitos (virgin, of course) and Bradley never forgets to ask.  He knows where the muddler is kept and is always ready to help pick, sort and wash the mint leaves.  He is also a discerning character.  After they made the mojitos, Connie asked Bradley how they tasted.  Bradley looks at him and says, “I think they need more sugar water (simple syrup).  Good grief, another food critic!  So back in the cocktail mixer they go, more simple syrup is added and the concoction is re-poured.  “Much better”, declares Bradley.  The best part of the story is that Connie accidently used the hummingbird food which has LESS sugar than our normal simple syrup.  Bradley noticed.  Connie didn't. 

We picked peppers for inclusion in the slaw we made for dinner.  We picked and ate golden raspberries right off the canes.  We picked tomatoes for the burgers for dinner.  Rosie, who normally does not eat tomatoes, walked around the garden munching on a large yellow tomato that she picked herself.  Bradley spent an hour climbing in a swamp honeysuckle. 

However, the highlight of the evening was preparing dessert.  I've got a persimmon pudding recipe that was originally my great-grandmother's.  The woman I was named after.  We took persimmons out of the freezer.  These were persimmons that we had harvested last year from the tree in our front yard.  After thawing for a little bit, Rosie and Connie stood at the bar and pressed the persimmons through a colander to extract the pulp from the seeds and other detritus.  Rosie did this for a half an hour.  Her commitment to the process was amazing.  Bradley wanted to help also, but when presented with his turn, he couldn’t bring himself to stick his hands into the gooey mess, so Rosie jumped back in. 

Pressing persimmons through a colander to make persimmon pudding is one of my fondest memories from my childhood about my grandmother.  Rosie used the same colander I used when my grandmother put me on a stepstool in her kitchen and let me smoosh away.   I think we may have passed the enjoyment of smooshing the persimmons on to another generation.  Rosie had a ball!  And by the way, the resultant pudding was inhaled by everyone.  It certainly is fun seeing the wee ones getting involved with cooking and preparing food.  Bradley loves making his mojitos and Rosie for the second time in as many visits, has stepped up and been involved with preparing the food.

After dinner some of us were just plain tuckered out :-)

 

David left after 9pm and got home at midnight.  Connie called in the morning to thank him for coming over and was told that when the kids got up in the morning the conversation went like this.  “Can we go back over to Grammy and Grampy’s today?”  “No”  “Why not?”  “Because the Buckeyes are playing today.”  “Can we go after the Buckeyes game is over?”  “No.”  “Why not?”  “Because it will be too late.”  “Can we go over tomorrow?”  “No.”  “Why not?”  “Because Momma will be home and I am playing golf with Poppa (their maternal grandfather).”  “Well, that makes no sense.”

Grammie's Persimmon Pudding

I'm doing something a bit different here... I'm copying the actual recipe card I have.  What you do is smoosh the persimmons thru a colander then mix them with the other ingredients.  Then, you pour the whole deal into a greased baking dish (I use about a 9x9 ceramic heat-proof dish) and pop it into the oven.  Serve with whipped cream.  Or we've found the new Cool Whip is so much like whipped cream that most folks can't tell the difference.