Food!

I'm a science nerd trapped in an artist's body. But that's a different story. For this, I blame my parents. My mom loves to cook, and my dad was a chem major in college. So I grew up experimenting with food--edible science experiments. I even made a decent crépe recipe when I was four. Except I didn't know how to spell "cheese" or "crépe", so when I wrote out the instructions, I wrote "add chess, roll up crap and eat." That worked, right? Hey, I knew the difference between long and short vowels when I was still in pre-school, so you have to give me some credit.

Fast forward to tonight. Mom had a late night, Peter (Mom's spousal-equivalent) can't cook, and I was too lazy, so we got Chinese food. The place we get it from always gives us a TON of extra white rice. It just sits in our fridge, lonely, uneaten, until someone finds it two weeks later and it address us by name and asks for a blaket. But tonight was different. I always hated how wasteful we were, so I took action. I came up with a pretty yummy rice pudding recipe out of things we (and probably you) have lying around the kitchen. I should warn you, I rarely measure ingredients, so this is a bit of an estimate. But you're probably smart enough to figure it out. And if not, you probably shouldn't be near a stove.

Sam's "Leftover" Rice Pudding (c)
- 1 box leftover rice (its about 1.5-2 cups)
- about 2 cups milk (I used skim because thats all we drink, but any milk is fine. Soy, even.)
- about 1-1.5 tsp vanilla extract
- about 1/2 to 2/3 confectioners sugar (sweetens, and acts as a thickening agent)
- cinnamon and/or nutmeg (or even a little clove if you're feeling daring) for taste

1. Put all the rice in a pot, poke it with a spoon so it spreads out, and add the milk. No rice clumps allowed. Stir and cook over medium heat.
2. After the mixture starts to bubble slightly, add the confectioner's sugar. Pour it in evenly, and stir.
3. Sit, stir. Sit, stir. Keep going.
4. Lower the heat, keep stirring and sitting so that it doesnt form a skin or stick to the bottom of the pot, but it should be getting pretty thick at this point.
5. Let sit, add spices for flavor, if desired. Yummy hot or cold, but it needs to be refridgerated for leftovers.

You could add raisins (golden or purple--but golden are better) or dried apricots to this, but putting some over sliced banana is really good. Heavy, though, so maybe share it with someone.