Rice Pudding: My Cozy Food

Okay, so it's been a few months. Things happened: I moved and acquired deer for neighbors. Became an Aunt eight times over. Learned to make pea soup with a ham hock. Befriended two giant poodles. Got a temp teaching computers.

Anyone who knows me is shocked by the last admition. It's true. I'm now a Word and Excel specialist.

I also ran a half marathon. If you read Haley's last post, you've seen me in my glory. That was weeks ago. I'm wearing a tank top. Now I'm wearing a Russel hoody--the hood is actually over my head. A blanket is tucked over my lap. Times have changed. The running has tapered. Okay, pretty much stopped. I'm starting to knit. I like hot chocolate at night. Comfort has become my mantra, which leads me to the rice pudding.

Rice pudding is mostly memory for me. An early memory of raisins and creamy whiteness, of a time when this delicious mush meant rice. Stir Fries had not yet made their debut in my mother's kitchen (which they would with a fury) and rice, in my mind, was in no way connected to vegetables. Therein lay it's beauty. Tonight I recovered this delicacy. I have no idea if this rice pudding is at all like the one my mom use to make. I think, most likely, it is not. This particular pudding starts on the stove and finishes in the oven, rendering it both simple to create and extremely creamily delicious.

The recipe is from Marion Cunningham's The Supper Book (which is a super book, by the way) and I only altered it slightly. Marion uses one cup of cream in her recipe, which I replaced with two percent milk. The reason being that Marion serves her pudding for dessert, whereas I was feasting on mine for dinner. You might consider using part half and half cream, but my rice pudding was plenty smooth, rich and delicious.

Rice Pudding (serves 6)

1 cup water
1/2 cup white, short grain rice
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk (here Marion uses heavy cream)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup plus 2Tbsp sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350.

Bring the water to boil in a medium-sized pot. Add the rice. Cook on low for ten minutes. Add the milk and salt. Cook on low for ten to fifteen more minutes. The rice should be tender. Combine the remaining sugar, milk, eggs, and vanilla in a small bowl. Remove the rice from the heat and add the egg mixture to the pot. Whisk to combine.
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Pour the mixture into a square baking pan. Sprinkle with the cinnamon. Put the pan in a larger pan and fill the larger pan with boiling water one inch high. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until almost set. Let the pudding cool slightly, and firm up in doing so, before serving.

Half Marathon

It's time to brag about Rachel again - yes my absentee-blogger sister- whom we cheered on in the Royal Victoria half marathon on Sunday. Just recovering from the flu, at one hour and 32 minutes, she still managed to pull in 51st place out of 3231 women. Though the biggest workout I got was the 3 block walk from the car, I got a bit uppity about the whole thing - '2 hours? Nice job coming out, but too bad we SMOKED you!' Ah, the royal we.

Since we were in Victoria I didn't do a lot of cooking, just a whole lot of eating. I've provided a few links to some of our old autum posts - I must say that we Reems girls do like our apples. Which is good as I have 2 big bags of Jonagolds from the Chilliwack Corn maze to deal with.

Acorn-Stuffed Squash
Apple Cake
Apple Walnut Bread
French Apple Cake
Roasted Veggies with Feta
Zucchini Pancakes

Birthday Pancakes

I seem to be hurtling through a strange time warp, it doesn't seem like a whole year ago that we celebrated Coby's first birthday. Yet here we are, with our 2-year-old monkey. I am putting an argument forward that Coby actually hit the twos about a month ago, she now likes to add a bit of spice to our lives (code: she's a screamer). Favourite expressions include: 'Mine', 'Coby's____', 'I do it', and of course 'No!' Finn summed it up quite nicely a few weeks ago "Coby thinks that the whole world is hers."

She really is a sweetheart who likes to play with little people, likes to cart around her little people, gives near-suffocating hugs to her baby brother, and can't hear a tune without breaking into enthusiastic dance. In true Reems fashion, birthday celebrations revolve around good eats. We started the day off with banana chocolate chip pancakes, moved onto cupcakes, and rounded the whole day off the festivities with good friends at a wiener roast at the Chilliwack corn maze.

It's time I share a Reems classic, the Peter Pancake. This recipe comes from the Crazy Plates authors, Janet and Greta Podleski. I use the recipe as more of a guide. You can play with the ratio of white and whole wheat flours. I also like to add some oatmeal to the recipe (and with the oatmeal an extra shot of milk). I sometimes sub yogurt for part of the milk, I sometimes use maple syrup or brown sugar instead of the honey. For birthdays and special days, say a grumpy toddler morning, a handful of chocolate chips really brings them to a celebratory level.

Banana Pancakes (based on Crazy Plates' Peter Pancakes)

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp each baking soda and salt
1 3/4 cup buttermilk (I use regular milk and a shot of lemon juice)
2 T melted butter
1 egg
1 T honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup mashed banana

1) Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl
2) In a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients

Cook pancakes in a skillet or griddle over medium high-heat in a pan coated with butter or non-stick spray. Best served with maple syrup.

Blackberry Cream Puffs

Yes, it's been a busy 2 months. The blog break was unintentional, but after you miss a week or two it's hard to get back in the swing of blogging. It's a vicious cycle of guilt and avoidance- actually, fairly similar to life. Not that we don't have a nice list of valid excuses: Rachel has been busy moving and living the care-free life of a teacher on summer holidays. I've been busy having a baby and living the care-free life of the wife of a teacher on holidays.

If any of our readers are still out there, be rest assured that the the Reems girls are still eating. And cooking. And eating. Oh, and did I mention eating?

My latest offering is a west coast special- after 5 years in Calgary, far away from wild blackberry bushes, I am still reveling in the delight of these juicy morsels. Rachel and I come from a family of serious berry pickers. My earliest blackberry picking memories are with my grandfather; he knew all the off-the-map bushes and every summer produced ice cream buckets fully of black, juicy berries. His daughters, Joan and Wiena shared the picking gene, earning money picking strawberries at the neighbouring Slater's field. If I recall Reems folklore correctly, it was Guy (our dad) whose genes I share - he also tried his hand berry picking at Slater's one day, on a long ago summer - this ended badly, with he and his friends getting packed off after more eating than picking, and the final culmination of a berry throwing war. I can only imagine Joan and Wiena trying to distance themselves from such hooligans.

Finally, our picking dynasty falls to my sister and co-blogger, Rachel. She and our baby sister Carmen are both pickers of some repute, spending adolescent summers biking down the road post-paper route to pick raspberries on hot summer mornings. If my memory serves me it was Rachel who was the top picker in the field. Myself? I'm a liability to a picking party. I like to sample as I go, which makes for a delicious outing, but alas a slowly-filling bucket.

While I am taking credit for the divine inspiration to add blackberries to the whipped cream filling in cream puffs, I must aknowledge Dorrie Greenspan for the cream puff recipe found in her book, Around the French Table. And I must give credit to Rachel for tipping me off to Dorrie's latest book. I was initially intimidated by the mention of French in the title; however the recipes I've tried are do-able and delicious.

Blackberry Cream Puffs-
Makes about 24 medium-sized cream puffs

First make the Cream Puffs:

1/2 cup whole milk (I used 2 percent with a splash of half and half)

1/2 cup water

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 large eggs, at room temperature

Bring the milk, water, butter and salt to the boil in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart saucepan. When the mixture is boiling rapidly, add the flour all at once, reduce the heat to medium and, without a second's hesitation, start stirring the mixture like mad with a wooden spoon. The dough will come together very quickly and a slight crust will form on the bottom of the pan, but you have to keep stirring - vigorously - another 2 to 3 minutes to dry the dough. At the end of this time, the dough will be very smooth.

Turn the dough into the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or, if you've still got some elbow grease left, you can continue by hand. One by one, add the eggs to the dough, beating until each egg is thoroughly incorporated. Don't be discouraged - as soon as you add the first egg, your lovely dough will separate. Keep working and by the time you add the third egg it will start coming together again. When all the eggs are incorporated, the dough will be thick and shiny and, when you lift some of it up it will fall back into the bowl in a ribbon. The dough will still be warm - it's supposed to be - and now is the time to use it.

Using about 1 heaping tablespoon of dough for each puff, drop the dough from the spoon onto the lined baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches of space between each mound of dough.

Slide the baking sheets into the oven, bake for 15 minutes, then rotate the sheets from top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking until the puffs are golden and firm, another 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer the cream puffs to a cooling rack.

Keeping: You can spoon out the dough and either bake it immediately or freeze it. To freeze, spoon the dough in mounds onto parchment-lined baking sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. When the dough is completely frozen, remove the balls from the baking sheets and wrap them airtight. They can be kept in the freezer for up to 2 months and don't need to be defrosted before baking.

Finally, when cool fill cut each puff open and fill with a dollop of whipped cream. Place 4 or 5 juicy blackberries on top of the cream. These need to be eaten soon after they are assembled. Any unfilled puffs will last over night but will need to be re-crisped in the oven the day of use.

Greek Chicken Meal Plan

I'm in my final two months of pregnancy - with two cranky monkeys ready to greet me after a day of daycare excitement, the last thing I want to do after a day of work is cook a big meal. I realize I shouldn't be complaining - I only work half time, and today is my Friday. On Tuesdays I rarely rise beyond a quick stir fry, or calling in my back-up dinner strategy - Mike making tacos. Today may appear like an exception to that rule - but it's a trick. This is a quick and easy meal plan.

Greek Chicken Meal Plan

1) Walk in the door - instead of heading for couch you need to go directly to the kitchen. This will require husband back-up support for childcare, or in lieu of, a cartoon will due in a pinch.

2) Dump your chicken in a bowl and sprinkle on some salt and pepper, dried oregano, a few tablespoons of lemon juice, and if you have the energy, some minced garlic. You can use whatever chicken cuts you want, today I cooked little drumsticks, I can't tell you what weight - maybe 8 drumettes.

3) Put some rice onto cook. I add a scoop of msg-free powdered chicken base for some flavour. This is not a time for brown rice, we're talking about a time-factor.

4) Put chicken on the barbie

5) Take some asparagus and toss with a drizzle of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and sea salt. When you go to flip your chicken over add the asparagus to the grill.

5) Make your yogurt sauce. This is a flexible sauce, you can add or subtract ingredients as you like. Today mine included: about 1 cup yogurt, 1 T lemon juice, 1 T olive oil, 1 chopped fresh dill, 1 T chopped chives, a sprig of fresh oregano, and aprox 1/4 cup crumbled feta. Finally add salt and pepper to taste. Chop extra fresh herbs (if using) to sprinkle on your rice. You could also take this time to make a quick salad if you have the inclination.

6) When your chicken is grilled almost to perfection take half the sauce and put a tablespoon or so on each piece. Leave on the grill for a last few minutes and then using your brand new silicon tongs (sorry, that was me), pile your chicken and asparagus on a platter.

7) Sprinkle the remaining chopped herbs on your rice and serve along with the chicken, asparagus, reserved half of the sauce, and your salad. I like to add a scoop of sauce onto my rice, though you can also give your chicken an extra douse.

The chicken was so good that after 6 months of abstaining, Coby rekindled a love for poultry.

You might correctly surmised that my herb garden has been planted; you can substitute dried herbs, but I love fresh dill in the sauce.

Brown Rice Yam Rolls

Well, I am a deep-fry virgin no longer. I dunked my battered yams into that sizzling oil like a seasoned veteran. Somewhere mid-fry, I realized the irony of trying to increase the health of the sushi with brown rice, while stuffing it full of yam tempura. The yam rolls were delicious - however, due to the extra fiddling I think that tempura will be making only special appearances in my sushi roll line-up. The brown rice sushi was great - health notwithstanding, I loved the flavour and texture, and will definitely be making this swap in the future (I forgot to tell Mike about the brown rice and I don't think he noticed).

I do have a thanks to give: a big shout out goes to my elastic-waist maternity pants- I think I ate the baby's weight in sushi tonight. Of course, you can't make yam tempura without some sampling.

Brown Rice Sushi

I don't have a recipe per se, there are many guides to making sushi a la google. However, here are some tips.

I used this method to make the yam tempura.

For the brown sushi rice I cooked 2 cups of calrose brown rice, which I find has a stickier grain, and added sushi vinegar and salt to taste (sushi vinegar is just rice vinegar, sugar, and salt).

Just before you roll your sushi it's time to cut up your other filling options. Tonight I sliced avocado and cucumber to go along with the yam. For other sushi dinners I mix and match lots of different fillings: matchsticks of carrot, egg omelet cut into strips, crab, shrimp, smoked salmon, thinly julienned red peppers - you can be as creative as you want. I have to confess I have never used raw fish, I love it at restaurants but I'm too nervous at home.

Again, if you've never made sushi before just google the directions for how to put it all together, there are lots of good step-by-step photographs out there. Here's what I do:

It's time to roll baby! Place your nori sheet on the mat, then spread over enough rice to cover the sheet up to about an inch from one edge. Press the rice onto the nori with water-moistened fingers, and also wet the rice-less edge. Put your fillings a few inches up from the bottom of the mat and roll up toward the moistened edge. You want to be give the mat a good squeeze as you go so that your sushi is nice and compact. Next slice. I like to keep my pieces thin - particularly as we have small mouths around the table. I have a fabulous serrated bread knife that Mike gifted me a few years ago and it slices a clean piece of sushi.

Finally serve with soy sauce to dip. I love pickled ginger on the side, and it lasts forever in your fridge. If you like wasabi it will also last indefinitely in the fridge - you can also buy it in powdered form and add water to make a paste as you need it.

One final question for all those more experienced deep-fryers - how to dispose of the leftover oil?

Grape Nuts Cereal

I love cereal; not only for it's sweetness, crunch, or thirst-quenching milk, I also dig the strange variety, the oddity of shapes and colours. Is this food? I've wondered upon seeing a string of various coloured Fruit Loops around a child's neck. My Fruit Loop necklaces never lasted long. I was invariably left with a soggy string. As a kid, I also dug the boxes. At breakfast, you could barricade your face, and suck back cereal while reading about magnifying glasses that could be ordered with box tops, or the specs of a sports hero who ate Corn Flakes EVERY day.

The trouble is, cereal isn't really very good for you. The list of ingredients is typically populated by words I cannot pronounce or define. Plus, cereal never tastes as good as I remember. Perhaps it's the additives or the long-shelf life, but the flavor is...off. Fortunately, I found out you can make cereal. Actually cereal. Not just granola. I found this recipe for cereal in the More With Less Cookbook. I love the Mennonites.

This cereal is actually delicious. It's crunchy and a little bit sweet and made with all whole-wheat flour. We devoured it.

Grape Nuts Cereal (Adapted from the More with Less Cookbook)

3 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups buttermilk

1 tsp baking soda

pinch salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat the ingredients together in a large bowl. Grease two cookie sheets and spread half of the mixture over each sheet. You want to spread it out as much as possible.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let the giant crackers cool of ten minutes, then brake them into irregular pieces (large shards is good). Then bake them again, lowering the heat to 250 degrees for another 20 minutes or until they are crisp.

Let cool and then whir the pieces in a food processor.

Enjoy with milk.