This recipe has a funny story that goes with it... and I swear, it is absolutely true!
One Sunday or Monday, when I was in my teens, my mom asked me to make rice pudding for Family Home Evening. I followed the recipe as outlined in Mom's big red Betty Crocker Cookbook. This is the recipe I followed until something surprising happened... (please see the end of the recipe for the rest of the story)
Ingredients:
6 C milk
1 C white rice
1/2 C white sugar
2 T butter
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 C raisins
Directions:
1. Add milk, rice, sugar, butter, and salt to a 3-quart saucepan.
2. Over medium heat, heat milk misture until tiny bubbles form around the edge, stirring mixture frequently.
3. Reduce heat to low; cover; simmer 1 hour or until rice is very tender, stirring occasionally.
4. Stir in vanilla and raisins.
5. Refrigerate for about 3 hours.
Story continued...
So, I followed directions #1-3. Then I began on number 4, adding in the vanilla. Then I got the container of raisins down from the top shelf of one of our cupboards. I opened it up without paying too much attention and proceeded to pour the raisins directly into the rice pudding. (You see, I had picked up some bad cooking habits from my mother- I didn't really care about measuring the ingredients- I just poured it directly from the package into the pudding.) Imagine how surprised I was when I looked at the rice pudding and saw that many of the raisins seemed to be moving. The raisins were covered with ANTS! Horrified, I told me mom what happened and asked her what to do. My thrifty mother, who was never one to waste food, said- without any hesitation- "Don't tell anyone, we are serving it anyway!" I thought she was kidding. But she assurred me that the ants would all die- since the rice was still very hot, so there was no worry that anyone would be eating live insects.
Suffice it to say that I went without dessert that night, but I must admit I was witness to everyone else eating the best rice pudding they had ever tasted!
I remember that night very clearly. I remember how odd it was that neither Mom nor Monica seemed to be interested in sharing dessert with us that night, although there was plenty of it left in the pot on the stove. I remember their laughing at us when we were all finished eating and how betrayed I felt. I wanted to throw up. To this day, I cannot eat rice pudding. Just the mention of it sends visions of ants drowning in a white pot of hot mush dancing in my head.
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