For me, the best comfort food ending to a family dinner is a dish of warm, homemade rice pudding. I used to make a baked version until I realized the creamy way it turned out before the baking, tasted much better. Cooking it on the stove top also frees up the oven for the main course. With all the preparations going on for Holy Week Services and Easter Sunday, it is nice to have a go-to recipe to end an evening meal. It is also quite good cold and for breakfast the next morning!
Stove-Top Rice Pudding
1 cup uncooked rice, not the quick-cooking variety, I like Uncle Ben's Rice
½ cup granulated sugar
3 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Dash ground cloves
Combine the uncooked rice, sugar and milk in heavy-gauge cooking pan. Cook over a medium to high heat, stirring constantly until it comes to a boil. Immediately reduce heat, cover and simmer very gently (approximately 30 minutes) or until milk is just about all absorbed. It doesn't hurt to lift the lid and check frequently, especially if this is your first time out! Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and spices. Can be served hot, warm or cold. If you double the recipe, you may have some left over for breakfast!
If you are looking for a more substantial pudding with a fruity flavor, you can add a cup of coarsely chopped apples. Mix chopped apples with a dash of brandy or squeeze of lemon and a sprinkling of sugar before stirring into pudding after it has been cooked. A family that likes raisins would probably welcome a quarter cup of rum-soaked raisins dumped in when the pudding is set to cool down.
Remember that the apples and/or raisins go into the rice pudding after the pudding is cooked. If you put them in at the beginning, you will have a curdled mess!
Friday, April 6, 2012
Our Strange World of Fading Morality . . .
I always find it thought-provoking at how situations are handled and laws applied in our various States here in the USA. The latest news reports that Pennsylvania is cutting down on abortion clinics with good news especially for Allentown. Mississippi looks to become an abortion-free state. That's not to mean that women will not still seek to terminate their pregnancies but will have to travel out of state to do so which might be just enough time for the expectant mother to reconsider her decision. How little these women think about the fact that while they are exercising their reproductive rights, they are actually taking away the same rights from the child they carry within. With all the promising news on the pro-life front, there is California . . .
With all it's excessive taxes, government interference, anti-business orientation, California always seems to be on the cutting edge of self-destruction. According to the last report, California is still trying to push through a bill allowing non-doctor assisted abortions. Seems to me that enough abortion clinics with doctors are botching abortions on their own. We don't need to add to the mortality rate among babies and women.
And then, according to the latest news from LifeNews.com, the 'Catholic' university of Notre Dame is working towards it's 'third strike'. Their first strike was having the president speak at their graduation. Sad that a 'Catholic' institution would invite an advocate of abortion, a man who voted against the Born Alive Act as a Senator. Seems he made his stand on the subject pretty well-known. The second strike for the university is offering summer internship programs with pro-abortion organizations. I'm more scared than curious about what will be their third strike against life and the Catholic Church they pretend to represent.
Naturally, prayers should be offered each and every day for the tiny martyrs that are killed before their time each and every day. Prayers for the Catholics that put politics ahead of their Faith when they go to the polls on election days. Prayers especially on the day Christ suffered and died for all of us that we can turn the hearts of the ones that still want to inflict horrible deaths on the most innocent.
Christ died for our sins and it is getting easier and easier to understand why He went through such horrific torture as the sins of today could not even have been imagined at that time in history . . . except by God who offered his Son for our chance at redemption.
With all it's excessive taxes, government interference, anti-business orientation, California always seems to be on the cutting edge of self-destruction. According to the last report, California is still trying to push through a bill allowing non-doctor assisted abortions. Seems to me that enough abortion clinics with doctors are botching abortions on their own. We don't need to add to the mortality rate among babies and women.
And then, according to the latest news from LifeNews.com, the 'Catholic' university of Notre Dame is working towards it's 'third strike'. Their first strike was having the president speak at their graduation. Sad that a 'Catholic' institution would invite an advocate of abortion, a man who voted against the Born Alive Act as a Senator. Seems he made his stand on the subject pretty well-known. The second strike for the university is offering summer internship programs with pro-abortion organizations. I'm more scared than curious about what will be their third strike against life and the Catholic Church they pretend to represent.
Naturally, prayers should be offered each and every day for the tiny martyrs that are killed before their time each and every day. Prayers for the Catholics that put politics ahead of their Faith when they go to the polls on election days. Prayers especially on the day Christ suffered and died for all of us that we can turn the hearts of the ones that still want to inflict horrible deaths on the most innocent.
Christ died for our sins and it is getting easier and easier to understand why He went through such horrific torture as the sins of today could not even have been imagined at that time in history . . . except by God who offered his Son for our chance at redemption.
Blessed Good Friday . . .
O My people, what have I done to thee? or in what have I afflicted thee? answer Me. Because I led thee out of the land of Egypt, thou has prepared a cross for Thy Savior . . .
What more ought I to do for thee and have not done? I planted thee, indeed, My most beautiful vineyard: and those are become to Me exceeding bitter; for thou hast given Me vinegar in My thirst; and with a spear thou has pierced the side of thy Savior.
Roman Missal, Good Friday, reproaches (Improperia) sund during Adoration of Cross. (ca. 7th century)
What more ought I to do for thee and have not done? I planted thee, indeed, My most beautiful vineyard: and those are become to Me exceeding bitter; for thou hast given Me vinegar in My thirst; and with a spear thou has pierced the side of thy Savior.
Roman Missal, Good Friday, reproaches (Improperia) sund during Adoration of Cross. (ca. 7th century)
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