Leftover Rice, Rice Pudding

I adore rice pudding. Love it!
We had leftover rice from some mediocre Chinese food last night and I needed to finish off the meal on a positive note, so I went searching for a non-dairy rice pudding recipe that was sinple and delicious. While I didn't find one exactly right, I was able to come up with my own.
Turns out, my dairy-free daughter doesn't like rice pudding so I could have used cow milk. Oh well.

Enjoy!

Leftover Rice Rice Pudding

1 cup leftover cooked white rice
2 cups milk (any kind - I used almond milk)
1/4 cup sugar
small pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch nutmeg, optional

Combine cooked rice, milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and stir in the vanilla. Cook until just about all of the milk is absorbed. Stir in cinnamon and/or nutmeg, if using. Divide rice pudding into individual serving dishes serve warm or chilled. Makes one big bowl, which for me was pretty much 2 servings but that just depends on whether or not you want to share.

From Trash to Treasure - arm warmers!

I bought my husband some new dress socks for work at the outlet mall a couple weeks ago. He tried one on, and it had a big hole in the heel. One sock out of 3 pairs, so it wasn't really worth the 40 minute drive back to the outlet mall to exchange it. So...I had this brilliant idea on how to reuse that particular sock.

My husband likes to destroy things when he throws stuff away, so he was beginning to cut up this defective sock. I caught him just after her cut the foot off..... "gimme that!", I said.

I pulled it onto my 5 year old's arm and asked her where the thumb should go. She showed him, and he cut a tiny slit (not a hole) for her thumb to stick out. Viola! Arm warmers...just like Baby Legs or Hanna Andersson, only waaaay cheaper. But still super cool. At least, my 5 year old daughter thinks so.

Arm Warmer Instructions:

take a sock, cut the foot off

cut a small slit into what would be the top of the sock

the cut portion will be slightly looser, that goes at the top of the arm (cuff it, if need be)

You can even go nuts if you really know how to sew and stitch up the cut portion, sew in a cuff, add some embellishments...I just saw a bedazzler at CVS for $5, I *knew* I should have picked that up! You can also make one for each arm, but around here, we prefer the rock star look with just one.

Guilty Pleasures

I had a wonderful dream last night.

I dreamt that Nabisco created a new flavor of Cakester....orange! You've never had a cakester? Oh boy. Let me tell you, the golden ones are divine. And I imagine that if there were an orange flavor, it would be even better! I can still see it in my mind, a little pale orange cake with fluffy, sweet white filling....

Of course, I think I'll have to go out and get a Hostess cupcake - orange flavor - instead. It won't be the same, but after I peel off that nasty "frosting" layer, it should do the trick.

Pajamas

My 5 year old is a great kid, and she totally cracks me up because she's both smart and witty. Case in point, last night I asked her to get her jammies on. She decided, after being unable to locate a proper pair of pajamas, to come back to the kitchen wearing only panties.

She then declared that she was going to sleep in her "nude jammies". My husband has coined the term for these as "skin jammies".

Whatever you call them, she's wearing them again tonight.

It's the Little Things

It's raining.
It's also the 4th of July.
Bah.

But...
I love the sound of the rain gently falling on the trees in my backyard.
I love how it gets just a bit (or sometimes a lot) darker outside during a rain shower.
I love the smell of fresh rain.
I love that my daughter gets just a bit more snuggly when the thunder claps.

So I guess it's not all that bad to have rain on the 4th of July.