Guilty Pleasures: Baked Rice Pudding

Everyone has a guilty pleasure. Mine tend to be desserts. One of my all time favorites is rice pudding. Not just any rice pudding but the old baked recipe found in my mom's old church cookbooks. Some of my favorite recipes come from those old church and community cookbooks. 

I have made this recipe a few times as a young adult, but when I got married and started collecting recipes I love, I tried to find this recipe again and failed. My mom and I both looked through all the old and worn blue cookbooks and came up empty handed. This sent me on a quest to find the recipe online. After serching everywhere, I finally came across the recipe from Paula Dean. Finally I light at the end of the tunnel!

I cannot tell you how excited I was to try it out and even more excited that it actually turned out! Nice warm bread pudding right out of the oven on a cold winter night is such a great joy.

Baked Rice Pudding from Paula Dean

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked rice
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-inch glass baking dish.
In a large bowl, stir together first 7 ingredients. Spoon into prepared baking dish. Place baking dish in a large pan; pour water into the pan to a depth of 1-inch. Bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until lightly browned and set. Combine cinnamon and nutmeg; sift over top of pudding. Cool slightly and cut into squares to serve.

(I stir mine every 15 minutes or so as I remember the original recipe called for so I can't cut into squares but scoop it out.)

Cookie Cutter Christmas

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is cut out cookies. It is usually the one thing besides decorating the tree that we do together. It takes most of the day to mix, cut, bake, decorate, and clean up but the memory makes it worth it.
This year I tried a new recipe I found through Pintrest. My husband loved it. It uses cake mix and since I know he loves Funfetti cake and cookies, I chose that cake mix.
 I of course had to make the cookies I have made every year and my mom made every year since I can remember. It's an old family recipe from one of those old church cookbooks sitting in my mom's kitchen. These are my all time favorites.
 So grab your kids, make some cookies and while you are at it, make some memories.


Cake Mix Cut-Out Cookies from Goodnessgracious.com

• 1 Box Cake Mix
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Stick Slightly Softened Butter (Not Margarine or Light Butter)
• 1 t Vanilla

Instructions

1. Mix ingredients well.
2. Chill dough for 2 hours (Edited to add: Freeze for one of those hours for best results).
3. Roll out on floured surface and cut with cookie cutters.
4. Decorate as desired.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes on a greased/lined cookie sheet

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup margarine
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup sour cream
5 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla

Cream shortening and sugar. Add beaten eggs and vanilla to sour cream. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and soda; add alternately with liquid to creamed mixture. Chill thoroughly. Roll out and cut. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

(Any dough you are not using, put back in the refrigerator. Keep it chilled for best results.)


Frosting from Allrecipes.com

• 2/3 cup butter, softened

• 4 cups confectioners' sugar

• 2 tablespoons milk  

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

• 4 drops red food coloring
  In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, confectioners' sugar, and milk until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and food coloring. Spread on or between cookies.

Guilty Pleasures: Carmel Apple Cake

I love Pintrest and I love trying new recipes I find on Pintrest. With it being fall, apples and pumpkins are everywhere and in everything. I don't mind at all. To me pumpkin and apples are the best things about fall. I found two recipes that I've tried the past two weeks. 

The first is a caramel apple cake from Paula Deen. I received many compliments from my family. It is a very rich cake and defiantly a guilty pleasure. I came across this recipe on Pintrest from a wonderful blog called The Charm of Home. 





Carmel Apple Cake

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 1/2 cups diced apples, canned or fresh

Preheat oven 350 degrees.  Cream together sugar, eggs, and oil.  Add flour; mix together until well blended.  Add vanilla, nuts, and diced apples.  Spread into a lightly greased and floured 
13 x 9-inch baking dish; bake for 45 to 60 minutes.  Cake is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  When cake is done, punch holes in it with a knife and pour topping over.

Caramel Topping:

(I cut all of this recipe in half as the recipe appears on The Charm of Home, it was just way too much butter and sugar.)  This is the cut in half version.

1 1/2 stick of butter

1 cup of brown sugar

1/8 cup of milk

Heat all ingredients together over medium heat.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Let boil for about 2 minutes.  Pour over warm cake.

Serves 15-20