Honey Rice Pudding

Rice pudding is one of the best desserts in my opinion.  It's rich and creamy, slightly sweet, and all around delectable. I'm a huge fan of sweetening it with honey, 1 because it makes a pretty drizzle over the finished product and 2 I like the taste of honey. Simple as that!

I'm pretty sure the recipe I use and am posting here is something I originally augmented from a Martha Stewart recipe a while back, if anyones interested :)

Recipe

3 1/2 c Whole Milk

1/2 c Arborio rice(or other short grain variety)

1 tbls sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

dash of salt

4 tbls honey(plus some for drizzling later on)

Cinnamon for dusting

Put the milk,rice,sugar,vanilla, and salt into a pot and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat and let the pot simmer, stirring often, until the rice is plump and soft and all the liquid is absorbed. This should take about 30-35 minutes but then again everyone's stove top heats differently so just make sure to pay attention while you stir.

Take the pot off the heat and stir in the honey, until a evenly mixed in.

Serve up the pudding in wine glasses like I did or in small glass bowls, drizzle with extra honey and dust the top with cinnamon.

Steel Cut Oats Oatmeal

This steel cut oatmeal takes a while to make but it's totally worth it, it's all rich and browned buttery tasting. Toasting the oats in butter makes the entire mixture have this lovely nutty flavor and it comes out delectably thick and creamy.

 And by the way my favorite Steel Cut Oats come from Bob's Red Mill from right here in Portland, Oregon!

Recipe-

3 c water
1 c milk
1 tbls butter
1 c steel cut oats
1/4 tsp salt

Bring water and milk to a simmer in a large pot at medium heat.

In a large pan heat up the butter, just as the butter begins to foam pour in the oats and let them toast a while, constantly stirring with a wooden spoon until the oats are golden, 1 1/2-2 minutes.

Stir the toasted oats into the simmering liquid and reduce the pots heat to medium-low. Simmer gently until the mixture thickens and resembles gravy, about 20 minutes.

Now add the salt and stir with a wooden spoon handle(its suppose to chunk up better this way) continue to stir occasionally for the next 7-10 minutes as the whole mixture thickens into a proper oatmeal texture.

Take the pot off the heat and let the oatmeal cool uncovered for a few minutes before serving.

My Favorite Topping Combos:

1)
Frozen Blueberries
Honey
Cinnamon
Toasted Almonds

2)
Brown Sugar
Cinnamon
Butter

3)
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Honey

German Pancakes

Sheesh! it has been a crazy couple of days for me! My houses floors were redone over the weekend which meant that for three days we lived in the basement because the fumes were unsafe in the upper-levels  This was of course a major pain in the butt, I'm pretty sure I had breakfast three of the four mornings at my favorite local coffee shop(but damn do they have good bagels+ you can get salmon cream cheese!) Then yesterday I started yet another new year of college with an easy one class day but getting there and home again was miserable because we are having a crazy bout of rain here in beautiful Portland as we get hit with the remnants of China's typhoon from last week. Now I know most of you are shaking your head and asking 'doesn't it rain in portland all the time?' Now you are partially right, late fall through spring it rains here A LOT, however normally it doesn't start until the end of October and most importantly we do not normally have such intense incredible deluges like we have been having for the past 4-5 days.

 So anyways today was the first day we were allowed back into the newly redone house, and it looks beautiful, so I decided to make a super yummy breakfast for just myself before running off to school all day and I decided on german Pancakes and Morning Star Farms veggie sausage links. I may not be a vegetarian but I love these sausage links, their just so good and in all honesty I cook them in bacon grease which probably just makes them that much better! ;)


My recipe for German Pancakes is a pretty basic one, but it works every time and my secret ingredient is a touch of cinnamon. As you will see i offer up two size options as far as quantity of food, in the pictures i made the smaller portion size which is written out at the bottom of the post.

In a bowl mix

1/2 c flour

1/2 c milk

3 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

a dash of salt

use a whisk to mix it all up, don't worry about the chunky bits of flour that float at the surface.

Just make sure you beat well and some chunkies are fine :)

put an 8x8' pan with 1 tsp butter in the oven as it preheats to 425 degrees. Take the pan out and swoosh around the butter to coat the pan before you pour in the pancake mix.

Bake the whole thing for 20 minutes and it will puff up perfectly on the sides and get a little crispy while the center stays thick and perfect.

Serve up piping hot with lemon juice and powdered sugar.

A smaller serving of this recipe can easily be made with:

1/3 c flour

1/3 c milk

2 eggs

1/2 tsp cinnamon

dash of salt

Bake in a loaf pan instead of the 8x8 and voila!