Rice pudding, as promised

I swear, there is nothing more comforting than rice pudding. I made some yesterday, and when Logan, Jody and Sean stopped in to say good-bye on their way from the cabin to the airport, I forced them to to eat some . . . . and then I had to make some more. I'll put the entire recipe below, but first, take a look at the pudding-in-progress.

First you cook the rice, milk, sugar, lemon zest butter and salt for about 45 minutes.

Then you mix three eggs and vanilla until it's all frothy and bubbly.

Then you put about 2/3 of the rice and milky stuff into the frothy eggs and vanilla, for reasons that are unknown to me, and then return the entire thing to the pot on the stove, and cook it until it's creamy--about 15 more minutes.

And then you put it in a bowl and refrigerate it until cools down a little bit. When you're finished, it looks like this, but only for a few minutes because you'll want to eat it while it's still kinda warm--and depending on how much comforting you need, you may eat a lot of it.

Grandma Rose's Rice Pudding

(Don't ask me who Grandma Rose is.)

2 quarts whole milk

1/4 teaspoon lemon zest

1 cup converted long grain rice

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons butter

Pinch of salt

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a large saucepan, bring the milk, lemon zest, rice, sugar, butter and salt to a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally, making sure the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pan. [I've made this rice pudding a bunch of times, and it always takes more like 45 minutes--otherwise it's too thin and liquidy. Maybe it's my stove?] Taste the rice after 30 minutes; it should be tender. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla extract until frothy. Slowly stir 2/3 of the hot rice into the egg mixture. Return the rice and eggs to the saucepan with the remaining rice and on low heat, stir the rice constantly for 5-8 minutes until creamy. [Again, this always takes more like 15 minutes--otherwise, it's too liquidy.] Pour into a 2 quart shallow dish, sprinkle with cinnamon, an refrigerate until ready to serve.

And in weather news, what a difference a day makes! Look at what happened to my beautiful maple tree over night.

And here is the ground beneath the tree. Thank you for your year of faithful service, maple leaves.

I thank you.