Psst

Sometimes I think the Babcia is hanging around the edges of purgatory, whispering things in peoples' ears like Milquetoast the cockroach. Example one: Polackpappy has purchased a chest freezer much like the chest freezer the Babcia used to keep on her porch. I have not peeked inside Pp's cold storage, but I imagine that like the Babcia's it contains freezer-burnt ice cream, and fish sticks.


To be fair, when I was a kid and Babcia was still alive, PP kept a chest freezer with fish sticks in it in the barn. But that was over 20 years ago.

While the Babcia has been saying "Jasiu, stock up on Klondike bars!" to Pp, she's been telling me to make rice pudding. Which I've been avoiding, because it involves purchasing stuff I normally don't: white rice and whole milk. And because she didn't write down the recipe.

She did show me how to make it once. This involved me trailing her as she cooked up a bunch of rice, dumped it in the rice-pudding dish, sprinkled raisins on top, put milkeggssugarnutmeg in a blender and whirred it, poured that over the rice/raisin mixture, and baked until the custard set.

On my first attempt I used jasmine rice and not enough custard. It wasn't any good. I had to throw it all out. Which made me feel like I was lighting a ten-dollar bill on fire.

Tonight I decided to try again. I used Uncle Ben's this time - only to discover it had worms in it. Worms that were squirming after I'd cooked the rice.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeccccccccchhhhhhhh.

Then I discovered I didn't have raisins or nutmeg. But I did have a surfeit of eggs AND a surfeit of nervous energy so I tossed out the Uncle Ben's and the worms, washed everything, and tried again.

I had to use jasmine rice and craisins, so it won't be authentic. I went for a 1-cup-dry-rice/1-pint-whole-milk/half-cup-sugar/six-eggs ratio and didn't measure the craisins. The custard set, and it looks more Babcia-y. It's cooling on the counter right now. I'll let you know how it tastes later.