Nana's Traditional Rice Pudding ~ Made Mini

My 96 year old grandmother has been on my mind a lot lately. She's not been feeling well and after a four day stay in the hospital, she's been spending time recuperating at my Mom's and my Aunt Judy's. Probably like most of us, I can hardly separate my grandmother from her cooking. There's a gene that runs through most of my family (not me) that I call the culinary gene. Nana is a patient teacher though and years ago she taught me how to make one of my favorite desserts, Rice Pudding.

Nana and I on Mother's Day 2010

I don't know what it is about the camera but I always seem to have this "squinty eyed" smile. Ugh! It will have to do 'cause it’s the most recent pic of have of us together.

I've been feeling pretty nostalgic and it just doesn't take much inspiration to send me back to the old days. One reason I'm sure is that I've been compiling a family holiday cookbook with a sort of "Through the Seasons" theme and Nana's Rice Pudding is a must include. The first photo represents how I usually serve it, but look below at some of the beautiful presentations. I'm excited to make the next batch.

Photo courtesy of Smitten Kitchen

Photo courtesy of My Rice is Heavenly

Photo courtesy of Tilda

It's kind of funny, but as I've begun compiling the menus and recipes, I realized that almost every dessert recipe I have made in recent years evolved into mini servings. As I thought about how that occurred, I remembered a Thanksgiving dinner over at my Aunt Ruth's house where my cousin asked if she could have half of a creme brulee and half of a chocolate mousse (which were already individual sizes, but not minis.) Everybody jumped on that band wagon because they didn't want to decide between this dessert and that dessert. Well it made for a mess after a few people took from the dishes, so the next time I brought desserts, I purchased different shaped candle votive candle holders and mini ramekins. They were a hit, and made for a really nice presentation. Everyone was so excited that they could take just one, two, three or more! They could sample everything. That was about 15 years ago and I'm still doing it.