My Corner of the World...

My corner of the world leads back to my kitchen this week. And, to rice pudding!!!

Growing up one of my loves was rice pudding - and in my family there were two ways of making it! My grandmother (father's side) was from Pennsylvania - so her rice pudding was baked in the oven! It was dense and had a baked custard that came to the top. It was very good.

My mother's side of the family made rice pudding that was creamy and delicious. It was made on top of the stove. My mother just made it and there was no written recipe. She just knew how to do it - like instinct!

Since we lived in Tampa with all the Cuban and Puerto Rican restaurants around, my mother's style of rice pudding was the one we ate the most. (My mother was born in Puerto Rico)

Since Christmas I have been making my mother's type of rice pudding. No, unfortunately she did not give me the recipe...but, I received the recipe through a new cookbook that was given to me by Scarlett for Christmas.

The cookbook is called Estefan Kitchen: Authentic Cuban Recipes by Emilio and Gloria Estefan. Now I have to say - celebrity cookbooks usually aren't all they are cracked up to be - but this one - Oh, it is right on.

These are the foods that my mother cooked in our kitchen and the foods that I ate at every restaurant in Tampa, FL that had Hispanic food! This recipe book is like having my mother write down all her recipes!

So here is a bowl of my rice pudding - complete with a little cinnamon sprinkled on top! It felt like I was at my abuela's house (Spanish - for grandmother) in Aquadilla, Puerto Rico.

You can bet that I will be cooking a lot of things out of this cookbook!!!

So, what's happening in your corner of the world?