notbob wrote:
> I was thinking I could do something with the leftover rice that came
> with my Chinese take-out, as I hardly ever eat it. I'm not a big rice
> fan. I'm always craving something sweet late in the evening and I've
> always like puddings but am usually too lazy to fix any. But, I saw
> something about rice pudding and ....well, you can figure the rest.
> So, I did it. Raisins, real vanilla bean, cinnamon ...the whole nine
> yards. Even let it chill. Guess what. Still tastes like suck-O
> leftover take-out rice. YUK! (I tossed the whole batch)

I don't think very good rice pudding can be made with already cooked
rice. Left over Chinese take out rice is really only good for fly
lice, or in tomato soup... even before it was cooked it already
absorbed all the pungent cooking aromas of a Chinese kitchen, none of
which the delicate aroma of vanilla bean will cover. I almost always
end up tossing that left over rice out into the yard for the birds...
you wasted like $5 worth of ingredients, not to mention all your time
and labor, attempting to salvage like 3¢ worth of stale rice.

The problem with pudding is it really doesn't pay to go through all the
trouble to make it from scatch for only a serving or three, and it
doesn't store well for more than a day or two so making a tubful is not
a good option unless you have hearty eaters about. The last time I
made tapioca pudding from scratch I prepared six quarts, not realizing
how filling that stuff is, couldn't eat much more than like a cupful at
a sitting... I was lucky my next door neighbor had a passle of grand
kids visiting that day and they all love tapioca pudding, so none got
wasted.

You need to keep some snack puddings around...
JELL-O makes an instant rice pudding mix:
http://www.kraftfoods.com/jello/main...family_pudding

Sheldon