Like mother, like daughter!

I love this picture. This is my mum baking raisin biscuits with the Flop last week. It reminds me so much of my Saturday afternoons with my grandma (my mum's mum actually) We would be pretty much doing the same thing - I would be standing on a stool, and she would be baking with me. Not biscuits though, my gran was the Queen of Cakes. I loved baking with my grandma, and it makes me really happy to see history repeating itself, with my daughter baking with her grandma.

I hope everyone had a good time with the fireworks over the weekend. We certainly did. We spent a lovely afternoon and evening with the family.The food consisted of home made french onion soup made by my sister in law Catherine (It truly is the best onion soup I have ever had, I love it!) lots of little cakes made by the children (Well, children is a loose description, since 2 of those children are 18 now!) and my contribution was an oven baked rice pudding, which certainly went down well. So well, in fact, that I didn't get any despite making double quantities!

I really don't think there are any better rice puddings out there than a home made, oven baked one. It beats those tinned ones hands down. My own version is not as soupy as most, in fact it is more like a slice of pudding than a spoonful! But that's the way I like it, and that's the way it is enjoyed in my family. Blame my mother!

So my contribution to Handmade Monday this week is a simple recipe for the best rice pudding you will ever taste.
You need a large ovenproof dish with a lid, a casserole dish is perfect, lightly grease the sides of the dish with butter (and none of this margarine rubbish, this is not a pud for the faint hearted, or those on diets!). Put the oven on at about 160 C.
In the dish put about 2oz of pudding rice - that's the small round rice, 1oz of sugar, 1 pint of full fat milk, and ground nutmeg. Give it a stir, put the lid on, put it in the oven and leave it alone for about 2 hours. You can leave it longer, just make sure it doesn't dry out or become too thick. if it does, add more milk
If, like me, you don't want a soupy pudding, add a little more rice (I add about a handful extra.) You can also add single cream, replacing some of the milk to make up to a pint. I usually finish it off with a bit more cream or milk just stirred in right at the end. Try it, I guarantee you won't be disappointed!

Don't forget to see what everyone else has been up to over on Wendy's blog!

Til next time!