Tangelo-Tangerine Pudding

I know it is going to be very hard to believe, but we are on our 4th snow day here. My kids are getting so used to sleeping in and playing on the giant ice skating rink that is now our yard, that I don't think they will ever want to get up early and go back to school. The sun has come out though, so we might get some of this thick white stuff melted today.

I remember as a kid/teen, my Dad always buying a large box of grapefruit or other citrus sometime in December. He would put the huge box in the basement or garage and all the members of my family would go and get the delicious citrus whenever we wanted to. It seemed like the box lasted forever and the fruit from it was always so good. There is something about citrus fruits in the winter.

So, in honor of that memory and also because I was craving some delicious citrus, this December I bought a half-bushel of citrus from someone that I know, who was doing a school fundraiser. When the goods arrived, I couldn't believe how big a half-bushel is. I had more than my fair share of tangelos, tangerines, clementines, and a few grapefruit. The clementines and grapefruit were devoured first, while some of the tangerines and tangelos gave my kids a little trouble because of all those darn little seeds.

Anyway, some how I saw this picture and I knew that the remaining tangelo/tangerines must be juiced and turned into this beautiful pudding. I don't know why the color of my pudding isn't as orange and beautiful as that picture, but the taste I am sure was the same. Delightful.
There isn't much too this dessert, but it is so refreshing. My entire family loved it.



Of course, as soon as I made this pudding and put in in the fridge to chill, I went outside and checked the mail. The new Cooking Light had arrived and it contained a modified version of this pudding.

I used this recipe-
Recipe for Tangelo-Tangerine Pudding
* I added an extra Tablespoon of sugar at the beginning
* I used the optional butter
* I omitted the orange rose water

And a modified version from this month's Cooking Light- Citrus Pudding with Whipped Cream

Orange Rice Pudding

I have this thing for rice pudding. Thanks to Tuesday's with Dorie, now whenever I see a recipe for rice pudding, I have an urge to try it and compare it to Dorie's recipe. I think that rice pudding is pretty much always on the light side as far as desserts go, even if it is made with whole milk, but this was a lighter version I saw in Woman's Day Magazine. I love the combination of orange and cardamom, so I put this little dessert on the menu.
We liked it. I still think that Dorie's recipe is the best one I have tried, but this one was good. If you don't like cardamom or aren't familiar with it, I would reduce the amount or go with cinnamon. I really love cardamom and can't get enough of it, so I thought is was a great combination.
I recently stocked up on Arborio rice since I have fallen in love with risotto and rice pudding. Great stuff, that arborio. I can't wait to try more rice pudding.

Orange Rice Pudding from Woman's Day
Active Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 5 hours
INGREDIENTS
2⁄3 cup Arborio rice

8 cups water

Pinch of salt

4 cups protein-fortified fat-free milk

3 Tbsp each packed light brown sugar and granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1⁄2 tsp grated orange zest

1⁄4 tsp ground cardamom or cinnamon
PREPARATION
1. Place rice in sieve. Rinse under cold water, stirring with fingers to remove excess surface starch. Place in a 5-qt saucepan with water and salt, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and boil 7 minutes, or until tender. Drain rice; return to pot.

2. Stir milk and sugars into rice, stirring to dissolve sugars. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low to maintain a slow simmer. Simmer, stirring frequently at first and constantly toward the end, for about 25 minutes, or until rice doubles in size, is very soft and tender, and milk has the consistency of heavy cream (mixture will be very liquidy).

3. Pour into a bowl; stir in vanilla, orange zest and cardamom. Cover surface of pudding with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool. Refrigerate until chilled, about 4 hours, before serving.

Orange Rice Pudding Parfaits: For each parfait, spoon 1⁄4 cup orange rice pudding into a glass, then top with 3 orange sections, 1 Tbsp thawed reduced-calorie whipped topping and 1 tsp fat-free butterscotch caramel topping. Repeat layers

Up Next- Roll-ups with Peas, Turkey Bacon and New Potatoes

TWD- Arborio Rice Pudding- White, Black, and Pumpkin Pie

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Arborio Rice Pudding, White, Black (or both), was chosen by Isabelle of Les Gourmandises d'Isa. If you are interested in the recipe, which you should be, go visit her blog. In the recipe, Dorie suggests that you can make vanilla, chocolate, or both flavors of this rice pudding. Since I haven't ever made rice pudding and I don't really remember ever eating it, I decided to try both and why not throw another flavor combo in there as well. A couple of weeks ago over at Picky Palate, Jenny made Spiced Pumpkin Pie Rice Pudding. Since I love pumpkin anything, I decided to use her idea for 1/3 of this rice pudding. I followed Dorie's directions and luckily read after she commented on the TWD P&Q page, so I knew the book had a typo. You have to keep this bubbling on the stove for 55 minutes, not the 30 mentioned in the book. After it had done it's time, I divided it into 3 as equal as possible portions and stirred 1 oz. finely chopped bittersweet chocoate in 1 bowl, 1 tsp pure vanilla extract into another bowl, and 2-3 Tbls. pumpkin puree, a large dash of cinnamon, a small dash of ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and ground allspice, into the third bowl. I divided the contents of each bowl in half and put the pudding into little dessert dishes, covered them carefully with plastic wrap, and put them in the fridge to wait the 6 hours.

The pudding thickened a bit, I don't know if it was enough? Maybe it was a little soupy- I think it appears soupier than it was?, but it still tasted good. All of the flavors were wonderful, although I think the pumpkin flavor was my favorite. I don't know if it ended up being as thick as it is supposed to be, but my mom approved and she used to have rice pudding alot growing up. She said her mom always baked it in the oven- hmm? Anyway, she preferred the vanilla flavor. My daughter loved all the flavors, so basically you can't lose with whatever combination you decide to go with!

Go to the TWD Blogroll to see what other flavor combinations the rest of the TWD crew came up with!

Up Next- Mini Calzones and Italian Seasoned Roasted Veggies!

You Want Pies with That? Fashion Edition, Southern Style- Banana Pudding Pie

I know absolutely nothing about Fashion.

So when I saw that this month's theme was Fashion, for You Want Pies with That?, I was stumped. The only thing I could think of was taking a dessert/pie that could represent " a little black dress" (traditional, familiar, standard, etc- you see where I am going with this, right?) and adding a little pizzazz to it. We had some visitors over for dinner and I was doing a Southern Meal, so looking through one of my Southern Living cookbooks, I found this twist on Banana Pudding. Banana Pudding is a traditional southern dessert that is usually vanilla custard, layered with sliced bananas and Vanilla Wafers and topped with meringue. This "twist" is turning Banana Pudding into a pie, by adding a Nilla Wafer crust and layering the pudding ingredients in the pie. Sorry if you think this is lame, but it was the best I could come up with! And if it makes you feel any better, the pie was delicious!

This was a hit with our visitors and hopefully fits as a Fashion Statement- taking a simple, traditional dessert and turning it into a "fashionable" pie!

Banana Pudding Pie from Southern Living

Prep: 20 min.; Bake: 24 min.; Cool: 1 hr., 30 min.; Chill: 4 hr.

Hang on to your egg yolks--you'll be using them in the

*Vanilla Cream Filling

1 (12-oz.) box vanilla wafers, divided

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 large bananas, sliced

Meringue

4 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar

1. Set aside 30 vanilla wafers; pulse remaining vanilla wafers in a food processor 8 to 10 times or until coarsely crushed. (Yield should be about 2 1/2 cups.) Stir together crushed vanilla wafers and butter until blended. Firmly press on bottom, up sides, and onto lip of a 9-inch pieplate.
2. Bake at 350° for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack, and let cool 30 minutes or until completely cool.
3. Arrange banana slices evenly over bottom of crust. Prepare *Vanilla Cream Filling, and spread half of hot filling over bananas; top with 20 vanilla wafers. Spread remaining hot filling over vanilla wafers. (Filling will be about 1/4 inch higher than top edge of crust.)
4. Beat egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer until foamy. Add sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time, beating until stiff peaks form and sugar dissolves. Spread meringue evenly over hot filling, sealing the edges.
5. Bake at 350° for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven, and let cool 1 hour on a wire rack or until completely cool. Coarsely crush remaining 10 vanilla wafers, and sprinkle evenly over top of pie. Chill 4 hours.

*Vanilla Cream Filling

Prep: 5 min., Cook: 10 min.

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

4 egg yolks

2 cups milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Whisk together first 5 ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, 8 to 10 minutes or until it reaches the thickness of chilled pudding. (Mixture will just begin to bubble and will be thick enough to hold soft peaks when whisk is lifted.) Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla. Use immediately.

Coming Tomorrow- Cooking Light Night--Roasted Butternut Squash and Bacon Pasta

TWD- Chocolate Pudding

This weeks Tuesday's with Dorie pick was chosen by Melissa of It's Melissa's Kitchen. You can find the recipe on her blog or check out this LINK to Dorie's blog where she posted it as well. I thought it was a great pick. I like pudding, but haven't ever really wanted to make it from scratch. I knew it would probably be a little like making a custard or pastry cream and I was surprised at how easy it was. I read ahead of time that Mara made it with half whole milk and half 2% milk and it still came out really creamy, so I used half whole milk and half 1% milk. Dorie suggests in the book that something crunchy makes a nice topper for this, so, some of us went for Candy Coated Chocolate Covered Sunflower Seeds (notice above). I had some that I use occasionally for cake decorating, and they really gave a nice little extra something. Some of us opted for Cool Whip,
And some people just had to have it all.

Then there were the people who wanted it naked.
This was a big hit for everyone. I had to beat my kids off with a stick to try and get some pictures. There were hands everywhere. It was thick and creamy, chocolately and rich. Just a few bites were enough to leave you satisfied. I love it when you can have just a little bit of a sweet treat and it is so good, that you savor a few bites and that is all you need. Dorie is amazing. I love this cookbook. If you don't have it, do yourself a favor and buy it- I seriously use it for everything!

Green, Green, and more Green

My fave lunch- a yummy salad. This consists of red leaf lettuce, red and black beans, low-fat cottage cheese and sunflower seeds

Our one pot St. Patrick's Day Dinner- I am not a huge fan of beef, but this was very tasty and quite pretty.

St. Pat's Beef and Veggies (from Better Homes and Gardens)

1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp. coarse-grain brown mustard
1-1/2 lb. boneless beef rib-eye steak, 1-1/4- to 1-1/2-inch thick
2 Tbsp. cooking oil
4 medium carrots, peeled
1 large red onion, peeled, cut in wedges
32 oz. reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 lb. new potatoes; halve if large
1 lb. packaged fresh spinach

Directions
1. Stir together sour cream and mustard; cover and refrigerate. Heat oven to 170 degrees F. Heat 12-inch skillet over medium-high. Coat beef with1 tablespoon oil; season with salt, pepper, and 1 teaspoon sugar. Brown in hot skillet 4 minutes,turning once. Transfer to platter; set aside.

2. Add remaining oil, carrots, and onion to skillet. Cook and stir 5 minutes, until browned. Add broth and potatoes; bring to boiling. Reduce heat; cook, covered, 15 minutes, until tender. Return beef to skillet. Simmer, covered, 8 minutes for medium (10 minutes for medium-well).

3. Reserving broth in skillet, transfer vegetables and beef to oven-safe platter; keep warm. Simmer broth; add spinach. Cook and toss with tongs 3 to 4 minutes.

4. To serve, ladle broth in bowls; reserve some to drizzle over meat and vegetables. Divide beef and vegetables among plates. Serve with mustard sauce.
Makes 4 servings.

Pistachio Pudding Mini-Pies
Our completely Irish Dinner
Pistachio Pudding Mini-Pies

2 4-oz pkg. pistachio pudding, skim milk, mini graham cracker crusts, Cool Whip, sprinkles

make pudding according to pudding pie directions;fill crusts and chill until ready to serve. Dollop with Cool Whip and add sprinkles!