Rice Pudding and Mrs Meta Berg

The other day I reached in the cupboard for some rice and accidentally grabbed the risotto rice. I couldn't figure out why the cooked rice was so gooey and not at all dry and fluffy. It didn't quite fit the meal, so into what was left, I dumped a bunch of milk and a little sugar and vanilla and let it sit on "low" for an hour. It soaked up all the milk and ended up making the MOST delicious rice pudding ever. I've been a huge fan of GOOD rice pudding since my grade school days in a tiny village in North Dakota. Mrs Meta Berg cooked all the hot lunches and believe me, EVERYTHING was from scratch. I went back there for a visit as an adult and located her. She was amazingly, still alive although probably at the far end of her 90's. I asked her if I could have that rice pudding recipe she used to serve at the school. She took a piece of paper and wrote it out in a very shaky hand... It started out with "about 3 pounds of good rice"... and other approximations. At the end she noted that she always like to add "a good amount" of butter as it cooled. No wonder I loved it! She served it in little bowls with a shake of cinnamon on top. I always do the same, but now that I've figured out that for me, the secret is using risotto rice, I'm going to add that butter at the end, and think of Mrs. Berg as I savor it

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