Rice and Fruit Salad

Oh my stars, guess who forgot to plug in her post for Thursday????

I blame Dave. He's got this week off and a girl gets positively distracted by all that muscle... the wood piles... the sound of a chainsaw reclaiming my yard at long last!!!

Clearly, it's his fault I'm a dunce and can't keep my days of the week straight if the littlest thing changes.

You would think lists would help, right?

But then you have to find the lists.

Oy.

And you'd think "Wow! Ruthy has a SMART phone. With a Make a List App!!!  Surely she could access that????"

Not when the phone is smarter than the user.

So anyway, here's what should have posted five hours ago:

Rice and Fruit Salad

(The reason for this salad is that we kind of sort of invited ourselves and possibly a few others to a party last Sunday... In doing so, we realized that one Fried Turkey wouldn't be enough and that an extra salad or dish to pass might be in everyone's best interests. In reality, WE WERE CORRECTAMUNDO! So this is the cupboard salad I threw together to balance the decadent chocolate peanut butter chip cookies I brought)

1 can pineapple chunks
1 can mandarin oranges
3 nectarines, chopped medium (skin on)
3 cups pineapple rice made with basmati rice or some rice that is not gooey, Missy!!! (to follow)
2 cups vanilla pudding (I used homemade, recipe below)
1 pint whipping cream, whipped and lightly sweetened

Drain fruit in cans, reserve liquid. Add enough water to make 3 cups. Add 2 tablespoons sugar and a splash of olive oil to liquid. Bring to boil. Add 1 1/2 cups rice to boiling syrup water. Bring back to boil, cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes.

If you're in a hurry like I was because (sigh....) you're on a time frame, chill finished rice in FREEZER. Hey, whatever works, right????

Make pudding while rice simmers:

Melt 2 tablespoons butter
Mix 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup cornstarch. Add to butter.
Whisk in 2 cups milk and 2 egg yolks.

Heat to boiling over medium/medium high heat, stirring constantly while reading Mary Connealy's In Too Deep. (Yes, I'm behind in my reading too! Oy!!!)

Place plastic wrap over pudding and chill in freezer. If you're making this the day before like a normal person, the whole freezing thing isn't exactly necessary.

Whip cream. Taste for accuracy and deliciousness and possible poisonous effects. If no poisonous reaction occurs (and there's still whipped cream remaining), set in fridge until ready to assemble.

You can throw mini-marshmallows in here. A lot of recipes call for that. I don't like when they get all squishy, wet sticky sweet, so I'm not doing that in this recipe. I tried it and liked it better with the less-sweet taste and texture of the rice/fruit/dressing.

NOW:

Mix rice, fruit, pudding together. Fold in whipped cream. Garnish with fruit if desired, or hurriedly pack in car along with apparatus to fry Oreos in beer batter and rush to party. But don't speed!!!! And try to remember they closed Hill Road to replace the old bridge....

But here's the thing: If you bring cookies, delicious fruit salad and make folks fried Oreos while they lounge in the back yard, they're very forgiving.