a sweet-tooth turned savory

I'm someone who finds great pleasure in planning a delicious meal, and I love trying out new things. The night before last, as I was making rice with dinner, I decided to make a little extra to satisfy a craving for rice pudding. "This is perfect!" I thought, "it'll be even better than Kozy Shack!" I had heard before that it's better to use leftover rice, so it seemed fitting that I was out of milk. "No problem! I'll pick up some milk tomorrow!"

For the next 24 hours, rice pudding existed as the only reason on Earth to buy milk.

As I ran through my mental lists, they all seemed to end with "oh, and then I'll swing by the grocery store and grab a carton of milk! Better get some milk if I'm to make rice pudding! Isn't rice pudding delicious? Pudding!"

You can only imagine the relief those close to me were going to feel when this current tangent was over.

Finally, the hour had arrived; it was pudding time. I had never tried this before, so I found a recipe online:

- 1 1/2 cups of cooked rice
- 2 cups milk (divided)
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 egg, beaten.
- 2/3 cup raisins
- 1 tbp butter
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

I combined the rice with 1 1/2 cups of milk and 1/3 cups sugar and then let it thicken on medium heat for about 15 minutes. Once it was good and creamy, I added the other 1/2 cup of milk, the egg, and the raisins. After a couple of minutes, I removed the pot from the heat and added the butter / vanilla.

It smelled amazing. Topped with cinnamon, it was exactly what I had been longing for. Naturally, a dessert as exciting and highly anticipated as this deserves the perfect tea companion, so we brewed up some chai before finally sitting down to enjoy.

I noticed immediately that there were far too many raisins in this recipe. When they advertise this recipe as "rice pudding", what they mean to say is "raisin pudding". I wasn't offended however; it just so happens that raisins are amoung some of my favourite things. It was divine.

About an hour later though, I started to feel a bit off; my head started to feel heavy, my stomach felt strange, and my energy level had tanked. I was suffering from something I rarely experience now as an adult; the ultimate sugar crash.

Imagine the worst hangover possible, and then imagine never having been drunk in the first place! What gives? Is it true? Have I officially traded in my youthful body for one that can't handle an innocent sugar high?

This morning, I was so turned off by the idea of sugar that I basically ate onions for breakfast. "No waffles for me thanks. Peanut butter? Forget it. I'll start my day off right, with some onions, some butter, and some black coffee."

The next time you see me skipping through the grocery store, anxious to get my hands on a carton of milk, I best be using it to make some kind of macaroni and cheese dish or something. And if you choose to follow in my footsteps, I'd cut down on the raisins.