Three cheers for rice pudding!

Every winter at about this time I seem to get a hankering for rice pudding. (It's not even chocolate, which just goes to show I'm an equal opportunity dessert consumer). I think this recipe from Giada De Laurentiis for Rice Pudding with Vanilla Bean, Orange and Rum might be my favorite version. Not only is it delicious but it employs my favorite kitchen gadget: the microplane grater. And just look at all those yummy vanilla specks:

Ingredients:

5 cups whole milk (I use 4 cups skim to one cup whole and it's not as creamy but way healthier!)
2/3 cup Arborio rice or other short-grain white rice
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons dark rum
1 teaspoon grated orange peel (Microplane time! Did you get yours yet??)
Orange segments

Directions:
Combine the milk and rice in a heavy medium saucepan. Scrape in the seeds from the vanilla bean; add the bean. Bring the milk to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the rice is tender, stirring frequently, about 25 minutes. Mix in the sugar, rum, and orange peel. Discard the vanilla bean. Cook until the mixture thickens, 5 to10 minutes longer.
Spoon the rice pudding into bowls. Cover and refrigerate until cold, about 5 hours. Serve with orange segments.

It's really yummy the original way, but just for the record the rum is totally unnecessary. Also, if you don't want to splurge on a vanilla bean, I've used a tsp of vanilla before and it was still good. The hardest part is waiting for it to cool before you dig in!