To say I am a lemon fanatic would, undoubtedly, be an understatement.  I have lemons in my fridge, on my counter and everywhere in between all year. I don’t just toss the lemons once the pumpkins hit the stores. I can not get enough of them and my BFF Pam  is the same way. She adores lemons… as a matter of fact, this bowl I photographed was for her. True story.

This pudding is good without the strawberries but I love to add them, especially this time of year when I have summer evenings on my mind. I am overly excited for backyard conversations and games of Marco Polo in the pool… yeah, we are getting a new pool… kinda tickled about that…. You can also omit the lemon and just add brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins… but I will save that for Autumn.

 2 cups grain white rice
3 cups milk     1 cup water
4 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoon salted butter
Pinch of salt
One 8-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Zest of 2 lemons  and the juice of 1 lemon
2 large eggs beaten well

5-7 strawberries, diced small for garnish

Put the rice into a large saucepan
Add the milk, water, cream,
butter, salt and stir well.

Bring the mixture to a gentle boil
over medium-high heat, cover and
reduce the heat to  med- low to simmer.. I set my oven timer and stir every 3 minutes .

Cook 20 to 25 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed and rice is creamy .

Remove from the heat

Add the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and lemon zest and
juice and stir well.

Return to the heat and cook for 6 more minutes.

Then turn off the heat completely.

Mix in the egg slowly and stir constantly.

Let sit for 15 minutes. While is sits dice up strawberries very small and zest another lemon for garnish. Add the berries JUST to the top of your pudding once you have served it in bowls, you don’t really want the berries to cook, top with zest and serve.

Store leftovers in fridge for up to 3 days. Good cold too!