Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Lightly butter a shallow baking dish about 8-by-11 1/2 inches.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until combined. Beat in the milk, half-and-half, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in the rice and raisins. Pour into the prepared dish and dot the top with the butter.
Bake, stirring every 30 minutes, until the pudding is set and the top is lightly browned, about 2 hours. Serve warm or at room temperature.
(4 to 6 servings)
Patti's pointers: Patience is a virtue, but even more so when you're making rice pudding. The rice takes its sweet time as it softens up. The pudding needs to be stirred occasionally to combine the cooked rice around the edges with the less-cooked rice in the center. If you refrigerate the pudding, let it stand out for about a half hour before serving--chilled rice is hard, and needs to warm and soften up a litt |