Pumpkin Rice Pudding

Step 1: In a lrg saucepan, combine the rice, milk, sugar, vanilla bean, orange zest, orange juice & salt. Heat to boiling over med-high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to med-low & cook (stirring occasionally) until the rice is tender & most (but not all) of the liquid is absorbed, approx 20-25 min.

Step 2: Remove from heat, discard the vanilla bean & stir in the pumpkin. The recipe can be made ahead to this point.

Step 3: Cover & refrigerate the cooked rice mixture up to 2 dys ahead. To rewarm, stir in an additional 1 1/2 cups milk & stir gently over med-low heat. Serve warm, sprinkled w/the brown sugar as desired.

NOTE FROM ME - Altho not a part of the recipe, it occurred to me that raisins are often part of most rice pudding recipes. However, this recipe targets the holiday season & I thought it would be a nice touch to add plumped cranberries as an optional ingredient. If you agree, plump them & drain well. Then add them at the same time you stir the pumpkin into the cooked rice.

NOTE #1 ON 1/18/17 - Made a half recipe today using the dried cranberries w/the full amt of pumpkin because I had an excess. It worked fine, so feel free to use the lesser amt of pumpkin per the recipe or increase it as I did. The cranberries are a must IMHO.