Another recipe that I wanted to share with the family is "ARROZ CON DULCE" (Spanish Rice Pudding). I know you have one already in the Family Cookbook, but I wanted to send my version also because it differs a little bit from the one in the Cookbook. I want to tell you that Mamy's Arroz con Dulce was the best and I remembered the first Christmas we had after Mamy and Papy moved to California from New York - it was the saddest Christmas I can remember. Not only were they not with us but we didn't have pasteles nor arroz con dulce and who have ever heard of Christmas without pasteles or arroz con dulce. That was unheard of. Soooo, Lucy, Rosie and I decided to start a tradition among ourselves and started making pasteles a few weeks before Christmas with the help of Steven, Susie, Peter, Vicki. Michelle was too small but she also tried to help. We did it for a few years and enjoyed it very much until we found out that buying them was much easier. I decided to check cookbooks and to investigate about the arroz con dulce. I had watched Mamy make it, so I had an idea but didn't know the quantities or cooking time. I took information from various recipes together with what I remembered from watching Mamy and I put it together and this is the closest I came to Mamy's Arroz con Dulce. I make it every Christmas now - we must have "Arroz con Dulce" because, Christmas without "Arroz con Dulce" - unheard of.  I'm going to try to translate it as close as I can (I don't measure the spices, I do it by sight) but here it is:

	Dessert: Titi Ruthy's Arroz con Dulce
		Ingredients 1 Cup of Short Grain Rice (long grain it's no good for this) 1¼ Tps. Salt 1 Can "Coco Lopez" or Coco Goya" (Cream of Coconut with Sugar) 6 Cinnamon Sticks ½ Cup Raisins ¼ Cup Whole Anise 5 Whole Cloves 1 Piece of fresh Ginger about4"long (crush the ginger a little so the flavor comes out better)
	Instructions Soak rice in a small bowl covered with water while you prepare the rest. In a pot put 4 cups of water and boil the spices - cloves, cinnamon sticks, anise and ginger - for about  15-20 minutes to get all the flavor out. In a pot, where you are going to cook the arroz, add 4 cups and 2 oz. of strained spiced water, add the Cream of Coconut, salt, I add a little bit of sugar and taste (the sugar & salt taste has to be just right, Mamy used to say "tiene que estar al punto", I know exactly what she meant but I don't know if I can explain it clearly to you - it has to have a good balance and that's the secret, so taste and add salt until you feel that it has reached the punto.) Take a cup of the liquid and put it aside to be used later. Heat liquid until it starts to boil, drain rice and add to liquid. Cook uncovered at low heat for 30 minutes. Turn rice, add raisins and cup of liquid that you put aside. Cook at low heat for 40 minutes more. Turn rice every 10 minutes. Taste rice, if done (rice should be well cooked) serve on a platter and let cool. Sprinkle lightly with Ground Cinnamon if desire. ENJOY!!!!!! FELIZ NAVIDAD!