Paletas de Arroz con Leche

above photo credit: Michael Kraus

Apparently, July broke a Dust-Bowl-era record as the hottest month ever in the continental U.S. Translation: get out your pudding pops!

It's been since last summer that I attempted some manner of iced lolly, and as I've been eating a lot of Mexican-inspired dinners, I figured these paletas de arroz con leche would fit in nicely for dessert.  

Unless you have twelve molds, this recipe will likely leave you with excess, loose, Popsicle meat. The good news is that this can be refrigerated and will become delicious, classic rice pudding.

Appropriately, we enjoyed these cool treats outdoors. The single biggest perk of moving from our one-bedroom apartment in West Hollywood to this house on the east side of town is the backyard. We've discovered this whole crazy ecosystem at work. So, last Sunday, Matt spent the entire day out back with Mavis, and guess what? He took a few photos. So now I can present to you, ladies and gentlemen, a brief photo essay entitled: Things Matt Saw in Our Backyard and One Photo of Mavis Prancing.

1. Mr. Hummingbird (Mrs. Hummingbird? Damaging Fact: my third grade teacher emphatically told our class that hummingbirds never rest or stop beating their wings. Last Sunday, I learned that this was a lie.)
2. Fruit from our newly-planted Meyer lemon tree.
3. Morning Glories (I didn't realize that these aptly-named blooms literally open in the morning and close in the afternoon/evening. Nature is wild!)
4. Three Ink Caps (I think? Any mycologists out there know for sure? If so, are they poisonous? Should I stop force-feeding these to children? Every morning, these delicate, tissue-thin fellows pop up like little Dr. Seuss characters and then completely disappear by noon.
5. Yellow, heirloom, pear tomatoes growing like mad with little effort on our part.
6. Mavis a.k.a. Mavooos, a.k.a. Capital Worm, a.k.a. Goldenridge, a.k.a. Whiz, a.k.a. Whiz Kid (because she's notorious for whizzing out of excitement when we come home, even if it's just one of us coming home and she's been with the other one all day long.) at 10 weeks, on her way to a very important meeting at the other side of the kitchen.

Paletas de Arroz con Leche via Saveur
makes 12 ice pops

3 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
   and beans scraped
1 cup short- or medium-grain rice
2 sticks cinnamon
1  14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
    mixed with 2 cups water
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Bring whole milk, 1 1/4 cups water, and vanilla beans to a simmer in a 4-qt. pot over medium-low heat. Stir in rice and cinnamon sticks and cook, stirring occasionally, until rice is tender, 20–30 minutes. Remove cinnamon sticks and stir in condensed milk mixture, vanilla extract, and salt. Simmer until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid, 10–15 minutes more. Remove pan from heat, stir in ground cinnamon, and let cool slightly.

Transfer mixture to twelve 3-oz. ice-pop molds. Transfer molds to the freezer and freeze until slushy, about 1 hour. Insert a Popsicle stick into each mold and freeze until pops are solid, about 3 hours more. To release ice pops from molds, run the bottom of the molds briefly under warm water.