DIY Superhero Birthday Party Part 1: Planning

Do It Yourself Superhero Birthday Party

Part One: Planning

Before anyone thinks I'm really nuts, which I'm not discounting, for going all out on my soon to be 6 yo's birthday party, let me give you some of his birthday history.

My little dude turned the big one a few days after Hurricane Katrina hit, and we lived slightly north of New Orleans right where the eye sat for hours. So there we were, evacuated and living as refugees at the house of some wonderful friends, not knowing if we had a house, if my husband had a job, or if many others in our extended family were even alive. Not the most festive of environments.

Fast forward a year, and my little dude turns 2 when we're living across the country in New England, again in the home of another magnanimous person. We have no friends near us, he has no family at his birthday other than his siblings and parents, we're uncertain day by day as to where we're going to be living and pretty broke. Again, not festive.

He turns 3 in style with a nice party with many of our awesome friends, but not really any kids.  For 4 and 5, we've moved again, and most of our friends live too far to come down for an ordinary birthday. Throughout all, he has not once complained. He's a very kind hearted and generous little dude. But at 6, he should finally get the birthday party to make up for all the rest.

I let him make out the invitation list. We want it to be his friends and people he knows there, but he does ask his little bro who his friends are to make sure that they're invited too. (Told you he is sweet!) Then we spend an afternoon thinking up a theme, planning activities and designing the fun - all with his help and final approval (though I do tell him that once he makes up his mind and we start planning, he can't change it - and yes, he has tried).

Step One: The Theme
The first thing we did was figure out an overriding theme. Even if you want Superheroes or Scooby Doo, you still need a focus, an idea which all activities, decor, food, etc revolves around. If one were to have a Scooby party, for example, the theme could be the Case of the Disappearing Presents.

After hashing around several ideas that included mainly Batman, the Teen Titans, Robin, and other DC guys, we decided upon . . .

Superhero Training Camp
Sponsored by Batman

Step Two: The Invitations
Yes, even these are a DIY. We found the perfect jpg for the front of the card. Then I came up with our own text.

Calling all heroes . . .
Please come to my 6th birthday party / Superhero Training Workshop
To train to be the world’s best Superheroes!!

Birthday Superhero: child's name
Training Date: 01/01/2020
Training Starts: 1200 hours
Training Center:
123 Main Street,
Any Town, AB 12345
RSVP: 123-456-7890 or
youremail@something.com

Superhero costumes optional for both adults and children.

With a little messing around with MS Word, my printer, card stock and my paper cutter, I made some cute little cards. In the end, using Print Shop would have been simpler.

Step Three: Planning the Activities
Don't fret - I'll go over these one by one in individual entries. But all those brainstorming lessons learned in basic writing courses finally paid off. We spent about 3 hours throwing out ideas, looking up what others did on websites, and just going creatively crazy. After all that, we had about 40 ideas of activities we could do. So I set up some categories to lump them into.

Throughout this whole planning stage, every time I was overwhelmed or distracted, I would come back to the theme. How does this idea fit into a "Superhero Training Session?" It helped me narrow down our choices. No matter how cool the activity was, if it didn't fit with the theme, than we moved on.

What we ended up planning was, a basic itinerary for a training session:

•  Warming Up (games to play while the kids arrive)
• "Bat, Bat, joker" (duck, duck, goose). New kids can join the circle as they come.
• Bat-Tag, like freeze tag

• Gearing Up (creating the tools you'll need to be a Superhero)
• Recruiting a side-kick (making superhero felt puppets - these are really cool! Pic on right.)
• Cape decoration: picking your superhero symbol and painting it on your cape
• Mask: making what you need to keep your secret identity a secret
• Bat-a-rang deco: using colored sharpies and stickers to decorate boomerangs (made from blue cell foam and duct tape - see pic below)

• Physical Training
• Obstacle course

• Bat-a-rang toss: tossing your decorated boomerangs into a cardboard villain
• Capturing Catwoman with water (cats hate water!): Catwoman is painted on a piece of paneling board with little tacks on her fingernails, then tossing water-balloons at her (and possibly each other).
• Mr. Freeze Game: Red Light / Green Light, but instead of "it," Mr. Freeze uses his freeze gun to freeze those moving.
• Superhero Hippity Hop Race: a relay race with teams using Hippity Hops.
• Aquious Blaster Practice: using water guns

• Defeating the Villain
• Joker Pinata: I don't think heroes should be the pinatas. If you're going to beat on something with a baseball bat, it should be a bad-guy

• Fueling-Up
• Food & Presents

• Graduation from Training Camp
• Graduation Medallion: Cookie Bouquet type cookies, but instead of sticks, wrapping them in plastic wrap and hot-gluing wide ribbons to the back to make them into "Medal Cookies." The cookies can be large round ones with Superhero symbols on it.
• Certificate of Achievement
• Party Favors: I'm figuring, between the puppets, masks, capes, boomerangs, medal cookies and certificates, a simple bag in which to carry everything home will be fine.

One Last Thing: Sources
Before I detail out how to do most of this step by step, let me give credit to the many sites where we found inspiration:
http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/batman_party.html
http://www.executivehomemaker.com/batman-birthday-party/
http://learningcontinually.blogspot.com/2009/02/cheap-batman-birthday-ideas.html
http://www.birthday-party-ideas-101.com/batman-birthday-party.html

Now I've got to go. I have still so much to do. And wait until you see the cake!!!

Pink Lemonade - All natural, no dyes!

This recipe came about because my oldest daughter loved pink lemonade growing up, but she's allergic to red food dye.  It was a hot summer, maybe 4 years ago, and my kids really wanted pink lemonade. So this was the result.

All Natural Pink Lemonade Recipe
Yields 1/2 gallon (2 quarts)
Ingredients

• 1 cup lemon juice
• 3/4 to 1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
• 1 pint strawberries, fresh or frozen - and they can even be too soft and wilty to eat
• 1/2 cup blackberries, fresh or frozen
• water

Directions

This is a great way to use up those strawberries that haven't gone bad, but are too soft to eat raw.

In a blender, add the lemon juice, sugar, strawberries and a bit of water. Blend until it's pureed. Pour it into a 1/2 gallon container.

In the same blender, place the blackberries and some more water. I usually keep a bag of frozen blackberries in the freezer just for this recipe. Puree the blackberries to a fairly smooth consistency. Add them to the container, and then add enough water to fill the remainder. Stir and drink.

It may get foamy, but the foam will go away. The strawberries add that pink lemonade flavor, but the blackberries really give it the color. And my kids don't miss that powdered pink stuff.

Very Simple, but very yummy, Potato Soup Recipe

For some reason I felt a little weird today, conscious of the act of dressing up my food and making it pose. Look, here it is in a bowl I never use for soup, like that dress I have in the back of the closet I never wear just to stay home.  I don't why, but it felt weird.

I'm always looking for foods that most of my family will eat. If 4 out of 5 of my kids will eat it, plus myself and my husband, then we have a winner. One of those is my very simple to make, potato soup. From nothing in the pot or on the counter to finish is less than an hour. Closer to 45 minutes.

And even my three year old eats it. Although tonight he protested the need for a spoon and simply ate it using the bread as a scoop.

Potato Soup Recipe
Ingredients

• medium yellow onion
• 3 pounds organic potatoes (I'll tell you why they should be organic later)
• 1 to 2 TBSP olive oil
• 1 to 2 tsp salt or bullion of your choice
• 8 to 12 oz Colby Jack cheese
• Corn starch (optional)

Directions

There will be lots of pictures with the directions, probably more than words. But hey, I've written two blogs in as many days. I'm happy with me!!

Slice up your onion into smallish pieces.

In a large pot, place 1 to 2 TBSP olive oil on medium/low heat. Put the onions in the pot and cover. You're pretty much going to sauté / steam them until they are pretty clear. It'll take about 10 minutes. Keep the lid on, but give them a stir every minute or two. You don't want them to burn, which is why you're using a lower heat, but you want them fully cooked before you start the soup. That way, you get the onion flavor, but the onions will pretty much dissipate in the soup itself. So you won't have that onion texture.

They are not done here. Still too white, not clear enough.

Now they're done. Can you see the difference?

While the onions are cooking, peel and wash the potatoes.  Now cut them into chunks like this:

Slice them in 1/2" slices in one direction. Put the rounded ends to the side to cut separately.

Stack the slices up, and cut those into three or four sections.

Now turn them in the other directions and slice into 1/2" cubes.

You may not be finished with the potatoes when the onions are done, but go ahead and put an inch or so of water in the pot with the onions and turn the heat up to medium / high. Add the potatoes as you finish chopping each one.

When all of the potatoes are chopped and in the pot, make sure the water just barely covers the chopped potatoes.  Add the bullion or salt (you're choice), and bring the mix to a boil, which it may already be doing. Once boiling, lower to heat to med/low and put the lid on the pot.  It'll take about 20 minutes for the potatoes to cook.

Meanwhile, grate the cheese.  Grate more or less cheese depending upon your preference. I usually use the whole 12 ounces.

You'll know when the potatoes are done when the water gets really starchy and the potatoes start to "melt."  Remove the pot from the heat, and add the cheese and stir until melted.

At this point, it's done.

If you like a thicker soup, you can add a little corn starch to thicken it up. The corn starch will lump up if you pour it in. I used a wire mesh, but a sifter will work fine too. One to two tablespoons will thicken it up fine. Just sprinkle a bit on top, and then stir.  It takes a minute or two after you add it for it to take effect.

Now, why I use organic potatoes. I was going to explain the whole thing, but just google "potatoes non-organic" and you'll find out.

Banana-Bread Bread Pudding

I'll get a better picture tomorrow.

No, there's not a mistake in the title. It's Bread Pudding with chunks of Banana Bread! My latest creation, and it turned out so yummy, we had it for dinner. (okay, we also had other things for dinner, but it really was good)

The unwanted heels of banana bread.

The idea of this dessert came from the problem of dealing with the heels of bread. I make a batch of banana bread or pumpkin bread, and no one wants the heels. They're dry and sometimes a little overcooked. So I started saving the heels and storing them in zippy bags in the freezer. The idea is that once I save up enough, the weather cools down from this intense heat, and I find bread on the discount rack at the grocery, I'll use it to make bread pudding. So happens, that these three events occurred this week.

I've reduced the size of the recipe I actually cooked, because chances are that you are not cooking for the small hoard I live with. I don't think you really need 15 lbs of pudding!

Banana-Bread Bread Pudding Recipe with Grand Marnier and Rum Sauce

Bread Pudding Ingredients

• 3/4 pound stale bread
• 1/4 pound banana bread heels (that's the heels from about 1 loaf)
• 4 eggs
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 butter (1 stick), melted
• 3 1/2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 TBSP cinnamon
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped

Bread Pudding Instructions

Slice both the stale bread and the banana bread heels into small 1/2" by 1/2" chunks.  Remember, the banana bread is more dense than regular bread. It will look like you have much more normal bread than banana bread. (Of course, you'll have much less than this. I'm working with 2 1/2 pounds of bread here.) Once sliced, set the bread aside.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Make sure that an oven rack is in the middle. Grease a 9" by 13" baking pan. I also lay a piece of baking parchment on the bottom for easier removal. Put a little grease on that too.

Break the eggs into a very large mixing bowl and whisk a bit in order to break the yolks. Add the bananas, butter, milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. (I'm assuming that they are already melted, mashed and otherwise prepared.)

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, mix on medium until well blended. It should look like the picture on the left.

Now you're going to add the breads and nuts. Think of this process as a layering, like when you make a trifle or 7 layer dip, only here you're repeating.  On top of the liquidy stuff add a layer of bread (a few handfuls), a layer of banana bread and a sprinkling of nuts. 

Then using the whisk, dunk it into the gelatinous goo. Keep repeating until you run out of bread and nuts, trying to pace yourself so that each layer will have some of each. Then swish it around the goo and let it sit a minute to absorb some.

For this next part, I use gloves since I hate scrubbing raw egg out from under my nails. Using your hands really is the easiest way to do it. With gloved hands, grab handfuls of the gooey bread and place it in your prepared pan. It will puff up a little while baking, but not much.

The top one has been used, the bottom one has not. It's about done.

Cook on the middle rack for an hour to an hour plus 15 minutes. You'll know it's done when you insert a toothpick and it comes out without gooey chunks sticking to it (see right).

Meanwhile, while the pudding is in the oven, let's start on the sauce.

Grand Marnier and Rum Sauce Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 TBSP vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup Grand Marnier (or other liqueur)
• 1/4 cup dark rum
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

 Grand Marnier and Rum Sauce Directions

In a medium sauce pan, put all of the ingredients but the butter. Simmer on low for about 45 minutes, until you can no longer taste the alcohol. Of course, if kids aren't eating it, you can stop simmering whenever you want. It will be a lovely amber color. DO NOT let it boil. You don't want your sauce reaching any kind of ball stage.

Remove it from the heat and add the butter, giving it a stir until it melts. Let it cool.

Bread pudding, like cheesecake, is best if given time to sit, like overnight. But I admit, this stuff was pretty darn good right out of the oven.  I'm hoping there is some left for Friday when we're having friends over for dinner.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe

Is it pumpkin pie? Is it a cheesecake? No, it's the wonderful love child of the most perfect pumpkin pie and the most delicious New York style cheesecake!  How can this be? Well, actually, I lost my recipe for the pumpkin cheesecake I've been working on for the last year, and so last night while improvising, I created this masterpiece!

The only problem with posting it now is this recipe yields a-lot. I made one for my house, one to freeze for later and one for a friend. I thought about recalculating it  for a smaller yield, but I don't like posting recipes I haven't made at least once, even recalculated ones. I'll recalculate it later, and then re-post it. Until then, you are welcome to make 3 cakes or you can give a go at resizing it yourself.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe
Yields: 3 9" cake pans of cheesecake

Crust Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (that's about 2 sleeves from a box of graham crackers)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 2 TBSP melted Butter

Crust Directions:

• I use a rolling pin and a large zippy bag to crush the graham cracker. It's the simplest, least messy way that I've found.
• Combine the crumbs and sugar in a medium mixing bowl with a large fork.  Once combined, as you are stirring with one hand, drizzle the melted butter over the mixture. Then mix until well combined.
• Divide the crust mixture evenly into 3 9" round cake pans. Use the flat bottom of a cup to press the crust flat, making sure there are  no bare spots. Now sets crusts aside (do NOT pre-bake)

Filling Ingredients:

• 7 - 8 oz. packs normal cream cheese * (that's 3 1/2 pounds cream cheese!)
• 6 eggs
• 1 1/2 - 15 oz cans pumpkin puree = 22 oz pumpkin (you can store the leftover 1/2 can in a zippy bag in the freezer until you make this again, or use it for something else)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp group allspice
• 1 cup sour cream

Filling Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• The cream cheese and the eggs HAVE TO be room temp - that is a 70°F room, not a 50°F room! If they are not room temp, they will not blend as well, and your cheesecake will be lumpy. 
• In a very, very large mixing bowl, place the cream cheese. Mix with a hand or stand mixer on low until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, blending well on low after each one. Scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula between each item mixed.
• Add the pumpkin puree. Again, blend on low until the mixture is well mixed. (You may want to use a higher speed, but don't!). Again, scrape the sides with a rubber spatula.
• One item at a time, add the sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and sour cream, blending well on low between each. And again, scrape the sides with a rubber spatula between each item.
• Divide the filling evenly between the 3 cake pans, smoothing flat with a rubber spatula.
• Place pans in the over trying to get them as close to being in the middle area of the oven as you can (both top to bottom and side to side).
• Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until the sides look done and start to pull away from the pan. The middle may still look giggly, but it don't overcook it.
• Refrigerate for at least 5 hours, or preferably overnight. Can be served with whipped cream (that's real whipped cream, not that spun corn stuff sold in tubs) or eaten plain. 

It is sooooo goooood!!!!!!

*  A note about which cream cheese to use. When making cheesecakes, use the normal, full fat cream cheese. NOT the low fat or the Neufchatel . Anything less than full fat won't make a good cheesecake. If you are worried about the fat content of your dessert, make it when going to or having a dinner party and share it with lots of people. They'll thank you and your cake will be better.

Red, White and Blueberry Cake

What would the 4th of July be without some very decadent dessert to enjoy after the barbecue?


Step 1: The Pound Cake
The term pound cake didn't mean that the cake weighed a pound or that you gained a pound by eating it. It referred to the original recipe: 1 pound each of butter, sugar, flour and eggs.

Pound Cake Recipe
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups butter, left to soften at room temp (that's 3 sticks!)
• 8 oz cream cheese, left to soften at room temperature (that's 1 pack)
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2 cups cake flour
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (real, not artificial)
• 1/2 tsp almond extract (real, not artificial)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 8" round cake pans. You might consider flouring them as well - mine stuck a little.
Now place the butter, cream cheese and sugar in a large mixing bowl. You can chop the butter into smaller pieces. Mix on low until creamy and all of the lumps are out.

If your ingredients are not soft and at room temp, at this point you'll realize why they should be. It won't mix properly unless it's soft. If you did good and set your ingredients out a few hours ago, it'll start to look like this picture.

One at a time, add the eggs to the butter mix. On low, stir well between each egg. Okay, so I did 2 eggs for this pic. But I did stir really well between them. And I did one egg at a time after that.

In a separate bowl, mix your dry ingredients together (both flours, salt and baking powder). I like to use a little tubby that has about twice the capacity as the dry ingredients. I put them all in, pop the lid on, shake it up and it's nice and mixed. I hate sifting - very tedious work.

After all of your eggs are mixed, gradually add the flour mix about 1/4 to 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well between each addition. Once it's all mixed, add your extracts. Your batter will be pretty thick by now.

Pour half the batter into each 8" round cake pan. Smooth it out even with a rubber spatula. Place them in the oven on the center rack. Cook for 40 to 60 minutes until a tester when inserted comes out clean.

That means poke it with a wooden toothpick or bar-b-que skewer. If the toothpick or skewer comes out with batter stuck to it, it's not done. Stick it back in and try again in 10 minutes. It's okay if a little cooked cake comes out on the stick, but I hope you can tell the difference between cooked cake and cake batter.

See how golden it looks - but not burnt. That's important. Don't burn it!

Now, it is July, and it's hot. So I baked the cakes last night, let them cool, and then popped some saran wrap on them to finish this morning. You can store it in the fridge, but I didn't have enough room. Leaving it on the counter is fine too, as long as it's wrapped well.

Step 2: The Whipped Cream
It is NOT cool to use Cool Whip! Making fresh whipped cream takes minutes, and the flavor is divine. Don't cheat!

Whipped Cream Recipe
Ingredients

• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• 2 TBSP powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

I recycle as much as I can. So use a couple of those take-out containers you get when you order Egg Drop Soup. A large sour cream or ricotta cheese container also works. Pour all of the ingredients into one.

This container is the perfect size to fit your ingredients and your hand-held beater. Turn the beater on low to mix the ingredients fully. Now pour half of the mixture into your second container (once the mixture gets fluffy, there's not enough room in one).

Whip it with the hand mixer on high. It will start getting thick in about a minute (like in the picture on the right), but it is not yet done.

Keep beating it. It will get thicker and start having the ability to form soft peaks, like in the picture on the left. But it's still not done.

Keep whipping it. Eventually, and probably not as long as you would expect, it will have the ability to form stiff peaks - that means when you pull the beaters out of the cream, the cream can form a peak (like a mountain peak) and the tip is nice and pointy. I have a heck of a time getting a picture of one (see right), but you should get the idea.

Now it's done.

Step 3: Assembly

The cake should be completely cool before you start assembling. Otherwise the whipped cream will melt. With a large bread knife or a cake leveler, level the cake. That means cut the bumpy part off and set it aside on the "cake scraps" plate for those people who come in the kitchen asking for a piece and if you're done yet.

Flip the cake over so that what was the bottom side in the pan is now the top side. Now you can see what I meant about needing to flour the cake pans. It didn't stick horribly, but if I wasn't as good at getting cakes out of the pans as I am, it would have been a cake wreck.

Spread a layer of whipped cream on the top (about 1/3 of the total whipped cream mixture).

Now we are going to add fruit in so that the weight of the top layer doesn't squeeze out the whipped cream from the middle. Place strawberry chunks and blueberries so that when pressed into the whipped cream, they don't stick up too much. These will act as pillars to keep the top layer from pressing too much on the bottom layer.

Now level the other cake round and place it on top of the first so that the side that was on the bottom in the pan is now on top.  Spread another 1/3 of the whipped cream on top. This will leave 1/3 of the whipped cream leftover.

Make sure that leftover 1/3 is pretty stiff (remember stiff peaks). If it's gone soft, beat it again with your hand mixer until it's nice and stiff.  Now place your largest star tip in an icing bag, nip the end off the bag, and scoop the remainder whipped cream (nice and stiff) into the bag. You are going to make a border and a dam for the fruit on the top of the cake. Just squeeze a little, and then pull up. Move over a bit, squeeze a little, and then pull up. It makes a simple star flower that adds a nice touch to the cake.

At this point, while you are busy with the fruit, keep the cake refrigerated so that the whipped cream doesn't go soft.

Step 4: Simple Syrup over the Fruit

You can skip this step and just add blueberries and chunks of strawberries to your cake top, or you can make a simple syrup for the fruit first.

A simple syrup is a one to one (1:1) ratio of sugar and water.  I used 1/4 cup of each. Add them to a small pot, bring it to a simmer and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, rinse your blueberries and strawberries (about 2/3 to 1 cup of each). Slice up the strawberries and pour both into a ceramic bowl. Once the syrup is done, pour it over the fruit. Stir it until the syrup coats all of the fruit. Pop it in the fridge until it is very cool, otherwise it will melt the whipped cream.

Once cool, use a slotted spoon to strain the fruit out of the bowl, letting the excess syrup drain back into the bowl. Arrange the fruit on top of the cake. Discard the extra syrup.

It was so yummy!! The cake is fairly heavy, which I love, but you can also cut it with some vanilla ice cream.

1/2 Brown & 1/2 White Rice Rice-Pudding Recipe

I promised to post this several days ago and just haven't gotten to it. But it did give me time to make 2 more test batches.

I love rice pudding!  It's one of the few perfect foods. Versatile: it can be tweaked for almost any type of food allergy (except for rice). It can be improved upon and made healthier or can be made to be ridiculously bad for you.

But any way you cook it, it's YUMMMM! I'm working on a 100% Brown Rice Rice-Pudding Recipe, but it's not quite ready yet. So until then . . .

1/2 Brown & 1/2 White Rice Rice-Pudding
Yields: 2 to 3 servings (can be doubled, but it will increase the cooking time slightly)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup Brown Rice (I like Jasmine Brown Rice, but any should do)
• 1/4 cup any Long Grained White Rice (I used White Jasmine rice for this, but any long grain should do)
• 4 cups Milk (I use whole, but any kind can work, even almond or rice milk)
• Pinch of salt (a really tiny pinch)
• 1 Egg
• 1/4 cup brown or normal sugar (your choice)
• 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/3 cup Raisins (or other dried fruit - I like dried cranberries!)

 Directions

1. In a medium sized sauce pan, with a heavy bottom (no judgment here. Seriously, heavy bottomed sauce pans are a good thing.) place both types of rice, the milk and the pinch of salt. While stirring often, on Medium-High heat, bring to a boil. Make sure you do stir regularly or the rice will stick to the bottom and the milk will scorch.
2. Reduce the heat to low/simmer, and let the mixture simmer with the lid on for a total of 1 hour. Adjust the heat slightly higher and lower to make sure the mixture stays at a simmer, not a boil and not an "almost simmer." 
3. How often to stir once the lid is on and it's simmering (make sure the lid is securely on when not stirring): 

• 0 to 10 minutes: stir every 2 minutes.
• 10 to 30 minutes: stir every 5 minutes.
• 30 minutes to 1 hour: stir every 8 to 10 minutes
• Why? The steam caused by the simmer is necessary to cook the rice, so we are trying to lift the lid as seldom as possible. But milk and rice tend to scorch, so you have to stir. This method of gradually increasing the time between stirs seems to work the best.
4.  While the mixture is simmering, in a small mixing bow, whisk together the egg and sugar until it looks well blended.
5. Once the hour is up, the rice should be cooked, but there should be liquid left. Pull out a grain or two of both types to test it. If they are still crunchy, place the lid back on and recheck in 10 minutes. If there is no liquid left, heat 1/2 cup milk in the microwave or in a small pot. Then add this milk to the rice mixture.Once the rice is done, remove from heat.
6. Now, temper the egg mixture. That means you want to bring the temperature of the egg mixture closer to that of the rice mixture before mixing them. It helps you not have "scrambled eggs" in your pudding. Plus it encourages the egg to mix better with the rice mix in order to thicken it. Temper the egg by adding the hot rice liquid a tablespoon at a time to the egg mixture, until you have mixed about 1/2 cup with the egg. While you are adding the liquid, whisk the egg mixture. It should start looking like the pic below.
7. Next pour the tempered egg into the sauce pan with the rice mixture while whisking. Keep stirring until fully incorporated. Replace the lid, place the pot back on very low heat and let it sit for 10 minutes. Make sure that it does NOT come to a boil or even a hard simmer. You are just thickening it at this point and letting the egg temp increase to kill off any germs.
8. After 10 minutes, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla, cinnamon and raisins (or other dried fruit). Put the lid back on and let it "rest" for about an hour. Then pour it into a storage container and place it in the fridge to chill for at least 12 hours.
9. Final step: EAT!!! It is much better chilled, but you can eat it fresh.