Laura Wilson

Rice Pudding 

This one is from my great aunt Ruby. My aunts were Ruby and Edna, two sisters who lived together their whole lives. They raised my grandmother when their eldest sister, Zella, died in childbirth. They lived on Sand Mountain in Alabama. We went to their house on Sand Mountain every Sunday, we would drive from Chattanooga. And we’d get there and there’d be a big spread, and you started eating in the morning and they’d put out more food throughout the day. 

We called Ruby “Bebe.” She did the sweets and Edna did the savory. They wrote all of these recipes in these little books—they had lots of them. And you can see from her handwriting, as the book goes on, the letters get bigger. You can see the pages where she started to struggle with Alzheimer’s. 

Ruby passed at 86 and Edna when she was 98. Edna’s husband Ambus Morris lived with them, too, all three of them together. Ruby never married. 

Aunt Ruby always made rice pudding. She made two versions because my Uncle Smitty didn’t like the lemon. So, she’d make one with lemon and one without. It was always just comfort food. I remember them making everything. Their dining room was beside the galley kitchen. It was not a huge house but then there was a big concrete picnic table outside where we’d eat.

I don’t really make this often but my mom does. It’s not terribly seasoned. It’s not sweet. It’s just a comfort.