It all began when I was in eighth grade and was responsible for bringing a Cuban dish for a party we were having in Spanish class. My mom pulled out an old dog-eared recipe card holder full of her family’s old recipes. She found my great grandmother’s recipe for arroz con leche and handed it to me. It seemed simple enough, so I made it for class and brought it the next day. I figured I had stumbled upon something important when my fellow students politely picked at all the other dishes and my arroz con leche was inhaled by everyone immediately. So, I started making it every year for my family for Christmas. I had to wrap it up in little containers to give them out individually because if I put it out with the other desserts at our Christmas dinner, people would complain about it being gone before they could have some. After a few years, my cousin surpassed me in cooking skills and I was more than happy to pass the baton in making the arroz con leche every year.
