I was lucky enough to grow up a few doors down from my aunts and grandmother. Most days it was hard to choose where to eat—I usually just followed the smell of roux. Being surrounded by such amazing cooks is definitely the reason why food is such a big part of my life today. I can’t narrow down a favorite dish, but the bread pudding that my grandmother made ranks near the top.

Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce

4 cups torn bread, biscuits, buns

2 cups whole milk

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 Tbl Red Stick Spice Pure Bourbon Vanilla Extract

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

Dash salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13X9 inch casserole dish. Place the torn bread in the pan. In a bowl, combine milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour over bread. Bake until golden brown—about 45 minutes—until the center is just set and barely jiggles in the center.

Quick Butter Rum Sauce

2 Tbl flour

1 cup sugar

½ cup evaporated milk

3 Tbl butter

½ tsp Red Stick Spice Pure Bourbon Vanilla Extract

1 tsp rum extract

Pinch of flake sea salt

In a saucepan, combine sugar and flour. Whisk in the milk and bring up heat to a slow boil stirring constantly—stir for about 2 minutes, until thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in butter, salt and vanilla and rum extracts.  Serve over warm bread pudding.