Bulgur pudding with honey and dates

**This is not a gluten-free recipe and was posted before I eliminated gluten from my diet.**

I already mentioned the first cookbook for March, but here's the second: "Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way" by Lorna Sass. I feel like I have great history with this book, even though I looked at it for the first time in September. It was my first primer in cooking the "weirder" whole grains. I really like the layout of the book. The first half is detailed info about each grain (different forms of each grain and how to cook and store each). There are tons of great tips throughout this section. The second half of the book is recipes that highlight one of the grains. So far everything I've tried is wonderful, so you'll be seeing a lot of it this month. To start off, here's a dessert I tried tonight with the little bit of bulgur I needed to use up.

Bulgur pudding with honey and dates (adapted from "Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way")

1/4 cup bulgur (fine or medium grind)

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp honey

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

1/4 cup dates, chopped

1 Tbsp raisins

Combine bulgur and water in small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring frequently, until water is absorbed (about 5 min). Add milk, honey, and cinnamon and bring back to a boil. Simmer over medium heat until it develops the consistency of porridge (about 5 min). Stir in walnuts, dates, and raisins. Serves 2.

Wow. Delicious and very filling. It tastes like a much sweeter, nuttier version of oatmeal, and it was so good that I ate it straight out of the pan. It doesn't make a whole lot (I quartered the original recipe because I only had a little bit of bulgur left), but once I started eating it I filled up quickly and have some left for tomorrow. It's rare to find a dessert recipe in a "regular" cookbook that uses 100% whole grains and natural sweeteners, so I was sure to jump on this one. That was definitely a good decision.