Vale Nora Ephron

As a tribute, here's her recipe for bread pudding, from her novel Heartburn, which we have in the cookbooks section;

 Recipe: Caramelized Mush Bread Pudding

 Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter, softened
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk (Eagle Brand)
1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 loaf good bread, torn in chunks
1 cup raisins
6 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons vanilla

 Method: With an electric mixer in a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until well mixed and add the eggs one at a time. Add the milk with the mixer on low then add all the remaining ingredients except the bread. Remove from the mixer and and then dump in the torn bread. Mix briefly and carefully. Pour into a large buttered casserole. Bake in a 350° oven for 2 hours. Stir thoroughly from bottom to top, including the sides, after the first hour. Serve with cream, although it is rich enough to eat all by itself- the cream actually breaks up the sweetness. This is really rich so serves perhaps 8-10.

Heartburn, the book :http://www.amazon.com/Heartburn-Nora-Ephron/dp/0679767959/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315548405&sr=1-1

It was the first time I'd run into the term 'sticks [of] butter' , which I didn't see in the flesh till much later; I ended up overbuttering, making even more rich. Quarter pound, about 1/8 kilo. So two sticks, quarter kilo.

It is wonderful, and now I have gluten intolerance I can't make it any more.

Actually, hold it, I've got the recipe from an untrustworthy source.  I distinctly remember that  Ephron didn't say 'good bread' - she specifically said crap bread, worse the better.  Back online.

Evolutionary Backwaters

Rain in art

OK, is this the first representation of rain in Western art? Fourteenth century.

So how much

would my millions of readers advise me to go up to for this gem?