Heaven in a Crockpot

I've been thinking about getting a crockpot -- a nice, fancy one with a timer -- for a while, but learning that my sister makes her own rice pudding using a crockpot sealed the deal.  Rice pudding? That I can throw together and ignore and still have it be fabulous? You mean I can have rice pudding whenever I want it?!?  Oh yes.  I needed a crockpot.  This week, thanks to Costco and my obsession, I finally have one.

Now my sister has her own recipe.  It is good, but it requires cooked rice.  Why would I want to cook rice and then put it in a crockpot for hours?  I went in search of another recipe.  I found three more -- onethat required cooked rice, two that did not, all claiming to be the best and all of them different.  So what did I do?  I combined what I liked about all four into one, plugged the crockpot in and waited.  I think that I can safely say "I've found THE One!"

Recipe

• 1.5 c. long grain (white) rice (I used sweet rice that I bought at the Asian market -- it's not sweet in itself, but it's used for making desserts because of its sticky consistency)
• 2 cans evaporated milk (I used one non-fat, one regular can)
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 5 c. additional liquid (I used 2 c. milk, 3 c. water)
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. melted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• pinch of kosher salt

Mix all together and cook on high for 4.5 hours, mixing once or twice to make sure everything is absorbing evenly. (The mixing probably isn't necessary since it's done at the beginning, too, but I couldn't leave well enough alone.)

This makes a lot of rice pudding -- probably enough for a large (12? 15?) dinner party to have for dessert.  Or I could give in to temptation and eat it all myself...rice and milk's a good dinner, right?

(P.S. Thank you, Nay!)

(P.P.S. Here are the other recipes I consulted: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/slow-cooker-caramel-rice-pudding/7dff925e-9ea1-495e-9417-1f3bcd1a18f8, http://www.food.com/recipe/old-fashioned-slow-cooker-rice-pudding-192661, http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/03/crockpot-rice-pudding-recipe.html)