Rice redux

Several weeks ago (I've been meaning to post this for a while now!) I tried out the idea for Salmon cakes with rice as the filler that Dad posted.  Mine were okay, but not great - I ended up using a different ratio of rice to salmon than suggested, and they ended up a bit tough.  I'm not completely discounting the effect of using canned salmon though - how many times can you cook fish before it's bound to be a bit tough?  Anyway, I made WAY too much rice for the salmon cakes and 3-4 days later was facing throwing out several cups of dried up cooked rice when I decided to try to make up a recipe to salvage it.  What we ended up with turned out pretty well, so I thought I'd share.  I felt all clever about it for a couple days until I remembered the rice balls Mom used to serve.  There's nothing new under the sun, right?  These turned out a bit different than I remember Mom's being - more eggy/cheesy (fatty?) goodness and definitely more garlic!  My measurements are estimates.

~ 3 c cooked rice (I used white).  Add just enough milk to the rice to create a bit of a slurry.  I set this aside and the dried rice soaked up most of the milk.  I figured this couldn't hurt, and probably contributed a lot to rescuing the rice.

Stir in:
~1 1/2 c grated cheese (I think I used a combination of colby-jack, mild cheddar, and maybe a little parm)
Enough milk to make a slurry again (assuming some of the milk was absorbed by the rice)
2 eggs
5-6 cloves of minced garlic (mmmmm, garlic....!) or to taste if you're not as in to garlic as I am, but seriously, I thought the garlic was a great addition
salt and pepper as needed

Grease a muffin tin, then fill cups with rice mixture.  I filled mine about 2/3 full, but would add more next time.  The egg makes these puff up, but then they collapsed again when I took them out.  Bake at 350 for ~25 min, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean - time will vary depending on the size of your muffin cups and how full you fill them.

We all enjoyed them a surprising amount given how simple they are.  Served with a salad, they make a pretty good meal, and a nice alternative to throwing out leftover rice.  They made great leftovers, too - though I preferred them warmed up to cold.