Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Bowling, Coat, Christmas Pudding.

Pin_Animation1Woo hoo I had a really good game yesterday. Bowled a 540 triple which is good for me lately. In fact the highest triple I’ve had this season. Matt was threatening to leave me behind at the beginning, eventually he was threatening to divorce me. You’ll gather he wasn’t doing so well.

I lost a coat, you may remember I bought a new winter jacket the other day, however, Thursday it was pretty chilly so decided to wearWinter jacket my old one. Couldn’t find it anywhere. Figured I had left it in the store when I picked up my new one. After bowling we went there and they assured me I had taken it with me. When I got home I double checked the coat closet, definitely not there. Later Matt walked into the room with it, he had found it in the bedroom closet. Guess we are going nuts the pair of us. I cannot imagine why we would have put it in there. Of course it’s still too big but warm. I also have another jacket but that’s quite a bit heavier. Very hot even on a cool day like it was on Thursday. Yesterday, going to the theatre, I wore my new coat and froze.

We were discussing Christmas. The bowling alley is open on Boxing Day (December 26 for Americans) which happens to be a Thursday when four of us usually get together to bowl. However, one friend said he couldn’t come and Matt figured it would probably be extremely busy that day so we ended up inviting our other friend to dinner that evening instead of bowling. Our Christmas lunch at the bowling alley will be on December 16. The following Monday was a bit too close to Christmas.

I can’t believe Christmas is so close. Someone on the street outside our apartment has already turned on his lights. Think he left them up all  year!!! It’s way to early in my opinion.  I checked in our grocery store yesterday, I Christmas Puddingthought I had seen what looked like Christmas puds, I was right, so we decided to get one. I don’t really want to make one. Used to do so regularly, but just for two of us it isn’t worth the effort any more. Not to mention that I don’t need the calories anyway. I think we bought one of their puds another year and it was pretty good. Traditionally, in the UK, we used to pour brandy over the pudding, set light to it and turn the lights off in the dining room. Always enjoyable. The holly tended to get a bit singed mind you. I always like rum butter with mine, what seems to be called hard sauce on this continent.

If you haven’t made a pudding yet, here is the recipe I always used from Mrs. Beeton’s cookery book. The copy I have, as I have mentioned before, is about 79 years old. I have 8 servings listed, but this is such a rich pudding, you will find people only eat a very small amount of it.


Christmas Pudding - Mrs. Beeton

1/2 lb suetChristmas Pudding 2
2 oz flour
1/2 lb raisins
1/4 lb mixed peel
1/2 a grated nutmeg
1/2 oz mixed spice
1/2 oz ground cinnamon
10 oz milk
1 wineglass brandy or rum
1/2 lb breadcrumbs
1/2 lb sultanas
1/2 lb currants
1 lemon
2 oz shredded almonds
4 eggs
1 pinch salt

1. Put all the dry ingredients in a basin and mix well. Add the milk, stir in the eggs one at a time, add the liquor and the strained juice of the lemon. Work the whole thoroughly for some minutes, so that the ingredients are well blended. Put the mixture in a well greased basin. Boil for about 4 hours or steam for at least 5 hours.

Servings: 8

Have a great day
Jo_thumb[2]

6 comments:

  1. The pudding sounds delicious. Funny about your coat. I lost my glasses last Thursday. I only wear them when I go grocery shopping and cannot figure out what I did with them. Guess I'll just have to squint.

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    1. It was funny. I have no doubt they will turn up.

      The pudding is delicious but just not worth it for two of us.

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  2. I'm really such a Bah Humbug person and hate all the Christmas stress. Maybe I'd feel differently if we werent' bombarded with Christmas adverts, music, commercial hype 3 months before the event.

    Congrats on your bowling score!! We're having our second 'short mat bowls' session tomorrow evening at the local village hall. We enjoyed the first session but weren't very good as we have to slow our bowling down by about 99% .... we have three free-of-charge evenings before deciding whether to join - its great fun and we don't have to commit to regular league nights which is what scuppered our Tenpin bowling activities as we travel so much through the winter.

    Oops sorry to rattle on.... glad you found your coat and hope you blamed Matt for putting it away in the wrong room

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  3. I love Christmas. Less now there are just the two of us, but my mother was a great Christmas person and I guess she passed it on to me.

    Never heard of short mat bowls, indoor I presume. Sounds interesting.

    I did blame Matt, but I didn't tell him so.

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  4. There have been stores here selling Christmas stuff since the beginning of October. It makes me sad.

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    Replies
    1. Not sure ours started quite that early, but still way too soon.

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