Bowling, Coat, Christmas Pudding.

Woo 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 wear 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 thought 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 suet
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