Funnelling love into food.

Preparing food for others is a great delight but one which I experience all too rarely.  However, I make  pretty good "Christmas pudding".  I've put it into inverted commas because I'm not sure if, strictly speaking, it is a Christmas pudding as it has no currants and raisins but dried strawberries, blueberries, cranberries and sour cherries.  No-one complains though.  

I eat alone on Christmas Day but I make puddings for three families. I think they make great Christmas presents as there's nothing to store after the day!

Very Berry Christmas Pudding

100g (3½oz) sultanas

50g (2oz) each dried sour cherries, dried strawberries, dried cranberries and dried blueberries

50g (2oz) each ready-to-eat dried prunes, apricots and figs, roughly chopped

150ml liqueur, preferable fruity but brandy is good too.  

Zest and juice of 1 lemon  

Butter for greasing

75g (3oz) shredded suet

50g (2oz) self-raising flour

125g (4oz) fresh breadcrumbs

½tsp each mixed spice and ground ginger

1tsp ground cinnamon

Pinch each of salt and freshly

grated nutmeg

75g (3oz) soft dark brown sugar

2tbsp black treacle

1 Cox's apple, grated

2 medium eggs, beaten

50g (2oz) pecans, chopped (optional)

Method

1 Put the dried fruit, liqueur, lemon zest and juice into a non-metallic mixing bowl. Cover and leave to soak overnight. Lightly butter a 1 litre (1¾ pint) pudding basin and put in a cool place. I use reusable plastic bowls with lids.

2 The next day, put the soaked fruit into a large mixing bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Mix together until well combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pudding basin, pushing it down firmly, and level the surface.

3 To cook, put the pudding in a slow cooker with water halfway up the basin.  Cook for an hour on high then reduce to low for about ten hours.   Store in a cool, dark place for up to three months. 

4 On Christmas Day put it in a slow cooker for about four hours.  You could microwave but using a slow cooker means less work just before serving and you could even cook it in the garage or other out-of-the-way spot meaning there’s one less thing in the kitchen.  When I have one I cook it in my utility room.

57 days

You know what I'm talking about!

And, like it or not, the high street is gearing itself up.  I went to our local garden centre last week and as usual found that I could buy Christmas there.  They sell trees, decorations, food, gifts and anything else you could possible need.

I think many people will, by now, have quietly started their preparations.  Maybe a fruit cake has been made.  Or a pair of socks knitted.  Or special meals planned.  Or even the odd parcel lovingly wrapped and hidden away.  

Most of the blogs I read are written by people who are not content to buy Christmas.  The love which is in our hearts is funelled through our fingers as much as our purses.  We bake, sew, knit, crochet, craft out of love for our families and friends.

One of the first things I make is Christmas cards.  I have a new design each year but I make about a hundred, all the same. Yesterday I finished making the cards.  All I need to do now is write in them!

How did that happen?

I'm sixty eight!  How did that happen?

I know when it happened - last Wednesday, 23rd October if you really want to know - but I can't believe I've been around for sixty eight years.

I'm having a super life.  I was, my Mother told me, a wonderful surprise as she had almost given up hope of a second child.  I was born into a loving family with just one sister but seemingly countless cousins.  I flourished at school (at least until the sixth form which I loathed) and also enjoyed out of school activities. 

I trained as a librarian and did Voluntary Service Overseas as a librarian in Nigeria, setting up school libraries in the former Biafra.  Maybe being in a motor cycle crash and needing medical repatriation wasn't a good idea though!

I worked in libraries in the UK for several years then joined the Civil Service for a few years before starting full time Christian ministry when I was thirty six. 

I was one of the first women to become priests in the Church of England and I worked in the C of E until I retired when I was fifty eight.

Life has not all been a bowl of cherries (what a boring thought!) but it has been good.

And somewhere along the line I have acquired wonderful friends who sent me all these flowers and more for my birthday!

Head above the parapet

Blogland is lovely!  I've had a couple of emails asking if I'm OK and a friend whom I visit has also asked where I've been.  Sorry about the lack of posts.  Truth to tell I had a few days ill a couple of weeks ago and I'm just emerging from three days feeling pretty grotty but it's nothing serious and I just need to get my act together.

This post is just what it says in the title - putting my head above the parapet.  I shall doubtless be back properly before too long but at the moment I feel very tired.  

Mama Mia

The warden showed me something of the technique.  So my Mother got a very special portrait.

Not quite

I spent fifteen years as Rector of a small group of parishes and was privileged to work with some very talented people.  One of my wardens had a great talent for manipulating images.  He took an image of Leo X and two of his cardinals and created a portrait of me with two of my wardens.  I think I look a little jollier (and I hope more approachable) than did His Holiness.  

Words

Isn't language fun!  I've just been over to visit Terra Garden where she has been giggling over "pootling" and "faffing" both of which words are very familiar this side of the Atlantic but apparently not yon side of it. 

I love the richness and diversity of English wherever she is spoke!  The classic is of course that a man going out in the USA in vest and pants would, I believe, look quite respectable whereas here he would raise a few eyebrows especially if he were wearing suspenders as well.  A President can be called Trump in the USA but the word has a very unfortunate slang meaning here. 

I had a batch cooking session last week and I made ratatouille using courgettes from the garden and an aubergine I was given but over the pond I would have had to use zucchini and egg plant for the same dish.  Swede and carrot would have involved the use of rutabaga to go with the carrot.  Bubble and squeak is commonplace here but when I mentioned it previously a couple of American readers didn't know that it could be eaten. 

Come on - can you highlight a few fun differences?

A seasonal pleasure

Summer can be lovely but autumn brings its own delights.  Comfort food.  Leaf kicking.  Autumn colours.

The downside could be that autumn is the start of cold weather.  And the upside of cold weather is finding cosy blankets to wrap up in.  

I've just fetched my crochet blanket from the airing cupboard where it has spent the summer.  And it is beautifully warm.  I am wrapped up and enjoying something totally mindless on the TV.  Bliss.  

Autumn and winter can be a little depressing but they have their own joys.