That Wartime Christmas Pudding

  Not  made in wartime! but using the wartime recipe that I wrote about on the 23rd HERE.

 I didn't try it myself before Boxing Day and reheated portions in the microwave for me and BiL [after making him read the blog page about it so he knew what he was letting himself in for!] It was absolutely delicious, especially with custard and cream. Light and fruity and plenty sweet enough despite the very little sugar.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Boxing Day

 .............................................isn't a holiday in most parts of the world............so Lucky Us! 

 Boxing Day became a "thing" around the 1830's and the name comes from the custom of giving  "Christmas boxes" to servants and apprentices and the tradesmen who delivered to the house. 

This below is from the book 'Cattern Cakes and Lace' by Julia Jones and Barbara Deer, and has a bit more explanation about the 26th and a gruesome story of the custom of 'Hunting the Wren'.

And then I came across this song

Boxing Day in Mid Suffolk is much less violent!

(much of this post is repeated from many years ago, so you might have seen it before!)

Many thanks for all the Happy Christmas wishes yesterday. It was lovely to have Youngest Daughter and Eldest Granddaughter here. They went home before dark as it turned very foggy. I then quickly popped over to see Son, DiL and the two grandchildren who have DiL's sister staying with her partner and gorgeous little fella Sunny who is coming up to one year old. He was asleep but still nice to say hello to the grown ups. I could have gone over to Sister in Laws but by then it was dark and very foggy. Fog in the country is different to fog in town! and I don't like driving in dark and fog, it's easy to lose the road edges.

So home to watch the Strictly Christmas Special and Doctor Who. I love the BBC feature of the green button which puts the programme back to beginning - it's so handy.

If you didn't get to see 'Doctor Who at the Proms' which was on TV on Christmas Eve, (and possibly on earlier in the year too) it's worth a watch, the music was fantastic.

Back Soon

Sue

Advent 2024 and The Unplanned Christmas Pudding

 With the change of plans for Christmas it meant 'proper Christmas' meals needed on two different days instead of just one day. 

This half packet of vegetable suet (bought last winter for dumplings but still OK) had to be moved or  fell out of the cupboard 

every time I got anything else out and gave me an idea. .................................BiL is traditional and likes Christmas Pudding, I don't particularly, but could eat some but not the huge rather solid recipe I've used through umpteen years of Christmas Pudding making. I looked in several books for a pudding recipe that uses as little as possible, didn't need making weeks beforehand and could be made with just 2½oz of suet and then had a brainwave to look in the Wartime books - when rations limited the amount and range of things that could be used - and found something in this book.

The list of ingredients were simply breadcrumbs, flour, a little suet, minimal sugar, grated carrot and apple, sultanas and raisons and a few prunes plus just 1 egg and and optional alcohol. Most of these are in the house all the time and I separated the raisons from a packet of the value range Aldi peanuts and raisons (peanuts used for biscuits) I bought some prunes which I like but hadn't eaten for ages, so the remainder will be good.

Even with a small amount it was enough for 1 small basin and another even smaller, which I made and steamed yesterday.

Now the question is - do I leave until Boxing Day to re-steam and force BiL to try it or shall I reheat the very small one and try it myself today, just in case?

Back Tomorrow

Sue

How 2023 Ended and Plans for 2024

 Managed to get the Suffolk bits of the family here together for the belated  Boxing Day meal last Friday. None of us were running at 100% but at least the food has all been eaten. Youngest Daughter and Eldest Granddaughter had to be away before tea-time as EG was due at her Daddies house for the weekend. Brother-in-Law couldn't stay either so just 5 for tea but many of the food things I didn't want to get stuck with here (the chocolate yule log - much too sweet for me now and a box of chocolate biscuits ditto) went off with family. ( I've put a list of family abbreviations in a column over on the right to save me having to write in full from now on)

Lots of the car-boot sale Christmas Crackers got used - a mixed lot of other people's chuck-outs with all sorts of different things inside and still some left for next Christmas too.

 

I had some books from the wish-list for Christmas presents which was lovely and some random things too which have gone in the charity shop bag already (makes me sound ungrateful but....) Also had a box of chocolates from someone in the family who didn't know I no longer eat them. They will go in the Foodbank collection.

This pretty little jug from my sister had Muscari/Grape Hyacinth bulbs in and coir discs -  the bulbs were meant to be planted in the jug, but I thought the bulbs would do better outside and popped the jug in the dishwasher. It was only when it came out that I discovered what it said on the base!

Why? I wondered and  filled it up with water and it doesn't leak or seep, it's glazed inside and out and looks like a proper serviceable jug. Very odd.

The three children all clubbed together for my present and that's special and deserves a post of it's own.

And Onwards...........

 The 2024 diary has been filled in with all the things that I know are happening........ dentist appointment, all the  birthdays, a summer holiday and what days the library van visits and which bins are due to be emptied on which Wednesdays - I live an exciting life!

Not much in the diary to do outside of home in January although I came across details of a Jumble Sale at the end of the month. There's the Keep Moving Group of course but otherwise I'm mainly hibernating with a list of stuff to get done in the next week or so..............

Must put the Christmas tree and decorations away before the 6th

Make a batch of pastry cases

Make focaccia bread

and a spiced fruit loaf

Get some books off to ziffit

Sort the grandchildren toys and clear out those they have grown out of

Clear up the huge heaps of leaves that have gathered out the front near the porch as soon as it's dry enough (seems as if there hasn't been a completely dry day for weeks!)

Finish emptying the water-butt in the greenhouse

Sort out last years paperwork and file or chuck.

 It's annoying that the swimming pool has altered the sessions with so few that are a decent time for me to get to. Certainly couldn't make it for a 7.30 or 8.30 a.m swim! And evening swims don't appeal either. I've not been for various reasons since October and missing it.

Thank you to everyone for Happy New Year wishes.  

Back Tomorrow

Sue

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What To Do When Plans Are Cancelled?

 My first thought on Boxing Day (when Youngest Daughter texted to say she had woken up ill and I'd started sneezing on Christmas Eve and had gradually got worse through Christmas Day  and Son texted to say Youngest granddaughter had an ear infection and DiL had tonsillitis) was to burst into tears!! ......I didn't!............ that would have been silly.

My second thought was OMG what to do with all the food that was ready for 5 adults and 3 children!

It was the meat things that were a problem as the vegetarian sausage wreath and Quorn loaf were still safely in the freezer. I cooked the pigs-in-blankets and suggested BiL popped over yesterday to pick up some of those and some of the cooked ham and the sausage rolls. (and I discovered when I tried to talk to him that I'd lost my voice!)

That worked well - he took away enough for 3 or 4 days. The rest of the ham was sliced and popped into the freezer.

I roasted lots of the carrots, parsnips and potatoes and divided into plated meals for three days and some into the freezer, the rest went back into the fridge for later in the week along with  the broccoli head re-wrapped in cling film  . The Brussels sprouts were pretty small anyway and, by eating lots, they only made a couple of meals for me. (Luckily they don't have THAT effect on me!)

I'd pre-made a bowl of bread sauce, mainly for Youngest Daughter who loves it,  so that went into the freezer - hopefully will be OK when defrosted and re heated. 

The Banoffee biscuit base went back into the freezer too and the Double cream. 

 A chocolate swiss roll had been iced with butter icing to make a Yule Log - That went into the freezer on its Holly and Ivy cake stand. The cheese straws, mince pies, Suffolk rusks and loaf of sliced bread  were only out of the freezer for an hour so went back in again.

The cheeses all had good dates on them so they are OK.

Think that means nothing has been wasted 

It's worked out OK after all....................phew.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Makes Blogging Worthwhile

 It's comments like this that cheer me up and enjoy writing a blog even more than before!

Merry Christmas Sue, love your Blog. It's the first Blog I ever read while recovering from illness last year and it's always the first one I read now. Similar life events in many ways so can relate. Love that there is no prejudice towards people who don't always agree with you as there is with some others, you are always just and fair and I will keep reading your marvellous Blog.

I need cheering up because we had to cancel our Boxing Day family get together at my house - everyone had really horrible colds. I could really do with not repeating the last two weeks.

Makes me even more determined to stay at home much of January! Perhaps all the gallivanting and mixing in crowds- although much enjoyed - isn't good for one's health!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Boxing Day.....................

.............................................isn't a holiday in most parts of the world............so Lucky Us! 

 Boxing Day became a "thing" around the 1830's and the name comes from the custom of giving  "Christmas boxes" to servants and apprentices and the tradesmen who delivered to the house. 

December 26th is also St Stephen's day. Stephen was a Hellenistic Jew, appointed by the Apostles as Deacon in the early Christian Church. He was stoned to death around AD 35, and as he was one of the first martyrs he was given the day following Christ's birth as his feast day. Stephen is almost forgotten except for his mention in the carol "Good King Wenceslas". But Wenceslas was a prince in Bohemia in the 10th century and the story in the carol is just fiction. It was probably the practice of giving money to servants or the poor that gave John Mason Neale the idea for the Carol in 1853.

(information mainly from  the book 'The English Year 'by Steve Roud)

Thank you for all the Christmas Greetings.

Back Thursday (or Friday...... depending.......). with Books Read 2023

Sue

A Good Christmas

How was your Christmas? Hope you all had the best time possible.

It was good that the weather was decent here for everyone to get around easily and there certainly seemed a lot of traffic on Christmas Day as I drove to Son's via Sister in Laws house.

But what awful news from the States where so many people have died after being trapped in their cars or fallen through ice in the exceptionally snowy, freezing weather. Very Frightening.

My Christmas was lovely although 3 excited, sometimes grumpy, grandchildren (ages 6, 4¾ and nearly 3) on two consecutive days days is quite exhausting. I suggested next year we have two days in between Christmas Day and Boxing day to recover - for them, their parents and me! I've got lots of tidying to do now but plenty of time to put the house back together.

I thought I'd not bought too much in the way of extra food for feeding 8 on Boxing Day but there seems to be  plenty left (even though I sent some home with them) so I wont need to do much except re-heating for several days - Leftovers is always the best thing about Christmas!

I'd put new towels on my Christmas wish list as some of mine were getting really thin so I was  pleased to receive  3 big bath towels and 2 hand towels from various family, now I'm well set up and can have a sort out so that the oldest, thinnest can go off to the RSPCA charity shop in the New Year. They sell the best in the shop and send the rest off to their animal rescue centre.

My other lovely pressies were some flavoured coffees, a stitched bowl cosy that can be used round a bowl in the microwave to make it easier to take it out without getting burned, some sweets and a bird feeder and this year just 1 book.

E for Embroidery etc for the ABC posts in November got me thinking about doing another stitching project so this was the present I bought and passed to BiL Andrew to wrap up to give me for Christmas. (He got himself a new watch and gave me to wrap - makes things so simple!) 

Now I'll have something interesting to take to the WI Knit, Stitch and Yarn group - it will make a change from my dishcloth knitting.

Just need a clip frame to mount it on for stitching then I can get going.

The rest of the week I've got lots of TV to catch up on, plenty of library books still to read, a new diary to fill in, the 2022 paperwork to sort and Thank You notes to write. Plus blog posts about 2022's best books and a review of the year to prepare. Then I'm just waiting for the postmen to be working to bring my bank statement so I can do the annual accounts and after that I'll be looking forward to mid January and a visit to Suffolk from the Surrey family.

Back in a day or so

Sue

December 24th

The last day of the 24 days of Advent Photos 2022 . I think I've managed not to copy many posts from the last seven years of Advent Photos.

Todays photos are more pages from the little book  -A Christmas Album.

There's no mention of the artists name

What are your jobs to do today to be ready for Christmas visitors? 

 I'm cooking a ham for the first time in many years, the two Suffolk families plus BiL are here on Boxing Day and then the ham will be my meals for a week! Proper ham in a sandwich is one of my reasons for not being a fully signed up vegetarian - it's completely different to any pre-sliced vacuum packed stuff which I never bother with nowadays.

I've also got to deliver a hamper after I've finished making spiced nuts to add to it and wrapped it all in cellophane. I didn't want to make them too soon before Christmas as I'd have been tempted to eat them rather than put them in cellophane bags to give away! I'm delivering the other hamper on Christmas Day especially so I can say hello to my Nephew and his Fiancée and my niece and her partner, they've been together for nearly 3 years and I've still not met him.

Our weather systems in this country mostly arrive from the West, and the extremely cold weather that's occurring in the US right now sounds very nasty, so will it cross the Atlantic? That's the question. Hope all US bloggers and readers are OK over there - stay warm and safe.

Have a good day

I'll be back (briefly) tomorrow

Sue

27th December After Christmas and Before New Year

 Many, many thanks for all the Christmas greetings on and before the day.

 

This is what the hampers for the two sister's (my sister and husband and Col's sister and husband) looked like before I wrapped the whole thing in red cellophane.

 

 

The only things bought from shops were the After Eight Mint sticks and the Christmas plates (made of bamboo!) that the cakes are sitting on. The insect hotel and the baskets came from boot sales and everything in jars is homemade. - A Candle, Chutney, jam, marmalade, Elderberry Syrup and that pickled cabbage mentioned last week and finally just a small bag of spiced nuts. (Only a small bag because after the necessary taste test to make sure I'd added enough spices, I  kept most for me....... they are so good 😄)

 Hope they liked all the goodies.

 

On Christmas day I travelled over to the coast to have a Christmas dinner with Youngest Daughter, the excited 5 year old Eldest Granddaughter, EG's Daddy and one of his mates.  EG painted my nails! Presents were exchanged, dinner was delicious. Then later in the afternoon I came back to Mid Suffolk and spent some time with Son, DiL, excited nearly 4 year old Youngest Granddaughter and laid back  nearly 2 year old Middle Grandson, Dil's Sister and Dad. Presents were exchanged and lots of toys admired. Then I went home and caught up with the Strictly Christmas Special and the Queens Speech.

On Boxing Day BiL came round, he was going to help me dig a mini pond but it rained nearly all day. I fed him a home made veggy curry , because he's a meat eater and says curry is always too sloppy! He actually said it was good.

I've proved there's a huge difference between a home made curry and a takeaway!

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

 

 

 

 

 

24th December - Advent Photo and Yesterday

First of all Must remember to say hello and welcome to follower number 650 - that's a good round number to finish the year with I reckon.

Oh Goody, we in Suffolk and Norfolk have now jumped from Tier 2 to Tier 4 from Boxing Day, which is lock-down in all but name and something I predicted the other day and I'm not at all surprised after hearing how many Covid cases are being treated in Ipswich hospital. Plus another new variant has got here from South Africa...as well as that which seems to have started in Kent. It's not ending anytime soon is it?

Did it rain where you were yesterday? It certainly did here..........most of the day...... heavy rain - really nasty. The water in the ditch across the lane is as high as I've ever seen it, and a few weeks ago I reassured the people buying this house that it never floods over into the lane, now I'm not so sure!

 By the time I got to the Greengrocers just after 9 yesterday all the sprout stalks had sold - everybody must have had the same idea, so I got some loose - they looked fresh so that's OK. And to make a change I got a bag of their mixed colour carrots -that will puzzle BiL tomorrow - bet he's never seen a purple carrot!

I'm not a huge fan of cookery programmes but I watched Jamie Oliver  doing some Christmassy stuff  and liked the look of his roasted squash 'sausage rolls'. Unfortunately I didn't write down what ingredients he used, wonder if it's online anywhere - I shall do a search. Later there was a Wartime Christmas programme, first of three in a new series and at the opposite end of the scale "Christmas at Chatsworth" was very decorative.

Today I'm going to get the pigs in blankets prepped - my favourite bit of Christmas dinner, yummy with a honey and mustard glaze, the bread-sauce made - that's youngest daughter's favourite bit of dinner,  and get as many other jobs done before my visitors tomorrow. Strictly legal visitors I hasten to add- an odd thing to say but there you go. 

Back to  the books................

And the last of  this years Photos in Advent, a couple of old favourites. Two of my Miss Read (Dora Saint) collection. Both these books are made up of either her other very slim titles (No Holly for Miss Quinn and The White Robin) or extracts from her Fairacre or Thrush Green books.

A friend  used to read these every year at Christmas to get her in the right mood, perhaps she still does. I've not read them for ages and only thought of them when I was searching the shelves for something for this last day of advent post.

 I love these gentle stories of the 1950's and 60's villages and villagers. Her 2 room primary school is just the same as the 2 room school I went to but we didn't have such a wonderful head teacher as Miss Read. 

I started reading them when I first worked in the library and she carried on writing one a year until the 1990s. Over many years I gradually found all of them in charity shops to read again, although they've rarely been out of print since and are probably still around to buy now.

 

Back  Briefly  Tomorrow

Sue

 

Boxing Day....................

...................isn't a holiday in most parts of the world............so Lucky Us!

In the book "Cattern Cakes and Lace" I found this tale about "The Hunting of the Wren", a horrible sounding custom which involved killing a wren and then asking for donations  - How Gruesome! 


December 26th is  St Stephen's day but he  is forgotten except for in the carol "Good King Wenceslas". But Wenceslas was a prince in Bohemia in the 10th century and the story in the carol is just fiction. It was probably the practice of giving money to servants or the poor that gave John Mason Neale the idea for the Carol in 1853.

Hope everyone had a lovely day yesterday. 10 adults and 3 small people was all a bit crazy!

Thank you for all the Christmas wishes, apologies I didn't have time to visit other blogs.

Most of this post is one I prepared earlier! normal blogging will resume when the house is back to normal.


Sue

December 28th..... Colour and Rough Weather

When the sun shone on Boxing Day I took my camera for a tour around the garden

Dark red Cyclamen

Sunlight catching the Golden Feverfew

Winter Pansies

First Aconites

 Even at the end of December there are little bits of colour here and there.
 

I do hope everyone got through the awful weather yesterday. We headed out from home just after 7am to get to Addenbrookes and it was already very wet. While we were sat in the waiting room waiting for blood test results it started to snow and by the time we were able to head home the roads in Cambridgeshire were nasty, slushy and slippery. We crossed back into Suffolk and there was a lot less snow and clearer roads except for big lakes of standing water. Very windy too, the dustbins were all over the garden. We were glad to get in and light the woodburner, because an hour and a half sat in a waiting room then slow journey home had quite worn Col out.

Tomorrow I must clear away my presents including the 6 books and 3 boxes of biscuits  - all shortbread- all very calorific!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

December 27th and What was in the Hampers

Now they've been given to sisters and husbands I can show a picture of  what my hampers looked like in 2017. I think  the Christmas candles and crackers fill the gaps nicely between the jams,chutneys, marmalade and strawberry Vodka.. I'm glad I found that box of candles at a car boot sale in the summer as there are still several left and they can do the same job next year.

It will soon be time to make a note of ideas for the 2018 hampers...................

But then I came across a list in a free magazine I picked up in a local shop. A survey done by Marmite has come up with a list of the Most Loved and Most Hated gifts and 5th was home made jam and chutneys - oh dear!
 Of course they hadn't printed the most loved gifts - why look on the bright side!?

Some good blue sky on Boxing Day morning and the sun shone on our Poplars

and cast long shadows over the field of Oil Seed Rape

Back Tomorrow
Sue