Stir-Up-Sunday…

If you haven’t already made your Christmas Puddings then Sunday the 24th of NovemberĀ is the time to do it, the last Sunday before the start of Advent and traditionally known as Stir Up Sunday.

Here is a fail safe recipe for a lovely moist, boozy pudding!

 

Ingredients

 

600g mixed driedĀ fruit and nuts. I use roughly 500g of mixed dried fruits (predominately raisins, sultanas and currants with a few cranberries, sour cherries and a good handful of glace cherries). For the nuts I usually use nibbed almonds.

500ml bottle of Guinness

300ml port

100ml brandy

 

200g shredded suet (proper beef is best, you can use vegetarian of course)

zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon

2 medium cooking apples grated

freshly grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

250g muscavado sugar

75g plain flour

3 medium eggs beaten

150g breadcrumbs

 

Method

 

Soak the fruit for at least 24 hours in the alcohol (if you don’t want to use alcohol then you could use tea and orange juice)

In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together. Get the whole family to give it a stir and make a wish at the same time (my wish is that the pudding turns out ok!)

Grease a large pudding bowl and a few smaller ones (ideal for giving away to friends, family and neighbours), pour the pudding mixture into the bowls leaving an inch from the top.

Cover the mixtureĀ with a circle of greaseproof paper. cover the bowl with tinfoil (with a pleat in it to allow for the pudding to expand) and then place in a large pan on a trivet with a folded strip of tin foil underneath to allow you to lift the pudding out. Pour water into the pan to come up 2/3 of the way up the pudding basin.

Put the pan on to boil. When boiling turn down to a simmer and cover the pan. A large pudding will take 2 1/2 to 3 hours to cook (test with a skewer, the skewer wants to come out clean). I usually take the pan off the heat but leave the pudding in the water for an hour just to make sure the pudding is evenly cooked through.

Lift the pudding out of the water and set aside to cool. Once coolĀ I take the pudding out of the basin, wrap in greaseproof paper, then cling film and then tin foil. I then put in a spare cool box where it stays until the big day.

On the day you are eating having the pudding it can either be put back in the basin it was cooked in and boiled again for an hour to heat up or it can be microwaved in short bursts (a couple of minutes atĀ a time leaving a minute in between).

To serve place the pudding on a heatproof plate. Pour a couple tablespoons of Brandy into a ladle and gently heat over a low flame. Once the Brandy starts to shimmer pour over the pudding and light with a match.

Remember to have a bucket of water and fire extinguisher on hand… just in case!

Merry Christmas!

Flaming Pudding!

P.S try slices of leftover pudding fried in butter for breakfast… Fantastic!

Pack Up!

The Kids are back at school which means we’re back to the dilemma of “what shall we give the kids for their lunches?”.

school pack-up blog Except it’s not really that much of a dilemma. As a family that cooks a lot of food, we just cook… more!

Neither Kit nor myself have the patience to be making sandwiches for four hungry children every morning &Ā to be honest I don’t think that eating bread every day in that quantity is a particularly good idea.

So, we are setting our Kids upĀ in readinessĀ for the life of a student! We find it so much easier to pack them off to school with a container of cold curry, rice and a dollop of yoghurt or a wedge of cold pizza. We’ve even sent them with leftover Beef Pie, mushy peas & gravy!

Beef Pie Packup Blog

All you have to remember is that when you doĀ cook, cookĀ that little bit extra.

Our Children have never complained about having leftovers & always look forward to the delights that lie within their lunch-bags. The Teachers (and Caretaker who sometimes gets roped into theĀ lunchtime supervisor role)Ā always comment on how lovely the food our Kids take looks. At times it seems they are quite jealous & complain that they’ve only got manky sarnies for their lunch!

Dj Packup blogWe recommend getting a load of plastic take-away containers in for pack-ups as they are ideal for portioning leftovers into and refrigeratingĀ or freezing until needed. We get ours from the Chinese supermarket – a pack of 250 usually sees us through aĀ few years!

So if ever you are looking at a recipe and think crikey! That seems like a lot! Just think of the hassle it will save you ofĀ having to make up the kids lunches…Ā or even your own!

Hands, Knees & Bumpsy-Daisiesā€¦.

Reyt Good All Purpose Seasoning by Ome Made

After a week of banged heads, broken teeth, teeth going through lips, split chins, bumpsĀ and grazes Iā€™ve decided never to takeĀ our Kids out of the house again!

 

Trying to get 4 children (one badly injured) with 4 scooters on a bus with only a Ā£20 note to pay the bus fare with so that we can get home, get in the carĀ and get to the dentist to fix Lilā€™MrMā€™s tooth was, I have to say, a bit of a trial. Why do these things always happen when ā€˜Omeā€™s not there??!!! Iā€™m good at these kind of situations when itā€™s someone elses kids but I panic & crumble when itā€™s my own. But to give the Kids their dues, they were fantastic whilst Mummy had a total breakdown. Oh the joys of being a parent!

 

I then retreat into my veg patch, large glass of wine well within reachĀ and thank the last of the garlic, the sorrel, beansĀ and courgettes that need picking, the beetrootĀ and swede that have survived their late startĀ and flowering pumpkin plants for not causing me any grief, stress or tears.

 

I have to admit I did feel a bit tearful when I decided Iā€™d have to chop down the borage plant. It almost signals the end of summer.

borage blog

It was so easy to grow it was astonishing. From 1 plant hundreds of flowers have been picked since MayĀ and added to salads, frozen in ice cubesĀ and ice lollies, added to drinks (Pimms for us!)Ā and generally used as Pick-Your-Own snack for the kids. Happy memories of summer.

 

Itā€™s not all sadness though because when cut down, chopped up a bitĀ and dug into the veg patch it will serve a further purpose by enriching the soil in readiness for more plants to grow as strong as the borage was.

 

Come next spring I can guarantee borage will be the first on my list to be sown in time for warmer weather, water fightsĀ and ā€˜Ome Made Pimms on the lawn!

 

 

Kit x