"One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly." -Andy Rooney

If you are like me and a little short on time (and money) this Christmas, this is possibly the easiest Christmas Cake recipe I have every come across. I have made some smallish cakes as gifts for family, friends, etc. You can also add spices to the recipe to make it a bit more christmas-ish (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc.) and could probably add alcohol if you go in for that sort of thing.

QUICK EASY MINI CHRISTMAS CAKESINGREDIENTS.-
1 kg of mixed fruit

600ml Coffee or Chocolate Big M (If you live somewhere that doesn't have Big M, it's basically flavoured milk. You can substitute, I imagine, other flavoured milks, but don't go with the diet varieties as it's the fat content which binds the recipe together)

2 cups SR flour

METHOD.-
Soak fruit in Big M over night.
Add 2 cups of flour (and a bit extra) & stir.
Put in muffin tins, or large tin or whatever. Decorate with blanched almonds if you like that sort of thing.
Cook at 180oC until done (about 15-20 mins for cupcakes - longer for a bigger cake)
Enjoy
The End

HAVE!!!

I guess Santa (or myself as it may be) was good to me this year. Now I just need a brooch to go with them.




P.S. Don't forget to get yourself something in my GREAT GIVEAWAY!!!!

Merry Christmas to all

And to all a good night

Hope you all have a wonderful festive season.

P.S. - Don't forget to get yourself part of Elise's BIG Giveaway

Caroling, caroling through the town

So here are some funny words that you mostly only see in Christmas Carols (you might see them in other hymns, and ye olde English but do you really go around saying them all the time?) and what they mean.

Hither - as in "Come hither" or "Hither page, and stand by me" - To or toward this place
Thither - a bit rare than hither - "When we bear them thither" - To or toward that place - see the difference.
Whither - " Pray, wither sailed those ships all three" -  To which place - getting the pattern now?

Oblations -  "We to the Christ-child, bring our hearts' oblations" - A thing presented or offered to God or a god -  we are offering Jesus our hearts
Wassail/wassailing - "Here we come a-wassailing, among the leaves so green" or "And to you, your wassail too" - the practice of going round to your neighbours and toasting them good health and possibly begging for scraps.
Troll - "Troll the ancient Yule tide carol" - not the internet kind. To sing loudly, freely or in a carefree way.
Cloven - "Still through the cloven skies they come," - split or divided (like the Devil's hooves)
Lo - "For lo! the days are hastening on" - Look, see, behold
Exultation - "Sing in exultation" - The act of exulting; lively joy at success or victory, or at any advantage gained; rapturous delight; triumph

And here's a picture of us all caroling at my parent's house, with all our friends and relations - it's a yearly tradition.

P.S. If I get to 50 readers, I'm going to do something super special. If you can't wait, you could create 2 phony blogger accounts and give me a bump. *wink*

Now bring us some figgy pudding, Now bring some out here!

And finally we come to the end of Christmas. The silly season is definitely over. Who's going in for a Feb Fast? (giving up alcohol for the whole month of February? Definitely signals the end of silliness)

And for my last trick... the Christmas Pudding. Remember I was a bit unsure of how this would turn out? Well, it was fabulous. Lots of fruit, but not the gross kind of fruit. Enough brandy without getting everyone drunk. Not too dark.

To be honest, I'm not really a fan of Christmas Pudding... but this one I liked.



CHRISTMAS PLUM PUDDING.

INGREDIENTS. - 8 oz. of moist sugar
8 oz. of finely-shredded suet (I used the packet stuff and it worked out okay, so you can use that if suet is hard to come by)
8 oz. of sultanas cleaned
8 oz. of raisins halved and stoned
8 oz. of currants washed and dried
4 oz. of shredded mixed candied peel
4 oz. of flour
4 oz. of bread crumbs
2 oz. of almonds blanched and shredded
the grated rind of 1 lemon
3 eggs
1/2 a teaspoonful of salt
1/2 a pint of milk
1 small wineglassful of brandy (optional)

METHOD. - Mix all the dry ingredients together, stir in the well-beaten eggs, milk and brandy (if used), turn the mixture into 2 well-greased basins, steam from 5 to 6 hours.

TIME. - From 5 to 6 hours. SUFFICIENT for 8 or 9 persons.

Pretty nummy. Serve with ice cream, or cream or brandy custard. Incidentally, this is exactly the same recipe my nana used, except she used butter instead of suet. Her recipe is called Royal Pudding, and so I think I'll try that next year instead.

Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. - Mark Twain

Cauliflower is pretty awesome. What can make it even awesomer is the addition of cheese sauce. Preferably lots of it. For some reason, I usually only make this at Christmas time, which is probably good for my cholesterol levels.



CAULIFLOWER, BAKED, WITH CHEESE.

INGREDIENTS. - 2 or 3 small cauliflowers
3/4 of a pint of white sauce
2 tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, preferably Parmesan
1 tablespoonful of brown breadcrumbs
about 1 oz. of butter

METHOD. - Boil the cauliflower as in the following recipe, (Put them into fast-boiling water and let them boil gently, keeping the saucepan uncovered.) drain well, and divide them into pieces convenient for serving.
Have ready a round gratin dish, or any fireproof dish, that may be sent to the table, grease it well, and in it arrange the pieces of cauliflower so as to appear as one large one.
Mix 2/3 of the cheese with the COLD white sauce, and the remainder with the breadcrumbs; pour the sauce over the cauliflower, and cover the surface with the mixed breadcrumbs and cheese.
Place small piece of butter on the top, and bake in a moderate over until well browned.

TIME. - About 40 minutes. SEASONABLE from June to November. SUFFICIENT for 5 persons.

I omitted the breadcrumbs. And I think I had a bit more white sauce. And lots more cheese. Lots and lots more cheese. I usually ping my cauliflower in the microwave rather than boiling it until tender, and add the white sauce while it is warm and all the cheese melts into it and then it seeps all around the cauliflower. But that could be just me...

Turkey lurkey!

Turkeys seem like Christmas to me. I know a lot of Americans associate turkeys with Thanksgiving, and Canadians associate turkey with Canadian Thanksgiving... but to me, Christmas is turkey time... and as I love turkey, that's a pretty good thing.

It's really all Charles Dickens' fault. Before it was published in 1843, Christmas was in a decline. Dickens sparked a revival in Christmas as well as the Christmas turkey dinner. Obviously, before the discovery of the Americas, turkeys were unknown so a traditional Christmas dinner was more likely to consist of goose or beef. Ham and pork are also quite common.

"Do you know the Poulterer's in the next street but one, at the corner?" Scrooge inquired.
"I should hope I did," replied the lad.
" An intelligent boy!" said Scrooge. "A remarkable boy! Do you know whether they've sold the prize Turkey that was hanging up there?- Not the little prize Turkey: the big one?"
"What, the one as big as me?" returned the boy.
"What a delightful boy!" said Scrooge. "It's a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, my buck!"
"It's hanging there now," replied the boy.
"Is it?" said Scrooge. "Go and buy it ... I'll send it to Bob Cratchit's," whispered Scrooge, rubbing his hands, and splitting with a laugh. "He shan't know who sends it. It's twice the size of Tiny Tim. Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending it to Bob's will be!" - Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol



This is not my Christmas turkey. I had a cold at Christmas time and whilst I did cook my turkey and do it all very well, I didn't take any pictures. So the turkey above is actually from Christmas 2... last Saturday when I baked a half price post Christmas turkey. But I love turkey so it was a terrible thing to have to cook another one just for fun (and photos).



TURKEY, ROAST

INGREDIENTS. - 1 turkey
1 to 2 lbs. of sausage meat
1 to 1 1/2 lbs. of veal forcemeat
2 or 3 slices of bacon
1 pint of good gravy
bread sauce
fat for basting

METHOD. - Prepare and truss the turkey. Fill the crop with sausage meat, and put the veal forcemeat inside the body of the bird.
Skewer the bacon over the breast, baste well with hot fat, and roast in a moderate oven from 1 3/4 to 2 1/4 hours, according to age and size of the bird.
Baste frequently, and about 20 miutes before serving remove the bacon to allow the breast to brown.
Remove the trussing-strings, serve on a hot dish, and send the gravy and bread sauce to table in sauce-boats.

TIME. - From 1 3/4 to 2 1/4 hours. SUFFICIENT for 10 or more persons

Sides will be following in later posts so for now just enjoy the turkey goodness and get sleepy from the tryptophan.

It's a great pastry debate!

Hi everybody!

(Hi Dr Nick)

Hope you didn't miss me too much over the Christmas period, and I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and an excellent new years.

As we learned last year in this post, I make a pretty mean mince pie. However, this year I set myself a new challenge, which provoked the great pastry debate. I wanted to see what the difference was if you make a pastry with lard instead of with butter as I am used to.

SHORT-CRUST, PLAIN. (For Pies, Tarts, etc.)

INGREDIENTS - 1/2 lb of flour
3 oz of lard, clarified butter or dripping
1 teaspoonful of baking-powder (heaped)
1/4 of a teaspoonful of salt
1/4 of a pint of water

METHOD - Pass the flour, salt and baking-powder through a sieve into a large basin, then rub in the fat, add the water, and work into a smooth paste with a knife. Roll out to desired shape and thickness and use at once. When required for fruit tarts, 1 tablespoonful of sugar should be added to the above ingredients.

TIME - About 1/4 of an hour. SUFFICIENT for about 1 medium-sized tart

SHORT CRUST PASTRY (my recipe)

INGREDIENTS.-
4 oz (125g) of plain flour
4 oz (125g) of SR flour
4 oz (125g) of butter
2 oz (60g) of castor sugar
1 pinch of salt
About 3 tablespoons of water

METHOD.- Put butter, flour, salt and sugar in a food processor. Turn on and process until it resembles bread crumbs, add egg yolk, and process, add water a little at a time until the mixture forms a ball of dough whirling round the mixer. Remove and roll out on a floured board/bench top. Then use or refrigerate until required (no more that 1 day)


And here they are:
Butter Pastry


Lard Pastry


Personally I prefer the butter ones. The lard ones took a few days before they stopped tasting really lardy...but after that they were very nice. I found the lard pastry to be much shorter (probably due to the lower fat content) but would be really good for a savoury pie.

In the grand scheme of things then, the real difference is - not much. I'm calling it a tie.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year.

So sue-t me!

There are all different types of fats involved in cooking. Lard, tallow, suet, duck fat, ghee, butter, oil, olive oil... the list goes on.

However, essential in a Christmas pudding is suet... which makes finding suet an exciting adventure. Apparently, there can be a big difference between Suet mix and actual suet... but actual suet is a bit thin on the ground here and I haven't located a butcher who will do me up some suet of my own. (Wow, I wonder how many times I can say suet in a sentence? Suet, suet, suet... anyone else think the word suet looks really weird?)

Anyhoo, I've given the old Tandaco Suet mix a burl in my christmas pud. Hopefully it will taste great and not weird. In addition, there are rasins, currants, sultanas, candied peel and lemon rind... and not actually a whole lot more. There's also on interesting recipe for fruitarian pudding (which is without suet) so I may try that one in the future as well.

Have yourself a mince-y little Christmas

Oh Christmas Tarts! Carols playing from the stereo, a pre-heating over, freshly copha-ed pie pans, and you're up to your elbows in dough. Well, maybe not elbows but definitely spreading flour all over the kitchen.

I made some Fruit Mince pies on Sunday. A little tradition I do every year, using the recipe from my mother, who got the recipe from her great-aunt who used to get up at 4 am to make mince pies so that her hands would be cold enough to handle the dough.

I was quite gratified to see that my recipe for short crust pastry is almost identical to Mrs Beeton's with only a few minor adjustments. In the place of lard I use butter, and instead of all plain flour and baking powder I use half and half of Self Raising Flour and plain flour.

However, my method differs vastly from Mrs Beeton's, considering I use an electric food processor to mix the dough.

SHORT-CRUST. (For Pies, Tarts, etc.)

INGREDIENTS - 8 oz of flour

2 oz of butter

2 oz of lard

1 yolk of egg

1 teaspoonful of baking powder

A good pinch of salt

About 1/8 of a pint of water

METHOD - Rub the butter and lard lightly into the flour, add the baking powder, salt, yolk of egg, and sufficient water to form a stiff paste. Roll out to the required thickness and use at once.

TIME - About 1/4 of an hour. SUFFICIENT for about 1 medium-sized tart

Mrs Beeton's recipe for rich short-crust has 1 level dessertspoonful of sugar - but 6 oz of butter, hence I compared my recipe with the normal short-crust)

My recipe

Ingredients:

4 oz (125g) of plain flour

4 oz (125g) of SR flour

4 oz (125g) of butter

2 oz (60g) of castor sugar

1 pinch of salt

About 3 tablespoons of water

Method: Put butter, flour, salt and sugar in a food processor. Turn on and process until it resembles bread crumbs, add egg yolk, and process, add water a little at a time until the mixture forms a ball of dough whirling round the mixer. Remove and roll out on a floured board/benchtop. The use or refridgerate until required (no more that 1 day)

Roll out, cut into tops (5cm circle cutter) and bottoms (round egg ring), put into a tart pan which has been brushed with melted copha (it makes the pastry crispier that using butter) and fill with fruit mince.

Bake for about 25 to 30 mins in a moderate oven (180 oC)

ABSOLUTELY can only be made if Christmas carols are blaring from the stereo, music box, or piano...