Festive

The Christmas tree is up, it's probably the earliest that it has ever gone up but all bets are off this year. 

The Christmas puddings are also all made, a couple of days earlier than usual, and a much smaller batch than usual this year. But I felt that this year, more than ever, it was really important to cling on to any traditions that we have. So much is different, so many new rules, regulations, restrictions, impositions on our lives. But what can remain the same, those little shreds of normality, those little pieces of life pre-Covid, will remain the same. And every year, I make Christmas puddings for the people I love. This year will be no different. The amount of people sat around our tables eating Christmas dinner may be fewer, but they will still tuck into a lovely homemade Christmas Pud. 

It was so much easier using two steamers! I'm usually stood there all day watching over it, topping up the water reservoir, but they were done in half the time. This will definitely be the way forward in future, especially if next year is a so-called normal year and I am called to make a lot more of the bigger puddings. I always have a little mixture that I keep aside to make a small pudding in a ramekin, and Mr G and I share it, just to check that the puddings taste good and are up to my usual standards. It's a big deal to me that they're nice, at the end of the day, the Christmas pud is just as important to a Christmas dinner as the turkey is, and I would hate to think that I've ruined someone's dinner by giving them a crap pudding. 

So, I'm pleased to report that this year's batch is bob on. This year I used Chaplin and Cork's Somerset Vintage Cider. I have used a Welsh cider for the last couple of years, but this year I couldn't find any in any of the supermarkets I shop at.  

This is the recipe that I use, and I have used it for many, many years now. This makes a large batch of Christmas puddings; at a rough estimate - one very large one, two medium ones and eight smaller ones. I estimate that it would probably make about four large ones. I use a full 500 ml of cider in the mixture. You could probably divide the mixture easily(ish!) by three to get a smaller mixture.

Ingredients

1.5 kg dried mixed fruit 
(you can be as creative as you like here. Some years I have put in dried apricots, dried figs, dried prunes, dates - all manner of dried fruit that I have had left over from cooking over the year. Or you can just bang in three bags of supermarket own value dried mixed fruit - which is what I have done this year)

1 full tub of glace cherries - left whole

1 large cooking apple, peeled, cored and diced

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Juice and zest of 1 large orange

500 ml of cider 

The day before...

Put all of your dried fruit, apple, zest and juice into a large mixing bowl. Pour over the cider and give it a really good stir. I tend to stir it around a few times, every few hours or so, to make sure all of the fruit gets to absorb the cider. 

Cover with a tea towel and leave in a cool place at least overnight, preferably 24 hours. 

In another large bowl you will need...

165g self raising flour
3 level tsp mixed spice
4 tsp cinnamon
330g shredded suet (beef or vegetarian - I use beef)
330g soft dark brown sugar
330g white fresh breadcrumbs
*optional 75g nuts - I omit them because they're not to everyone's taste

6 free range eggs, beaten

Stir together the flour, spices, suet, sugar and breadcrumbs until well combined. 

Add the marinated fruits to the dried mixture and stir until the ingredients are well mixed. Finally, stir in the beaten eggs.

Butter your pudding basins and spoon the mixture into them. Cover with a double layer of greaseproof paper and then foil.

Place into a steamer and cook for the relevant amount of time, depending on the size of the puddings. I cooked the very small ones for 2 hours. The medium sized ones for 4 hours, and the solo large pudding for 7 hours. 

The finished result... ta daah! They are currently wrapped in cling film and stored in my cold pantry, and I just need to jazz them up with cellophane wrap and ribbons and bows so they look the business to be gifted to my friends and family! 

The small ones will easily serve two after a large Christmas dinner. The medium ones would serve four to six people quite a decent portion, because they're deep. The large one maybe eight to ten people? 

Small, medium and large side by side. So, two jobs down. Next job - my Christmas Cake with Dark Chocolate. I always leave it a little later than usual, you're meant to make it weeks before and feed it with alcohol. Truth be told, there have been years where the cake hasn't even cooled, and it has been half eaten, let alone be fed, and decorated. This year though, I want the works. Marzipan, icing and cutesy decorations. 

My very few gifts have been arriving in dribs and drabs over the last week or so and are all wrapped. My daughter is completely done. She is going to two concerts next year, all being well, Nothing But Thieves and Dodie. I have bought her another couple of things that I know she wanted and needed, and the usual perfumes because she is currently wearing have you got any perfumes you don't want, Mum? The two eldest boys want money, which suits me fine. I have bought then a couple of bits to open though. The youngest is still umming and aahing about whether he wants cash, or clothes, or to replace his PS4 which has just had to be reset back to scratch. Twice. And what to replace it with, because apparently all my friends are going over to XBox. Of course they are when I've just splurged fifty quid on the new FIFA game for his PS4. I've got him a couple of aftershaves and something to wear as well. 

Mr G and I aren't doing big presents to each other this year, our new bed was our treat, when the bugger finally arrives that is. It's been delayed for up to a fortnight due to delays in sourcing materials. I kind of anticipated that this might happen with the lockdown in England, the beds are individually handmade to order and like everything, we have to understand that anything that is manufactured is going to take much longer right now. So, we're still sleeping in separate rooms, on a sofa and single mattress on the floor interchangeably. We are hoping to get our season tickets, should Covid not ruin another rugby season for us. I have got him a small gift ordered, something sentimental, that he doesn't know about. So, we are pretty much sorted. It's just a case of raiding the bank account and stuffing cash into money wallets. 

We are going Christmas shopping to Wrexham next Friday, I want to pick up some jeans from Primark for them, they all like their Primark skinny jeans; Mr G wants to take me to the little hippy shop to get something small to open (wooooooooo - a new crystal? Tarot cards?). I'll just be happy with a meander around the shops, a change of scenery and fish and chips, to be honest. I need new nightwear for the kids - another Christmas Eve tradition. I never did Christmas Eve boxes when they were kids, I just saw them as an added expense, but I have started doing them now they're older teenagers and adults to replace stockings, which are nothing but tat-filled expense. A new mug, an assortment of hot chocolate and stirrers, sweets, popcorn, a film, new PJs, face masks, bath bombs or smellies for a bath, all go towards making it a nice relaxing Christmas Eve for them. It's going to be a very different Christmas this year, for sure, but we will adapt and make the most of it, as best we can.