Memorandum Monday: And We'll Have Pudding After All

Ah, Monday! A get-up-and-go-to-work day here. A take-care-of yourself-and-don't-stay-late day! (that would be from me). An I'll-be-fine, where's-my-tie? day (that'll be from him, after a break of ten weeks, easing slowly back to the office). We've spent more time together over the last couple of months than at any time since the summer we were married; and I'm not complaining. I have material for a December Memories journal all ready thanks to our extra two-some outings:

In fact, I started early:

and have been filling it with Christmas-in-November. You might remember this one

and there was this one:

and then we squeezed in some baking:

Ah. And at this point, I have to apologise, no excuses, to Mitra, to whom I promised a Christmas pudding recipe several weeks ago now. I completely forgot until I started putting this page together. What did I learn this weekend? That I can't rely on my memory any more. We scrapbookers have a word for that realisation. We call it opportunity. Don't want to forget? Write it down in any number of notebooks, make a page. Can't quite remember? Pull out an album.

Last year, at this time, I made a gift book for our girl, to mark her last Christmas spent at school. Quite a number of friends asked me how I felt about marking that moment in my life when I would no longer have any school children coming home with invitations to carol concerts and Saturday morning fairs. It felt like an ending; and I'm never good with those: but I had no idea how much of a beginning it wold show us at the time time. The race towards Christmas this year has already offered up some unexpected delights here and there are new possibilities for all of us opening up, revealing themselves already, for the new year.

Our girl came home to decorate the Christmas tree on Saturday. She made sure we had our traditional fish and chip supper once the tree lights were finally in place, before she disappeared to find some bright lights of her own. There'll be a page in that, though it's a story I don't expect to forget in a hurry...

....but I'm ramblin' on, when I had intended to post the Christmas pudding recipe for anyone who is curious. Everyone in the UK knows what it is and has a way of making it; but every year I get a question or two from farther afield, so I thought I'd leave it here, just in case.

Granny Fair's Christmas Pudding

Ingredients:

• 3 oz fresh breadcrumbs
• 3 oz self raising flour
• 3 oz Atora vegetable suet
• 3 oz brown sugar
• 8 oz sultanas
• 3 oz mixed peel
• 3 oz crystallised ginger
• 3 ox chopped cherries
• grated rind and juice of one orange 
• 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3 eggs

Method:

1. Grease bowl (2 pint mason bowl) and put disc of greaseproof paper in base
2. Weigh fruit and put in a casserole or bowl. Add orange rind and juice and cover
3. Weigh dry ingredients and put in another bowl. Mix thoroughly.
4. Add fruit to dry ingredients and sprinkle in spice.
5. Beat up eggs and stir in. 
6. Tip into greased mason bowl
7. Cover with two sheets of greaseproof paper and then a double layer of foil. Tie on with string, very tightly.
8. Steam or boil on hob for six hours
9. Remove boil from steamer and take off the cover immediately
10. When cold re-cover, ready to steam again for two hours on Christmas Day.

It sounds complicated. It isn't and this has been the Fair family pudding since the days of Great Grannie Fair, who went to Catering College with Delia Smith's aunt. Mmm..I wonder how it compares with Delia's recipe? I've never thought to check that..

A slightly different memo today! That's mine: how about yours? Anything new? Anything you learned that you didn't know before? You know the drill..

Deb, Helena, Mary-Lou, Ladkyis, Karen, Fiona, Maggie, Eileen, Alexandra, Barbara, Jane and Mitra made a memo last week. Go on, give 'em a wave! And have a good week!

Rain Can't Stop Play with 5 Minute Cake

Rain stopped play? Round here? Not if I can help it. Over the weekend we were grateful for

- our subscription to Lovefilm, which was a gift from friends as a bit of a joke because we are such Sky refuseniks. This week we had "Hugo". Wow, so much to look at in every scene!

- a microwave-it-in-a-mug sponge cake recipe (see below) which let us eat cake in no time at all

- a big brother who has passed his Driving Test and could take his little sister to the shop for cocoa powder for the cake. Chocolate is nicer than plain.

- a funny email from Uncle Dave who is back in the States. "I skyped Little E," he wrote. "It's a bit weird having Little E in your office." Weird? I think it's genius. I think we could market it as a whole concept. Like Puppy in your Pocket. Only cuter..

Happy Tuesday..

..it'll be happier with cake:

5 Minute Chocolate Cake:

4 tablespoons flour

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons oil

1 very large mug to make it in

Add the dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add egg and mix again. add milk and oil and mix again.

Cook in the microwave for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake might rise up over the top of the mug, but it does sink a little again. 

That's it! I'm not claiming it's gourmet, but it's fast, it's fun and it's perfect for sleepovers or any other activity involving teenage girls. Really.

My page today is inspired by Studio Calico's Pop off the Page class, with embellishments from the class kit.
The cloud button is from Flair For Buttons - I love these (found them through the winner of my Makeover Giveaway Alinor at Freeze Frame).

I took the photo through the window to capture the rain on the glass.

International Virtual Pot Luck Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the International Virtual Pot Luck Blog Hop, organised by Deb in Arizona. Today it is me..

..The (Not So) Small One instead of my Mum, Sian. Although she does most of the cooking every day, it is not one of her favourite things to do. But I LOVE to cook; so I have taken over for a little while! I am very excited to be part of this and I hope you all like my recipe.

I have a main dish to show you today

I got this recipe from my Home Economics class in school. We were learning all about a teenager's dietary requirements and this was a suggested healthy dish. We had to cook it as part of our Christmas exam and I had a lot of fun practising it at home. It is the perfect dish to cook if you have guests as it is quick to make, easy to enlarge and it tastes great!

Wedge Topped Mediterranean Pie Serves two

Ingredients

225g lean mince beef

1/2 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 red pepper, seeded and cut into chunks

200g chopped canned tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato puree

50g cheddar cheese, cut into cubes

big pinch of mixed herbs

salt and pepper to taste

175g frozen potato wedges

25g mozzarella cheese

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C or Gas Mark 6

2. Dry the mince , onion and garlic until browned. Add the pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes

3. Add remaining ingredients except the potato wedges and the mozzarella cheese and cook for 2-3 minutes. Place in a large ovenproof dish

4.Top with the potato wedges and sprinkle with the cheese. Cook in the oven for approx 20 minutes.

You'll love this! But if you'd like to try another main dish, then it's time for you to hop on over to Jacky at Scrappy Jacky. I'm sure she has something good for you. Happy Hopping! Don't forget if you get lost along the way you can start back with Deb right at the beginning and enjoy the rest of the party

Coconut Ice

It's bad when the power goes off in the kitchen. It's good when you can turn to your tall son for help.

I go:  Oh, no, the washing machine has tripped all the switches

He goes:  You can't reach the fuse box, can you Mum?

I adopt a suitably helpless expression and go: Could you please have a look in the fuse box for me?

And he punches the air in macho delight. Sorted. Apart from the washing machine. And so, instead of doing the laundry, we made a batch of coconut ice

Coconut Ice

375g (13oz) icing sugar

125ml (4 fl oz) milk

pinch of salt

25g (1oz) butter

60g (2oz) desiccated coconut

pink food colouring

• 
  
  Heat the icing sugar, milk, butter and salt in a saucepan, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Stop stirring and bring it to the boil.
• 
  
  Cook until it reaches softball stage. we use a sugar thermometer to check this.
• 
  
  Stir in the coconut and let it sit for 5 minutes (much longer and it starts to set)
• 
  
  Divide in two and colour half of it pink
• 
  
  Put the white mixture into a buttered dish and then pour the pink onto the top
• 
  
  Let it set and then cut into squares.

It's very sweet, but it's very delicious.

Today I'm Loving...an idea from Silver Pebble which I found via Sandie. It's called Passing a Book On . I'm thinking we should start a chain right here.

How To Make Fudge In Two Minutes

You haven't done any cooking lately, said The Small One, looking up from a steaming plate of beef casserole. I was about to point out stew doesn't stew itself when she added On your blog, I mean. And I couldn't really argue with that, so I had a bit of a think and a rummage through my blog-stuff notebook and I found this:

Two Minute Microwave Fudge

You will need:

1lb icing sugar

1/2 cup margarine or butter

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup optional chopped nuts, cherries, raisins or any other fudge enhancer you enjoy

• Mix the sugar and the cocoa powder together well in a large microwaveable bowl.
• Make a well in the middle, slice the butter into it and add the milk
• Microwave for 2 minutes on high
• Remove and stir vigorously before adding your extras
• Turn into a very, very well buttered pan and refrigerate

And that is all there is to it. We tested it yesterday and, really, it tastes as if we put quite a bit more time than two minutes into it. Or even five, by the time we'd washed up. That's as fast as popcorn. And that's always a good thing in this house.

If you fancy trying a different fudge recipe I have one for choc and cherry flavour right here

A Bit Of Potato Bread For St. Patricks Day

It's St. Patricks day tomorrow so I thought I'd give you my recipe for Irish potato bread. When we were younger we celebrated by colouring our beer green and drinking lots of it, or by concocting an Irish Stew entirely from Guinness and a couple of carrots. But those days are long gone and now we make do with a big plateful of this. It has to be dripping with butter to be entirely authentic. But that's ok, because I'm fairly sure that some years ago calorie counting was declared illegal on St Patricks Day. Possibly on all other public holidays as well, come to think of it. It is also best served warm and the traditional way of achieving this is to cook in batches and keep on a plate under a fresh tea towel in a low oven until you are ready to feast. We like to savour it without any additions; but it is good with ham, bacon, sausages and eggs.

• 1 lb and 4 oz cooked mashed potato
• 1 oz butter
• 5 oz plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• oil for frying

1. Put the mashed potato in a mixing bowl and add the butter and the salt. Gradually add in the flour, kneading it gently
2. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least an hour
3. Roll out the dough on a floured surface so that it is about 1/2cm thick and cut into triangles
4. Heat oil or fat (whatever you cook your roast potatoes in) and fry until browned.

And that's all there is to it.

Choc and Cherry Christmas

We're all feeling a lot better here -thank you for all your good wishes- and we are ready to make a second batch of this quick fudge recipe. We've eaten one lot already: but really it's very easy to make more. I think the original recipe came from a US Country Living magazine many years ago:

• You will need 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar; 2/3 cup milk; 1/4 cup butter or margerine; 12ozs white chocolate (chopped); 3/4 cup glace cherries (coarsely chopped)
• Line an 8 inch tray with foil and grease it
• Mix sugar and milk in a heavy pan
• Over a medium heat, add the butter and stirring constantly bring to the boil
• Without stirring, boil constantly for 5 minutes
• Over a low heat add chocolate and stir until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth
• Stir in the cherries and pour into pan
• Refrigerate for 2 hours until firm and the remove foil and cut into 1 inch squares.

Very easy! It doesn't need boiling for ages and you don't need a sugar thermometer. It makes a nice gift too. If I can bear to give some away I present it in a bamboo steamer: I crumple some wax paper to put in the bottom, arrange the fudge, pop the lid on and secure with a big ribbon bow or length of Christmassy fabric. Here I used a piece of red toile. And that's all there is to it.

Today I'm Loving...It's A Creative World with their new contributor my friend Alexa. I think you'll like it.

Edinburgh Rock

So: Edinburgh Rock. It's not easy to describe, but I know I need to try. Some of you might think it looks like this:

And in the right circumstances, it can. But the stuff we are after today looks like this:

It's kind of hard; but strangely soft. It melts in the mouth and dares you to reach for another piece. It is one of the sweetest, sugariest treats ever invented. And now I know how to make my own! Go on, give it a go. Usual dental health warnings apply.

• You will need 2 cups granulated sugar, 3/4 cup of water and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar.

• Heat the sugar and water until the mixture is about to boil.

• Add the cream of tartar and boil without stirring until it reaches "hard ball" stage (130C or 250F)
• Take it off the heat and add some food colouring if you wish. The colour fades as the mixture cools so you can be a bit generous here.
• Pour it onto a buttered baking sheet or the kind of cold surface you would use for making pastry.

• Now, here comes the technical bit. Turn the edges into the centre a couple of times but don't try stirring it. When it is cool enough to touch, dust it with icing sugar and begin to pull it as you would with taffy. Don't be tempted to twist it, but keep pulling until it becomes "dull" to look at. Now pull it into strips and cut off into chunks.
• You've done the technical bit. Now you have to do the hard bit. Leave it for at least 24 hours. The longer you can stand it, the softer your rock will become. And it is soft and powdery you are aiming for. That's the authentic taste! Store (if you can bear it) in an airtight tin.

And that's Edinburgh Rock. If you try it, I'd love to know how it turns out. It's a quick make for a Sunday afternoon..and if you like you can bring some to munch when you join me on the Blog Train tomorrow. Everyone welcome! We're going back in time..

Post-prandial Pumpkin

Or The Morning after the Night Before

I'm guessing I'm not the only one who opened their fridge this morning and found this:

It is, of course, a great big pulpy bowl of prepared pumpkin innards. And I know it needs attending to. I have 2 ideas:
1.Delicious Pumpkin Muffin Recipe


Ingredients :

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups sugar

¾ cups vegetable oil

3 large eggs

3 cups shredded pumpkin, fresh or frozen

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Prep the baking pans with non-stick cooking spray or muffin cases.

• Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.

• In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, vegetable oil and eggs. Combine both mixtures and fold in the shredded pumpkin. Once the ingredients are incorporated pour into muffin tins.

• Bake for 30-35 minutes.

2. (And this is my preferred option today) Freeze the lot. I've done this before and it works perfectly well. I'm going to bag up pumpkin portions, ready to bake into muffins on another day. Probably a cold, dull rainy day when a bit of extra cosiness will go down well all round. The kind of day when staying inside and scrapbooking seems a Very Good Thing to do.

I won't be doing any special Halloween pages this year, though. The Small One decided she was just a little bit too big for dressing up. Or maybe she had a sneaking suspicion that last year's costume simply couldn't be beat: I give you Wednesday Addams. Method acting? Who said that?

If you fancy a bit of Halloween crafting inspiration after the event, the Copy+Paste girls will still be happy to see you. Check them out!