This morning Christmas day I took control of the volunteers, we had 30 members of the TA [territorial army] helping clean out the kennels & walking the dogs, Derby country & Nottingham Forest football clubs donated footballs for the dogs which arrived this morning with their reserve team [think that who they were] who also helped out by playing football with the dogs [who won paws down] Tomorrow we are going to have some Beavers, Cubs & Scouts arriving at 10am have also managed to talk some of my brothers off duty work colleagues [20 police officers] & their families to help out, as well as 7 of my nephews & 8 of my nieces who will be helping to clean out the kennels. I am now going to start cooking our Christmas dinner now everyone as finished work & are back home.
How wonderful is all that? I do hope you managed to cook your Christmas dinner and enjoyed it all and that you had enough spare Christmas pudding for me. I get mad cravings for M&S Christmas puddings at times!
Fantastic! I hope today went well too. Well-meaning helpers can sometime be more trouble than help, so well done on handling that. How many kennel staff does the home usually employ?
I make my own Christmas Puddings We have 15 full time staff, 10 part time staff & uni students that's doing animal care [not sure what the course is called]
Save some for me pleeeeeese. Actially the M&S ones are vegetarian therefore even though they are not strictly Kasher, they are the only ones I can eat. SNIFF. [Stop drooling Malka, it is impolite]
As I am a vegetarian that's why I make my own : 100g plain flour 1 tsp mixed spice 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg Pinch ginger powder 100g fresh white breadcrumbs 100g dark brown sugar 150g chilled butter, diced 150g sultanas 150g raisins 50g candied peel, diced 1 apple, grated 50g chopped dates 50g honey or golden syrup 1 lemon, grated rind and juice 2 eggs, lightly beaten Small bottle of brandy [best not to drive afterwards] Sieve the flour and spices into a bowl and stir in the breadcrumbs and add the sugar. Rub the butter into this mixture until it resembles a rough breadcrumb texture. Stir in the sultanas, raisins, peel, grated apple and chopped dates. Lightly whisk together the golden syrup, lemon rind and juice, eggs and brandy. Pour into the fruit mixture and stir well to combine everything together. Lightly grease 2 x 500ml pudding basins and spoon in the Christmas pudding mixture. Fill to within about 1 cm from the top of the bowls. Cover each pudding with a disc of greaseproof paper and secure with a double layer of foil, tied in place with string. Steam each pudding for 2-3 hours, until they have darkened and are firm to the touch. [To save time you can cook them in a pressure cooker for about 30 mins]. Leave to cool slightly before turning out. When completely cool, wrap each pudding in greaseproof paper and store in an airtight tin. This pudding tastes even better if given a month or so to mature after steaming.
Tina - with such a performance for just little me, I think I will just dream of your pudds! I do not have so many ingredients and just for me it would not be worth getting them,even if I could. Golden Syrup is not available here - no idea about all the other things and the only brandy I have seen is in 1 litre bottles - and I do not drink! I would also not be physical enough to do all that, but oh does it sound good! Ah, but your recipe does sound good, so if you have any left, please chomple a small spoonful for me!
