The Holidays are coming…

Tags

Cards, cuisine, Food, Friends, gifts, Holiday, Nigel Slater, traditions

For those of you like my friend Dr Spo in Phoenix who wonder if Christmas is near, well after Thanksgiving back on the first Monday in October, we all know there is Halloween but heck it’s time to plan and set dates and menus. Just this past weekend we went to two cocktail parties and two dinner parties. We have already planned our Christmas Eve and Day, menus set etc… For New Year’s Eve 2020 things are in motion and should be well organized fairly soon.

Today Will and I were looking at Nigel Slater’s recipe for Plum Pudding. He is a British Chef and we love his recipes. He writes for the Guardian newspaper in London. So off to the Bulk Barn to buy all the fruits needed for the Plum ”Christmas” Pudding. Buying these ingredients, it really put me into the mood. Next Sunday 24 November is stir up Sunday so time to start the process.

Ingredients

• 350g/12¼oz sultanas
• 350g/12¼oz raisins or currants
• 150g/5¼oz dried figs, chopped
• 125g/4½oz candied peel
• 100g/3½oz dried apricots
• 75g/2½oz dark glacé cherries, halved
• 150ml/5fl oz brandy
• 100g/3½oz ginger in syrup, chopped, plus 2 tbsp of the syrup
• 2 apples grated
• 2 oranges, juice and zest
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 250g/8¾oz shredded suet
• 350g/12¼oz soft muscovado sugar
• 250g/8¾oz fresh breadcrumbs
• 175g/6¼oz self-raising flour
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 2 old sixpences or coins

Method

1. For this recipe you will need two 1.5 litre(2½ pint) plastic pudding basins with lids.

2. Soak the sultanas, raisins, currants, figs, peel, apricots and cherries in the brandy overnight, giving it a good stir now and again.

3. The following day, in a large bowl mix the ginger, syrup, apples, orange juice and zest with the eggs, suet, sugar, crumbs and flour.

4. Stir in the soaked fruit and spice.

5. Grease the two pudding basins and divide the mix between them. Add coins now if using.

6. Cut two circles of greaseproof paper to cover the top of the pudding and fold a pleat down the centre to allow pudding to expand.

7. Put lids on the basins and steam puddings for 3½ hours.

8. Let puddings cool before removing greaseproof paper and covering tightly with cling film and lid. The puddings can now be stored in a cool, dry place until Christmas.

9. To reheat, steam pudding for a further 3½ hours, turn out and flame with brandy.

Can’t wait to flame the pudding, such a treat.

 

I also added this recipe by Nigel because it is not Christmas without Stilton Cheese. 

 

 

Stilton Cheese for me always brings back wonderful memories of Christmas and stops on the way home in London to shop. The quality and variety on offer in London is truly amazing. In Rome Christmas shopping was wonderful for wines and quality chocolates, cheeses, meats, olives, etc… Munich and Dresden Christmas Markets loads of fun, great food and tons of atmosphere. In Warsaw we had the most beautiful trees and again all the special Christmas food much of it borrowed from Jewish European Cuisine. Copenhagen was also great for Christmas Shopping so many beautiful things in the shops, style and elegance.

Also this year we have decided to return to good old fashion Christmas Cards and mail them with postage stamps to friends. We had been doing a lot of electronic cards in the last 10 years and well it is not the same and we enjoy receiving cards in the mail, it is so much more personal.

Finally today we went to the Pharmacy to get our Free Flu shot. In Canada everyone can, if you want get a free Flu Shot. It takes minutes and that is it, simple, how civilized.

So yesterday I took a little nap on the sofa and my Nicky wanted to snuggle up and he, like all Dachshund loves to squeeze in, so there with his big nose breathing in my face. He is just keeping an eye on me.

The Cows Ice Cream shop love to sell souvenirs in the form of T-Shirts, Sweaters, caps etc. All of them have a funny saying on them and I saw this one in the window and I thought this is the sort of thing you want for Christmas, you know for that special cousin.

La Fête des Rois Mages

Tags

BULGARI, Christmas, cookies, Epiphany, gifts, sunshine, the 3 kings

Well today is the 6 January, the last day of the Christmas festivities. Again at dinner time we were listening to Radio Canada from Montreal and Monique Giroux the host of the music show had a special 1969 French Song of that year. It was a great year for French songs in Canada and in France, many hits for sure and some duds. I was 12 years old in 1969 and the Host Monique Giroux was 6 years old. It was so strange to hear all these old songs, many made me smile remembering Montreal then, we lived in Snowdon and the big street was Queen Mary Road name after the wife of King George V.

My father was the manager of the Bonaventure Hotel which was operated then be Western International, the hotel part of United Airlines, my Mom was in real estate in Westmount, then a really expensive stone mansion was $50,000. For some unexplained reason this Holiday Season I have been thinking a lot about my parents and my childhood years in Montreal. Our Prime Minister then was Pierre E. Trudeau, the father of our current PM Justin, who was not even born. It was also the year before the October Crisis which would see Martial Law impose for 6 months with the army occupying the streets. Being in Quebec, despite our young age I remember how aware we were of the political events.

This beautiful mosaic in the cathedral of San Vitale in Ravenna of the 3 kings dressed in the Gaul style with pants and the red phrygian caps bearing gifts to Jesus. 

This being the Feast of Epiphany, La Befana brought me a gift. In Italy she is the old lady who gives gifts to children on this day, there is NO Santa in the Italian tradition. BULGARI  is my favourite.

 

Will also made Peanut Butter cookies, they are very good but not the 22 dozens the recipe called for.

Home at 04:10 pm with the sun setting in the West.

Epiphany 6 January

Tags

Epiphany, gifts, Italy, La Befana, women

6th January 2017,

Throughout Italy the 6th of January is traditionally a gift giving holiday though in the rest of the world it is a bit of a quiet day. Decorations come down (or bad luck will fall), leaving rooms looking a bit sparse and bare. It’s back to work and for kids, it’s countless weeks of school until Easter. But in Italy, Epiphany is a cause for celebration and is celebrated all over the country. It’s a day that marks the 12th day of Christmas when Jesus received his gifts from the Three Wise Men. One of the most commonly known aspects of Epiphany is the old woman, La Befana, who comes bearing gifts of good for the well behaved kids and lumps of coal for the not so well behaved youngsters (although, to sweeten the mood, the coal tends to be a lump of coal-shaped candy), there is no Santa Claus in Italian tradition. Many areas put on special celebrations for the legend of the old woman who encountered the Wise Men on their route to the manger. She too wanted to offer a gift for the Christ Child and this is how she became in folkloric legend the one who bears gifts to children on Epiphany. Christmas Day remains a religious holiday, though a minor one in Roman Catholic tradition compared to Easter which is the most important religious holiday on the calendar.

A conventional take on the La Befana celebration is in Urbania, which really goes to town with a four-day spectacular during which kids can meet the lady herself in La Casa della Befana. Another familiar element of Epiphany is the Nativity, and a good number of regions act out the scene, following the living nativities of the Christmas period. One of the best known of the nativities is the one in Rivisondoli, which relives the moment in which the Wise Men arrived – and it does so on a large scale with lots of extras in costume and a genuine atmosphere.