Happy St-Cecilia Day!

Tags

Brandy, Christmas, MinceMeat Pie, Music, Ottawa, Pappano, Plum Pudding, Recipe, Rome, Santa Cecilia

Today is the Feast Day of the Patron Saint of Music and Musicians. Santa-Cecilia which is celebrated in Rome in her Basilica in Trastevere.

The site and building is quite ancient, though the facade is Baroque, the urn in the garden pool is about 2000 years old. In Rome we had Season subscription to Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in the Auditorium Parco della Musica a wonderful concert hall designed by famed architect and Roman Senator Renzo Piano. www.santacecilia.it

The orchestra under Antonio Pappano and the choir are excellent.

Some of the famous graduates from the Accademia, Opera star Cecilia Bartoli, composer Ennio Morricone, Conductor Daniel Barenboim and Nino Rota.

The three halls are designed on the outside to look like ancient Egyptian Scarabs, recalling the long history of Rome and Egypt.

So this morning we added another Cup of Brandy to the mix of the Plum Pudding and for good luck stirred with a wooden spoon counter clockwise the mix. We have one big pudding, note that it has the Cipher of the Sovereign on it. A few years ago when I was in Rome on posting, some of you may remember, we received a gift of a Christmas Plum Pudding from the Queen, this is her gift to her staff, we kept the bowl ever since. Using it this year again for our own mix. We also made two little ones with what was left.

The mix is now ready to be covered and boiled for 6 hours for the big one.

The Italian Brandy we use in the mix.

Now cover in water to half way up the side of the dish. 

You can buy a good quality Plum Pudding from stores, Selfridges or Fortnum and Mason, Liberty in London and they are also imported by reputable retailers in North America. For me it is the dessert for the Xmas table beats all other sweets.

I could not resist taking this picture of the neighbours house all decked out in Blue Lights for Xmas. Many of the houses in our neighbourhood were built around 1910 and all have this type of architecture.