Deck the Halls - Fa la la la la - 2009
 

Deck the halls with bowels of folly, fa la la la la la etc etc etc..

So, have you started yet? what are you doing with your boughs this year? Are they regular?
We've made the Christmas Pudding 2009 and it is currently boiling in a puddin' cloth.

That's about all our prep so far...

Oh, the recipe:

250 g Currant
250 g Sultanas
125 g Raisins
125 g Mixed peel
62-1/2 g Slivered Almonds
250 g Butter
250 g Brown sugar
4-1/2 Eggs
1/2 cup Brandy
125 g Breadcrumbs
125 g Plain flour
pinch Salt
1/2 tsp Bicarb
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Mixed spice

• Clean and prepare all the fruit, chop the peel finely.
• Have a LARGE boiler ready with boiling water.
• Cream the butter and sugar, add the beaten eggs and brandy.
• Stir the fruit in.
• Add breadcrumbs, sifted flour, salt, bicarb, nutmeg and spice.
• Stir well together, making sure everyone gets a stir for luck.
• Boil a 70cm x 70cm Pudding cloth (Calico) then spread out on bench and finely sift additional flour over surface till covered.
• Place cloth in basin, and pour pudding batter in. Gather cloth and tie with string, allowing a little room for expansion.
• Place in boiling water and boil for 3 hours.
• Remove from water and hang overnight to dry.
• Next day, pour OverProof Rum over calico to disinfect, and hang in a cool dry place until needed (2-3 weeks recommended.)
• Boil pudding a further 2 hours on the puddin'-eatin' day. Serve with Hard Sauce (Brandy, Sugar and Butter creamed toether) or custard.

We just put up the Christmas tree and a few things around the house. :) We still have quite a bit before we're finished with the tree and whatnot.

I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday putting up my outside display. The lights dance to music. I"ll have to put the video on YouTube.:D

Now I have to do the inside......

Heh heh.....she said 'whatnot'.

a Wicker Whatnot?

Christmas this year is going to look a lot like Halloween, at least through the Christmas party. But no decorations go up until I get some serious cleaning done. I'm starting to wonder how on earth I'm gonna get it all done.

Real pudding sounds like a lot of work. I barely have the energy to add milk to the Jello Instant variety.

This is the overview of our outside decorations so far.

We killed Rudolph, and every year we bungee cord his trophy head to our mailbox, for that special touch of Christmas CLASS!

Lights are up on the outside of the house....Christmas shopping almost done and so much more to do in such a short time! Will be doing a little each day.

I will get some garland and lights up in the windows this week. Looking forward to decorating. Xmas cards will be going out this week, too.

I spent all weekend with Mrs. Moonie prepping the new kitchen: Laying shelf paper, sorting what to keep, what not to keep, figuring out where stuff goes, running the dishwashers non-stop to clear all the construction dust off everything, organizing the spices, loading the new fridge, etc.. etc... Hopefully by the end of the week we'll be able to actually cook/bake something in there.

"Pudding bag" strikes me as the least appetizing term in the cooking glossary.

Fitting for something you'd prepare your spotted dick in.

Yeah, you have a kitchen again!! No more microwave everything.

A question though, how did you make it through Thanksgiving?

It's killing me to not set up the decor this year, but we'll be visiting Ken's entire family in Alabama most of that week, so we didn't want to bother.

However, I'm using the decorating time to make the 25+ gifts for that trip, plus having a much needed cleaning-fest around our home. It's starting to sparkle! :)

We put the new tree up yesterday. FYI don't put a white fake tree in front of a window that gets a lot of sunlight it will turn brown.

Put up all the shiny brite ornaments that I got from Moms. I also found this very cool tree skirt that my grandmother had made. We'll do the rest in bits and pieces.

The key to that was not having it at our house this year. However, we did have a working wall oven that enabled us to make the traditional Moonie family cornbread stuffing. Easily the key component in any successful Thanksgiving dinner.

I'd agree with you there Moonie, no stuffing, it's just not the same.

So? Care to share the family recipe? I'm always looking for new ones.

I can get it for you, but it's from Mrs. Moonie's side which means the recipe is things like: Crumble up a batch of Nan's biscuits, Stir it till it looks right, add an extra egg (without ever saying how many eggs to start with....) etc...

So you spent the entire weekend repeating "yes dear", taking things out of boxes and staying out of the way?

Probably the only decking we will be doing is for NYE. Although, I might try and sneak a Christmas Tree in there somewhere.

The cats will love it I'm sure!

I call it a diaper......

Soon, CP & GD will have plenty of experience with "Pudding Bags"!

:D

Mostly I just said: "As you wish."

Blurgh !! I currantly (get it, currants?) have a pudding hanging in a pudding-cloth (not bag) and i'll not look at it the same now.

This is the time of year where I say "oh, I still have a month left" and then suddenly it's January. Right now, the place is a pit. I have to clean up so I can decorate and work on NYE outfits.

That is SO true. Half the time we end up buying our Christmas decorations and presents at the post-Christmas sales, not because we're thrifty, but just because we didn't get time to do it before...:blush: