Pencil case

While the pudding was bubbling away on the hob, I whipped up a nifty little pencil case, using this tutorial.  It measures about 8″ x 2.5″.  What I particularly like about this pattern is its shape; rather than just being a simple rectangular pouch, the sides are triangular.

Pudding pudding pudding

I made my Christmas pudding today.  The house has filled with the very smell of Christmas itself!  God, I love pudding. 

Now, before I show you what I was up to this morning, let me warn you not to make the mistake I did – make sure the quantities for your recipe will fit your pudding bowl.  I am amazed I did this as I am a good and practised baker, but I did, so remember that pride comes before a fall.  I ended up making 1.5 litres of mixture for a 1.5 pint bowl.  This only resulted in more mixture to eat afterwards, which is hardly the end of the world, but just be aware of quantities.  The recipe is taken from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess.

I began yesterday by marinating the dried fruit in plenty of whiskey.  The fruit I used was a mishmash of what was already in the house and some picked up in town yesterday – primarily dark raisins and sultanas but also plenty of currants, sour morello cherries (which, to my surprise, are absolutely lovely – I’m used to fairly disgusting glacé cherries; I recommend you try these out if you’re not a fan of glacé cherries), white raisins for colour and prunes.  The mixture was turned every so often to make sure the alcohol was distributed evenly.

Next, I got together the dry ingredients.  (The things that look like maggots are vegetarian suet.)

Then the two were combined with some eggs to produce the mixture on the left:

I have already mentioned how I made too much mixture; I compensated for this by overfilling the pudding bowl to a ludicrous degree.  Evidence of the same:

I think the thing I like most about Christmas pud, that gives it its sense of occasion, is its combination of baking and crafting, at least when you use the old-fashioned bowl without a lid.  For the benefit of Miss Eat a Vegan, I have gone to town on the photos for this section so she can see how olde-worlde puddings are prepared for boiling.

Firstly, assemble your materials: greaseproof paper, string, scissors and sellotape (yes, sellotape).

Cut a good length of greaseproof and fold a little pleat across its middle.

 

Now cut this into a vaguely circular shape, at least a good three inches more than the diameter of your pudding  bowl.  Better to have it too big than too small.

Now, using the minimum amount of tape (about six pieces should do it), stick down the greaseproof to the bowl.

Now tie down the paper with your string.  Having secured it this way, remove the tape.

Now you’re ready to put your pudding into a saucepan (which has been lined at the bottom with crumpled tin foil) with some boiling water to simmer for about three and a half hours!

I’ll post again on how the pudding turns out after Christmas; after boiling, it looked very well, but (for the benefit of any Americans I might know reading this) it has to be kept in its bowl, the wet greaseproof covering is removed and then the pudding is wrapped up in more greaseproof and left to mature; it will then be boiled again before serving on Christmas day, when it will finally get turned out of the bowl, to be scoffed with copious amounts of cream.

Last weekend

As I mentioned in my last post, I was in London last weekend.  On Saturday, the BF and I had a lovely walk, starting at Little Venice in mid-afternoon and on through Regent’s Park.  We were just at the top of Marylebone High Street as night began to descend, making all the shop windows even more inviting and Christmassy (I know in my head it’s too early to be Christmassy, but I didn’t feel that way last weekend).

Talking of Christmassy, it’s Stir-up Sunday tomorrow, everyone, which means it’s the traditional Sunday to make your Christmas pudding and/or cake.  No-one eats Christmas cake in our house but I’m planning on a fairly brilliant pudding, as it’s pretty much my favourite Christmas food.  I have the fruit marinating in the booze already.  There will be a post about the pud, that’s a guarantee.

Anyway, I flitted about on Marylebone High Street crying out, “Ooh, Emma Bridgewater!”, “Ooh, Rococo!” and the like; this section of the day culminated in a happy while in Daunt Books amongst the weekend crush.  I don’t know what their system is, but Daunt Books just have a way of picking out really fascinating books for display, making browsing fascinating but very slow.

It was full night by the time we got to Oxford Street, which the BF insisted on getting away from as quickly as humanly possible (after he got to look into HMV).  It was a Saturday and I suppose the day could be classed as in the run-up to Christmas, but the number of people surging about was fairly astonishing.  We dipped out of the throng and headed for Liberty, where the BF tried out the armchairs in the furniture section while I hummed and hawed in the haberdashery.

On Sunday, the BF’s valiant effort to get me to go to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum failed but I compromised on a trip to the Darwin exhibition in the same venue, which was enjoyable and well put together, but a bit of a mixed bag all the same.  They rather belaboured the point that the exhibition was not quite a chronological story but instead a “journey of the mind”; I was also surprised that it wasn’t a production of the NHM itself but an American production – towards the end of the exhibition, the emphasis was on the impact of Darwin’s theory of evolution on America rather than a European or a worldwide view, which I would have found a bit more interesting.  Still, the exhibits of animals that Darwin would have seen during his round-the-world trip as a young man, accompanied by his commentary on them, were very interesting, and I could see it being a fun trip for families, as there were plenty of “feel what the extinct animal may have felt like” exhibits.  The exhibition also opened up a new side to the man, such as his propensity to throw animals into the sea over and over again in the name of research.

I’m back in Dublin and this weekend I’m … babysitting.  Sigh.

However, I can now officially announce that I will be able to go to the ball after all – the ball being the Bust Craftacular in London on December 6th, so expect a report on that at some point too.

The stash is breeding

I was in London last weekend, which of course means I was in Liberty.  These are the fabrics I got.  (Forgive the photos which were taken in artifical light.)

First of all is this (what I think is a) Rowan fan print in pink.

Next is this gorgeous Liberty peacock print.  The more I look at it the more I like it, but I’m not quite sure what I’ll do with it yet.

I think the above is my favourite – it’s an Amy Butler print.  I feel this photo in particular doesn’t do the fabric justice but trust me, it’s fantastic in the flesh.  I’m making a pencil case out of this one for sure, because I’ll always be able to find such a groovy print at the bottom of my bag.

Another Liberty cotton print.  Like the peacock print, I’m not yet sure just what I’ll do with this one, but I still think it’s super.

Flea market in Dublin

Highly excitingly, there will be a flea market this Sunday in the Dublin Food Co-Op Building.  If you’re interested in selling or have questions, email dublinflea@gmail.com.

Via Homebug.

God bless nice people

My millions of avid readers will remember the unfortunate incident with my brand-new Brittany knitting needles a while ago.  This week I received two new knitting needles in the post from a lovely lady called Sue from Artesano, the UK distributor of Brittany needles, to replace the one that snapped.  Thank you very much Sue and Brittany!

Modish competition

Modish is running a fantastic competition where a lucky person could win this sort of thing;

Check it out here, but act quickly – the deadline is this Sunday.

An American vegan’s insight into my country

“Ireland is full of parsnips:” link.

Another time-constricted link

This American Life is a weekly show on Chicago Public Radio.  Each week they choose a different theme and present a selection of stories and reports based on that theme.  This week the theme is the haves and have-nots, and in honour of the demise of Studs Terkel, they dug out an old show of his from 1971.  In it he interviews a variety of people who lived through the Depression and the views and experiences shared are simply remarkable.  You will only be able to download the free mp3 before next Monday (ie. 18 November) so I recommend you high-tail it here as soon as you can.

A magnificent work of staggering genius

Joe Cornish’s reworking of the Antiques Roadshow theme tune this week.