COLD DARK ROOM

Ray--Opo

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A traditional Christmas pudding ingredients
- a mix of dried fruit (currants, raisins, sultanas and candied mixed peel)

- spices (mixed spice, nutmeg, cinnamon)

- alcohol ~ mine has stout (eg Guinness), Barley Wine (also a beer despite the name) and Brandy

- Fruit (chopped apple, grated lemon and orange peel)

- Eggs

- Brown Sugar (I use Dark Muscovado)

- Suet (I use vegetable suet)

- Flour (not a lot compared with everything else!)

The whole lot is stirred at length and changes texture completely and then left to stand at room temperature overnight for the fruit to absorb the liquid.

The mixture is then spooned into a basin and steamed or pressure cooked. A 2lb pudding takes around 3 hours even in the pressure cooker!

It becomes a very dense, rich fruit cake which is served hot with brandy sauce or egg custard. I reheat it in the microwave.

The supermarkets do sell variations now, but they’re not traditional.
Thank you, I will pass this recipe on to the chefs in the house. I like the Guinness stout idea. That used to be one of my favorites.
 

Tidgy's Dad

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That 3 line message just educated me profoundly.. I had to google “ trilobite “ and I learned that the horseshoe crab is one of the close living relatives.. and the most complete and abundant early fossil record of moulting belongs to the trilobite who is known for discarding their carapace 2-3 times a year...also, that no living one has ever been documented.... INTERESTING ;-)
Horseshoe crab larvae are known informally as 'trilobite larvae' because they look like trilobites. Though actually they are only very distantly related to trilobites, no more than many other arthropods. Yes, the trilobites moulted often, and most of their fossils are of these discarded exoskeletons.
Here's a whole one, notice it has the side pieces to the head still attached where in a moult, like the one I posted, these are usually missing.
Elrathia4.jpg
 

Tidgy's Dad

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That 3 line message just educated me profoundly.. I had to google “ trilobite “ and I learned that the horseshoe crab is one of the close living relatives.. and the most complete and abundant early fossil record of moulting belongs to the trilobite who is known for discarding their carapace 2-3 times a year...also, that no living one has ever been documented.... INTERESTING ;-)
Horseshoe crabs have free-swimming larvae known informally as trilobite larvae as they look so much like trilobites. But actually they are very distant relatives, the trilobites roamed the oceans for 280 million years but were exterminated in the Great Dying, the Permian extinction event, biggest of all time, that eradicated 96% of marine species 251.9 million years ago. Trilobites have left no descendants. :(
 

Tidgy's Dad

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We make a big deal out of pumpkin carving every year ( I LOVE HALLOWEEN ) but this year may be awkward so I suggested that we paint our pumpkins instead... my son immediately piped up and said “ but mom, since big sissy can’t carve her’s, I’ll carve one for her.” ???. He’s pretty special! I think we are going to do both!
Nice lad.
 

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