Plum Pudding

My husband has begun the first batch of his Christmas plum pudding recipe. During a lull in yesterday's pouring rain, he went to three supermarkets in search of the ingredients. It never fails... no matter how big these mega-stores are, they never carry everything you need. He shops for all of the ingredients himself, mixes everything, chops/slices/dices.... the plum pudding is his Christmas baby every year.

He uses a traditional British recipe, complete with a touch of ground-up suet. (Translation: beef fat....... I try to forget that as I have a small slice of it on Christmas day.) The recipe (given to him many years ago by an elderly friend who must be baking on a cloud by now) calls for countless ingredients...... way too many for me. I've long since given up on recipes with more than a dozen ingredients. (And on most days, six ingredients is a more reasonable limit. And three is just about perfect.)

The plum pudding will steam in covered tins for hours, and come out smelling like Christmas. I even have a very pretty piece of silk holly that we stick into the center of the baked pudding before my husband brings it to the dinner table on Christmas day. In addition to the one large tin that we've had for years, my husband found some smaller covered tins on the Internet, so he'll be making more than usual. Quadrupling the recipe is his goal for this week.

The plum pudding is just in time for the latest cold snap, which began right after the heavy rains fell yesterday. We were having very nice warm days and nights... so warm that the cats were sleeping on the screen-porch again. Last night was too cold for me to put them out there, which is why I'm up so early this morning. As I type, it's 4:30. Never fails..... if one cat doesn't wake me up, another one will. This morning it was AngelBoy, who is curled up at my feet now as I sit at my desk.

We're still talking about the Christmas party... and so are the neighbors and friends that I've seen since Saturday night. It was such an unbelievable night..... nearly everyone getting up to dance to the music of the steel drums, and bursting into applause after each of the songs. My friend J called yesterday and said "Good Lord, that party was awesome...... what on earth will you do next year to top that?!"

Little does he know that my husband has already thought of something. But of course I won't tell.... the idea will be kept secret........ along with the recipe to the plum pudding.