Secret ingredient

 Over the week-end we made our Christmas pudding. Such an easy thing to make, I won't bore you with a tutorial, if you make one, you probably use a family recipe. If you don't make one you either don't like pudding  or you are happy to buy one. 

I make my Mums recipe, because I love her Christmas pudding and I make brandy butter to go with it, because that what Mum always does. 

I worked out last year that making my own is about a quarter of the cost of buying a good one. 

It has become a thing Little Bee and me do together, because weighing out the ingredients, juicing fruit, chucking it all in a bowl and stirring are all things Little Bee excels at. If baking involves snaffling handfuls of sultanas and almonds and glace cherries then HappY DaYs !!!

There is less 'snaffling' when it comes to adding the wet ingredients. Home grown eggs are a must, obvs.

Mums recipe calls for Guinness and brandy, but since I have been making my own the only ingredient I substitute is the Brandy.

You are unlikely to have come across Old Monk rum unless you are one of the lucky people to have holidayed or visited  India. This bottle of rum is a remnant of the last time I traveled to India which was for our honeymoon in 2005. In a previous career I was fortunate enough to travel there at least twice a year for the best part of about 20 years. It took a while for me to fall in love with the place, but I eventually I did.

750mls of Old Monk cost Rs.175 which is just over 3 quid, and it is so out of date its not funny.

Little Bee said it smells like nail varnish  remover but as soon as I opened the bottle....

I was transported........

......to here. 

Which isn't bad for a sniff, in my kitchen, on a stormy afternoon in the Wicklow mountains.

Linking with 'a very dark horse's Christmas traditions