It's Pudding Time

Traditions are something that seem to fall by the wayside in our busy modern lives. But I love traditions so much that I actually make up a few of my own. There's the federal election dinner party that my best friend and I alternate hosting, which is great fun, providing it culminates in an actual result by the end of the night. (Hung parliaments tend to result in far too late and too much alcohol evenings)
Then there's my very famous 'Christmas in July' which has achieved such status that it's spoken of with fondness by it's participants, and differentiated in terms like "the one when you did the 'duck in muscat' "or "the one where I are too much pork crackling".
This year I will blog my planned degustation menu and include some of the recipes too.

Mother's day, for some reason, has become my traditional Christmas pudding making weekend. Partly because I need puddings for two Christmas celebrations over the course of the year, but also because it has a tendency to be the perfect weekend weather wise. I can tell you (because I make a point of noticing such things) that mothers day weekend is often the first really chilly weekend leading us into winter. It's also a weekend when my florist husband is at work for most of the time, meaning that the boys and I are home with no other plans on a dreary weekend........ I know only one cure for that kind of weekend; Cooking something that takes a lot of time.

By Popular Demand....

Every cook will tell you that there are certain dishes that they always get requests for. Maybe there’s a party or a gathering,and one poses the question ‘what can I bring?'  The answer is invariably the same thing over and over.

My most requested item is my Raspberry & Brandy Chocolate Fudge Brownies.

Which is fine by me because they are very easy to make and I usually have the ingredients on hand in my pantry. It only needs 1 bowl for the preparation and no mixing equipment other than a whisk or a spatula. It's so simple that my children regularly put it together instead of me. Everyone (unless they are those freaky people who don’t like chocolate) loves it. And its flexible ie it can be cut into small pieces as a nibble to have with coffee, or you can serve it as a dessert, and plate it up with cream or ice cream and a fruit coulis.