One of the attendees shared a story with us from when she was a child. Her mum always made the traditional pudding and wrapped it in calico. One year she had it out the back hanging from a branch on a tree. When her brother came home later that day, he saw the pudding had ants crawling all over it, so he got out the very potent “Mortein can” and gave it a very generous spray. Needless to say her mum was not pleased as the pudding had to be disposed of, or risk being poisoned by fly spray!
Once we got the puddings boiling on the stove top, we moved to the next recipe which was trying out the Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Celebration Plum Pudding recipe. This one had enormous amounts of fruit, nuts, candied peel, apple, carrot, suet stout and brandy! This gave me the opportunity to use some of my very own PCH candied fruit peel. This rich and dense mix was put into pudding bowls and set upon the stove top to steam away.
We then shared a “Zuccotto di Panettone”, I had made the evening before for afternoon tea and shared stories. Great class and lots of fun! Some good photos taken for the PCH website.
The next day was a glorious and sunny day, so I thought I would put the cloth puddings out on the back table to dry out so I could then hang them in the cellar for a few days before delivering to them to the class participants.
I checked them a few times and they were drying off very effectively, perched in the middle of a 4m x 3m square table on the back deck. When I went out a while later to bring them inside, they were gone. As the place-mats they were sitting on had been placed back where they belonged, I assumed Tez had moved them. I called him and asked him where he had put the puds? He claimed he had not touched them….Again, I said – “don’t muck around where are they?” “I have not touched them!” he said, again. Getting a little irritated now, I said “stop mucking around where are they?” “I have not touched them,” he exclaimed!
So, where are they I wondered? OH NO, have they been pinched? (Another story for another time, but have had my cooking stolen on other occasions, so it was not a ridiculous thought!) I thought I would take a quick look around the garden. Low and behold, I found one of the puds under the citrus trees, with a small perfect shaped hole, with a small piece of pudding missing. I walked a bit further to find the next calico bag, again with a perfectly shaped “nose hole” and this time the entire pudding gone! MAX the dog ate the puddings!!! I could not believe it. As I looked at him looking very contented and satisfied, I did not know whether to laugh or cry.
DC