I’m slightly more organised this year than past ones. Last Sunday I made the Christmas Cake a different recipe this year…where you steep the mixed fruits in ginger wine and freshly grated ginger root. I used that beautiful dark Muscavado sugar too. I’ll give links to the recipes at the end. I now need to ‘feed’ it with more ginger wine before covering it with marzipan and icing. I have a little panic each year trying to find that tiny plaster Father Christmas and Christmas Tree to stick on the top. A few days before I made the Christmas Pud…well this year I googled the net and came up with ‘Paul’s Christmas Pudding Recipe’. It had so many posiive comments I felt compelled to make it this year. Be warned this is a recipe that shouldn’t be under taken by the light hearted. I did make one BIG change to it however, I used Vegetable suet instead of animal suet. You have to grate cinnamon quills and whole nutmegs and add a very dark ale and some Muscat wine (I didn’t have any so used Por instead) . The smell is divine and don’t forget to make a wish when you are stirring it! I divided the mixture into several small little basins this time and placed them in my slow-cooker (cockpot) as they can comfortably cook without filling the kitchen with steam, like a turkish bath… and I don’t have to endure the hissing of a pressure cooker. It worked very well. I might try making Mulled Wine on Christmas Eve…find a robust red wine and add spices and fruit…this can again be done in a slow cooker/crockpot. There are heaps of recipes to choose from…some using cinnamon, star anise, cloves, oranges, lemons and brandy. I hope to make Christmas Crackers too. I made them many years ago…made them too well and the children had problems pulling them apart…it turned into a tug-of-war..plenty of laughs though. I am sourcing some corny jokes from the Internet to pop inside along with tiny surprise presents. Hopefully we get the Christmas tree this Saturday and smell that wonderful pine smell which transports me back to childhood Christmasses in England The big question we then ask ourselves is “will the lights work?” Always interested to hear what preparations you are making. Do you have any special Christmas recipes to share? Here is a pic of the roses (Dublin Bay climber) which is out in full bloom at the moment on the verandah. Here are some links incase you are interested Warm regards from Anni in New Zealand Gingery Christmas Cake: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4825/gingery-christmas-cake Paul’s Christmas Pudding: www.pudding.denyer.net/