Monday, June 23, 2008 Our Weekend Posted in Puddings Well I've got the kids bot & feeling the winter ills. Saturday Brent worked all day on the Land Cruiser - warrant time of year.... Bill & Robyn called past on their way & dropped off a load of firewood - never say no to firewood. Brent has a big stack to split, his list of jobs just keeps growing. Saturday morning Abbey & I went to the farmers market & stocked up on vegetables & fruit - such a huge savings if you can go to a local market - it's really busy & quit a social gathering. It's very noticable how many emigrants are now in NZ - NZ has a braid drain going on & many kiwis have left NZ - hence we are getting South Africans & English folk in drives. - It's hard not to be off handish but it is a big deal for us kiwis left here. It makes interesting reading on what they think of our country. It's funny really how a lot of us kiwis feel as NZ is made up of many emigrants - even Brent is only 3 generations back from coming from England hahahah. One lady went on & on about our NZ pumkins - she said she can't get enough of our pumpkins to eat & loves pumpkin soup. Crown Pumpkin is the best I shared. Saturday night we had our Midwinter Christmas, I've cooked that many turkey's over the years I just went on auto it turned out very nice. Abbey did the cattery for me. James is still poorly but he ate some. Shame we were off our oats. The winter warming gifts went down well - a new tradition firmly in place. I also brought an electric carving knife - man it's noisy - but cut the homemade bread good. Pudding we had steamed pud. Abbey had great delight in informing me it was boiling over - did look funny why don't I get my camera at that stage... So spooned out some & baked that half in the oven, rest steamed. No one was hungry so this we ate it Sunday after toasted turkey sandwiches. Mincemeat Pudding 3 cups mincemeat - this we had a jar left over from Christmas 2 cups flour 3/4 cup sugar 2 teaspoons baking soda - dissolved in 1 up of cold water 1 cup hot water. Mix all together & place in a LARGE steam pudding bowl - I actually found this was a bit much mixture & when I do it again there is enough for using my big & small steam pudding bowl. Only fill 3/4 way up - not as high as I have in photo - but then it's fun for the kids to watch it spewing over the top. Boil for 3 hours. Steamed pudding have gone out of fashion - but they are a good winter pudding, filling & not very expensive. My grandmother used to serve puddings - it was a way to make a meal go further & fill everyone up. I'll be making more so will share recipes. Sunday afternoon Abbey helped Brent vaccinate the sheep - it's the first time we have done this - but after loosing big healthy lams to what we suspect is pulpy kidney - we have this year. Pulpy kidney gets the biggest, healthiest sheep & often is from nice lush pasture. - Doesn't seem fair does it. I'm cracking up having sheep vaccine in my human fridge. • Post A Comment! • Send to a Friend! Comments Monday, June 23, 2008 - Untitled Comment Posted by Citygal Hi Leanne, Sorry to hear you're sick. Hope you feel better soon. Did you see that we had our mid-winter Christmas too? It was fun and the kids all asked to do it again next winter. My eldest son called it our 'make-believe Christmas'. We are surrounded by English immigrants in our neighbourhood. One of them was telling me how the school kids laugh at her son's use of the English language such as using 'feeling poorly' instead of 'feeling sick'. I told her not to worry, that most of us are from English bloodstock anyway, we've just been here a bit longer. I love steam puddings. I'm looking out for a steamer on trademe. Rachel L • Permanent Link Monday, June 23, 2008 - Midwinter Xmas Posted by Anonymous We had a midwinter type dinner last night too....thanks to your inspiration. Although trying to find turkey at 2pm yesterday afternoon was a feat I can tell you.... If so many people leaving the country why don't you move too? I know a nice little country town in Australia!!!! • Permanent Link