Cooking for Christmas

One thing I love about Christmas is doing some Christmas cooking.  For years I made a Christmas cake, but the last couple of years I have let that slip.  It seemed I was the only one in the family that truly loved Christmas cake, thus, I was the only one eating it and showing it on the hips.
 I am very tempted after seeing this recipe over on Down-to-Earth to do this particular cake next year.  Maybe if I cooked it early in the season, I could share with visitors during the month of Nov/Dec., then I wouldn't feel the need to eat it all myself!  Or, I could freeze some I guess.

I now do a Christmas pudding to share with family on Christmas Day.  We serve it with premium custard with added whipped cream and ice cream.  This year our daughter is making rocky road ice cream with cadbury flake, bounty, marshmallow and turkish delight.  Can you tell we are foodies??



















The start of the Christmas pudding.  I don't drink or like Brandy, but the smell mixed with the spices in this mix was absolutely deeeevine.  It is now cooked and ready to be re-boiled for a couple of hours on Christmas morning so it will be nice and hot and yummy for lunch.
  Lunch will be entree of fresh king prawns and oysters, followed by delicious leg ham from the bone, chicken and roast pork served with various salads and devilled eggs, followed by the aforementioned dessert. All swallowed down with a couple of bottles of 'bubbly'.   We will all then collapse in a heap and 'sleep it off'.  Oh Joy.
















CHERRY & GINGER SLICE:  I am nutz nutz nutz, about ginger, particularly ginger pieces covered in dark chocolate, ah, but I digress.  This is a very yummy slice with two of my favourite ingredients, chrystallized ginger and glace cherries.  I always add more of these two ingredients than the recipe states.
I am going to share this recipe with you, so if you are a ginger lover like me, beware, it is very more - ish.

4 0z butter or margarine
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 cup Self Raising Flour
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup Rice Bubbles (I did not have any rice bubbles for this batch, so used Cheerios crunched up a bit - even better)
1/4 cup finely chopped chrystallized ginger
1/4 cup glace cherries

Put all ingredients into bowl except syrup and butter.  Melt syrup and butter and pour over dry ingredients.  Combine.  EASY.....  Press into slab tin and bake in moderate oven for 20 minutes.
Ice with lemon Icing.  (I use 1 cup of sifted Icing Sugar (confectioners sugar), 1 teasp butter (Melted a bit in microwave) and enough lemon juice to make a spreading consistency.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY.