Donald, as I said, it depends on the sound of the word coming AFTER the "a" or "an". You know yourself when it sounds right. What are you doing anyhow?

Donald, can you not get Christmas crackers in Germany?

Ann
I´ve never seen them, we brought them a few times back from norniron with us together with a plum pudding which cannot be bought here either
donald

Donald, did you ever try making a pudding? It's not difficult, but I must admit I use a bought one -far handier and just as nice. Donald, there's an opening there for someone to introduce the German people to Christmas crackers and plum puddings. I'm sure it would go down very well. A wee shop? When you've made a fortune remember I suggested it.

Ann
some years ago I printed a recipe for Xmas pudding out of the internet but for one pudding approx. 500 gram it was impossible to buy all the ingredients in proportion . For example, 100gram lard, 50 gram raisins, 50 gram dried plums but to name a few. We decided to eat Apfelstrudel instead with custard.
donald

Ann

another "blast from the past"! I remember as a child our mother , when she could afford to, stopping at the home bakery beside Smyth Patterson in Market Square and buying one "stomach cake" to be divided between my brother Lowercase and myself. I always wondered why they were called so and after I came to the Vaterland I discovered "Lebküchen" which are identical and often wonder if the recipe or tradition was taken over from the ancient Egyptians who first made them as a burial object to be included in the interment of corpses. as Leib is an older translation of stomach.

donald

Ann /Donald

That recipe for plum pudding, as Frank Carson used to say: "its a cracker."

Hildenboy, that's a good 'un. (speaking in "cowboy" diction) I wondered where you'd gone.

Donald, it's a pity you will not be able to enjoy a bit of Christmas pudding on the day. My mother used to make her own Christmas puddings. She actually made about 6 every year and that was before microwaveable cooking. She steamed each one for several hours. I remember the aroma in the kitchen and the big pot, containing the pudding in a bowl, steaming away. She kept one for her own house but gave out the rest to family, including Pat and myself of course. Her Christmas puddings were almost black in colour and gorgeous to taste. I haven't a clue how she made them as I had small children at the time, and was too busy with other things to even think of getting the recipe. I wish now I had. I was just grateful to receive this culinary treat every single year.

Donald, Jeffers' bakery was the one your mother shopped in. It's still there. My granny always bought stomach cakes from the baker who came round. I loved them spread with butter. A stomach cake and a big glass of thick buttermilk was heaven in those days. Donald, the stomach cakes were quite big so that's probably why your mother divided one in half. Lowercase should only have got a third of the cake anyhow as he was younger than you!!!!!!!!!

Ann

my Gran used to make pudding at Halloween , the bake mix which included apples was wrapped in a pillowcase and boiled or steamed over the open fire in the living room ( we did not have lounges then ). It was served with custard and a cup of milk if we were lucky.

Hildenboy
Here are the full ingredients for a plum "puddin". I still have not came across what a "cup" is as there are dozens of cup sizes. In those days we called molasses "treacle"


Ingredients

1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon each salt, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice
1 cup soft bread crumbs
1 cup chopped suet
1 cup prune pulp
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup uncooked chopped prunes
1/4 cup candied lemon peel, finely chopped
1/4 cup molasses
3 eggs, separated
Hard Sauce, recipe follows
Hard sauce:
1/4 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon dark rum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


donald

Donald, people who refer to their living room as a "lounge" give me the pips. I worked with a girl who lived at the top of Millbrook before she married. After her marriage she became a social climber and always referred to her "lounge" when talking about her house.


As my mother used to say, Put a beggar on horseback and they'll gallop to hell. My living room remains my living room.

and what about the parlour

We were not very swanky, we had a scullery instead of a working kitchen and a "wee house" instead of a toilet. I will always remember the funerals in Hilden where (only in Mill Street) the corpse was laid out in the parlour. In Bridge Street there were no parlours so the kitchen had to do. Sometimes the coffins left the houses through the front window.
donald

Barney, the parlour was where the courting went on. No parlour nowadays.

Donald, they were hard times. No washing machines or tumble driers, no microwaves or ready meals. The women had a lot to do, all manually, AND a family to look after as well. Times were not as hectic, though.