Christmas traditions
For many people Christmas is just not Christmas without certain traditional activities or foods. In our family Christmas pudding is a “must have” in the Christmas dinner menu for my dad. This recipe has been in the family for several generations and has a steamed carrot pudding base. Apple and mixed fruit are added to make it more Christmasy.
Dad feels it is best served with lots of sweet white sauce though others like it with a caramel sauce.
Christmas carrot pudding
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1 cup brown sugar 250 mL
1 cup suet 250 mL
1 cup raisins 250 mL
1 cup currants 250 mL
1 cup grated raw 250 mL
carrot
1 cup grated raw 250 mL
potato
11Ú2 cups white flour 375 mL
1 teaspoon soda 5 mL
1Ú2 teaspoon salt 2 mL
For Christmas add:
1 peeled, chopped 1
apple
1Ú2 cup mixed glazed 125 mL
fruit
1 teaspoon cinnamon 5 mL
1Ú2 teaspoon ginger 2 mL
1 teaspoon nutmeg 5 mL
Mix salt, soda, spices and flour and set aside.
Mix the rest of the ingredients. Sift the flour mixture over the fruit mixture. Stir together and then put into a greased heat-proof bowl or pudding mould. Cover with three layers of wax paper and tie with string.
Place the bowl/mould in a pan with two inches (four centimetres) of water. Cover with a lid and steam for three hours. Serve immediately or reheat and serve with white sauce.
White sauce
Double this sauce recipe if you like lots of sauce.
3 tablespoons flour 45 mL
11Ú2 tablespoons butter 22 mL
or margarine
1-2 tablespoons 15-30 mL
sugar (depends on how sweet you like it)
1 cup milk 250 mL
1 teaspoon vanilla 5 mL
Melt butter, add flour, stir to form a paste. Add milk, stir and cook until thick. If too thick, add a little more milk. Just before serving add sugar and vanilla. Serve hot over hot pudding.
When considering your Christmas plans think about what you enjoyed most about past Christmases and include the happy, special traditions. If you want to make your own Christmas traditions, just spending time together in a relaxed atmosphere is a good place to start.
Some suggestions are singing Christmas carols, reading Christmas stories, playing games and visiting while sipping a hot mug of chocolate, spiced tea or hot juices. Whatever your traditions and wherever you will be, I wish you a happy Christmas season.
Hot spiced punch
3 cups water 750 mL
1 quart grape juice 1 L
1 lemon, sliced 1
1 teaspoon whole 5 mL
cloves
1 stick cinnamon 1
bark
1 teaspoon whole 5 mL
allspice
1Ú4-1Ú2 cup sugar 50-125 mL
Combine and simmer together for 10 minutes. Serve steaming hot.
Looking for instructions
Dear TEAM: I am searching for instructions on how to frost windows. I once read how to do it. If I remember correctly, one ingredient included beer. – H.S., Prince Albert, Sask.
Does anyone have any information on frosting windows?
Recipe found
Dear TEAM: I found a recipe for cake-mix cookies that M.M., Ituna, Sask. was requesting.
Cake-mix cookies
1 package one layer 1
size chocolate cake mix
2 tablespoons 30 mL
non-fat dry milk powder
2 tablespoons water 30 mL
2 tablespoons butter 30 mL
or margarine, softened
1 egg 1
1Ú2 cup chopped nuts 125 mL
canned chocolate frosting
(optional)
In bowl, stir together cake-mix, milk powder, water, butter and egg. Beat smooth. Add nuts. Drop from teaspoon onto greased cookie sheet. Bake in 375 F (190 C) for 12 minutes. Let stand a few minutes before removing from sheet. Frost, if desired. Makes two dozen.
Hope this is what M.M. was looking for. – S.B., Beaubier, Sask.
Dear S.B.: Thank you for your recipe.
Pot and pearl barley
Dear TEAM: I love soup with barley in it, but find myself confused at the difference between pot and pearl barley. Looking in a couple of cookbooks, one tells me to cook the barley two hours but the other says it must be soaked overnight first. They don’t state what type of barley they are talking about. Does one kind take longer to cook than the other kind? – M.R., Spalding, Sask.
Dear M.R.: This is a question which I have often wondered about. In searching for the answer I found this brief explanation in Nellie Lyle Pattinsons’ Canadian Cook Book. Both pot barley and pearl barley have undergone some degree of abrasion to remove the bran layers. Pearl barley, the more refined of the two, is whiter and slightly smaller than pot barley.
Pearl barley is malt grade barley that is selected for its whiteness once it has been pearled. The refining removes the bran and hull down to the small white kernel. Because the pearl barley is more refined and smaller, it will take less time to cook.
Most recipes that refer to pearl barley use 1Ú2 cup (125 mL) barley to three to four cups (750 mL – 1 L) of water or broth and simmer 40 to 50 minutes. Pearl barley is used when you want a nice white kernel in the recipe.
Pot barley is less refined, has more of the bran on the kernel and will be darker in color and larger. It takes longer to cook. The pot barley should be higher in nutrients and fibre. The Western Barley Growers Association cookbook Cooking With Barley, recommends cooking pot barley the following way:
1 cup pot barley 250 mL
3 cups water 750 mL
1 teaspoon salt 5 mL
(optional)
Combine barley and water. Bring to a boil and cook covered for two minutes. Remove from heat and soak for one hour or overnight. Return to a boil and simmer, covered, for 30 to 40 minutes or until tender. Makes about four cups (1 L).
Pot barley is usually added to soup mixes that have lentils, beans and peas that are also soaked prior to cooking.
The Western Barley Growers Association can be contacted at 232 – 2116 – 27 Ave. N.E., Calgary, Alta., T2E 7A6.
