Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011!

The past 12 months have whizzed by and whilst some great things have happened, there have been very sad times too. A new year begins in just over 4 hours and I hope for all of us that it’s a peaceful, happy and enlightening year filled with more happy times than sad.

I’m off to open something cold and bubbly, Happy Happy 2011 all!

J xx

Dried Cranberry & Ginger Steamed pudding

It’s really been one of those weeks. Not just because of the time of the year      (Christmas always  means lots more  additions to the usual ‘to do’ list ) but getting the house prepared for another viewing ( please someone buy my house ) and travelling through to Glasgow for my first ever shoot for a TV ad! It was a very, VERY long day but for someone who spends her days isolated and indoors knitting it was both fascinating and exhausting to be involved in the process.

I’ll do a longer blog post once I’ve dowloaded some of my images, hopefully that’ll be next week.

In the meantime something sweet! I promised KnittyFred on Twitter that I’d post a recipe in exchange for his Pistachio Marzipan which he posted on his blog here. ( Ok, so it’s taken me a couple of days to do it but we got there in the end Fred ). I must admit this isn’t my recipe so I can’t take credit for it but it’s DELICIOUS, not only for people like me who think that normal Christmas Pudding is the work of the devil but it also tempts those who ‘don’t normally do puddings’. It works equally well as 1 large pudding or divided into smaller ‘mini’ puddings. It also freezes well.

Dried Cranberry & Ginger Steamed Pudding

Serves 8

Preparation: 15 mins

Cooking time: 2 1/2 hours

Calories per serving: It’s a pudding don’t bother!

Ingredients:

175 g ( 6 oz ) butter

175 g ( 6 oz ) caster sugar

Finely grated rind and juice of 2 large oranges

3 eggs, beaten

175g ( 6 oz ) self-raising flour

Pinch of salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground ginger ( if you like things particularly gingery, add more )

75g ( 3 oz ) dried cranberries

40 g ( 1   1/2 oz ) fresh white breadcrumbs

– Cream the butter and sugar with the orange rind until pale & creamy then beat in the eggs a little at a time. Sift the flour with the salt, baking powder and ginger and fold into the creamed ingredients with the orange juice, cranberries and breadcrumbs

–  Spoon the mixture into a buttered 1.8 litre ( 3 pint ) pudding basin and smooth the top. Cover with a sheet of baking parchment and then wrap the top of the basin with foil. Steam the pudding  for  2 and a half hours regularly topping up the pan with boiling water to prevent it from drying out

– When ready turn the pudding out onto a plate and serve with hot custard or creme fraich. MMMMMMmmmmmmmm!!!