How Long until Christmas?

[Weedygarden]

38 days
Recipe for Plum Pudding (click to enlarge)

Do you or have you made this? I have wondered about the history of plum puddings and fruitcakes. Those were different times, without refrigeration and freezers, so food had to be preserved in other ways. Alcohol was/is a preservative but so is dehydrating and sugar.

 

[LadyLocust]

Do you or have you made this? I have wondered about the history of plum puddings and fruitcakes. Those were different times, without refrigeration and freezers, so food had to be preserved in other ways. Alcohol was/is a preservative but so is dehydrating and sugar.

I have not made plum pudding or fruitcake. I don't like pudding or very many fruits so mixing them together is repulsive to my tastebuds. . . . However, my mom loves fruitcake and puddings etc. A friend of Ma's makes her a "real" fruitcake each year. She makes them in Nov. (about 6 weeks before Christmas so there is time to get it mailed). It is cured w/ brandy. My mom doesn't drink and has a very low alcohol tolerance. My understanding is much of the alcohol evaporates off or mellows as it ages. I think once in the past decade or so one of them has arrived and Ma said she had to let it sit for about a week because it was still alcoholly. Her friend didn't get it made early enough but wanted to get it sent to her. That is my understanding. Hope it helps.

 

[Weedygarden]

I have not made plum pudding or fruitcake. I don't like pudding or very many fruits so mixing them together is repulsive to my tastebuds. . . . However, my mom loves fruitcake and puddings etc. A friend of Ma's makes her a "real" fruitcake each year. She makes them in Nov. (about 6 weeks before Christmas so there is time to get it mailed). It is cured w/ brandy. My mom doesn't drink and has a very low alcohol tolerance. My understanding is much of the alcohol evaporates off or mellows as it ages. I think once in the past decade or so one of them has arrived and Ma said she had to let it sit for about a week because it was still alcoholly. Her friend didn't get it made early enough but wanted to get it sent to her. That is my understanding. Hope it helps.

Either of those would likely give me a migraine.

 

[LadyLocust]

Either of those would likely give me a migraine.

That's what happens to my mom too! The fruitcake doesn't do that to her though.

 

[LadyLocust]

29 days

 

[Tim Horton]

My mom and West Virginia granny used to make a homemade ...fruit cake.. Maybe more a brown spice cake with lots of fruit.. Just WONDERFUL... Regardless I have never found any other homemade as good as I remember and certainly not any commercial products that I would touch with a 10' pole..

 

[lonewolf]

Christmas was okay when I was a kid but these days its got too commercial.

 

[LadyLocust]

27 Days
This makes so much more sense than cookies. I would say this is more of a "real" gingerbread.

 

[LadyLocust]

25 More Days

 

[LadyLocust]

19 Days ~

 

[Pearl]

19 Days ~
View attachment 120923

Wow, it's here!!

 

[Weedygarden]

It is just going to get crazier and crazier in all the stores now!

 

[Pearl]

It is just going to get crazier and crazier in all the stores now!

And on the roads!!

 

[Weedygarden]

And on the roads!!

I've been seeing lots of that already! Actually, does that ever quit? Some people are just ridiculous with how they drive!

 

[LadyLocust]

It’s been weird here- the stores aren’t busy. Regular lunch or 5 o:clock grocery thing but not many cars out and about.

 

[Supervisor42]

It’s been weird here- the stores aren’t busy. Regular lunch or 5 o:clock grocery thing but not many cars out and about.

...Fear not, us 'last-minute' shopper-guys will clog your stores Saturday December 23rd .
We won't be looking for 'sales', we will only be there checking names off our list.

 

[Peanut]

Okay, i'll put up one tree this year...

 

[Peanut]

Jim posted these a few years ago, he won't mind...

 

[Tim Horton]

LadyLocust.. The cake picture is killing me... Looks good..
Peanut.. Beautiful tree.. Cute critters..

 

[Morgan101]

Do you or have you made this? I have wondered about the history of plum puddings and fruitcakes. Those were different times, without refrigeration and freezers, so food had to be preserved in other ways. Alcohol was/is a preservative but so is dehydrating and sugar.

This looks pretty authentic. Way to many ingredients, and way above my cooking or baking skills, but everything he does is period authentic.

 

[LadyLocust]

This looks pretty authentic. Way to many ingredients, and way above my cooking or baking skills, but everything he does is period authentic.

I am a follower of this site. They do a great job of researching in order to get/do things period correct.

 

[backlash]

...Fear not, us 'last-minute' shopper-guys will clog your stores Saturday December 23rd .
We won't be looking for 'sales', we will only be there checking names off our list.

Prior to Amazon I did my Christmas shopping on Dec. 23rd or 24th.
It usually went something like this.
Wonder into a jewelry store walk around for a few minutes then say I'll take that.
Now I shop for months right from my chair.
It's pretty easy I only buy for my wife and whoever I get in the Christmas exchange.

 

[LadyLocust]

18 Days
I love speculaas any time of year but they are especially pretty at Christmas. Here is the link to the recipe.

 

[LadyLocust]

13 Days

 

[Morgan101]

11 days until Christmas. Thought we could share a little Christmas humor.

Silly gags about Christmas...

• I was Christmas shopping and ran into a guy on the street. I noticed his watch and said that it runs slow. He said, 'So does the guy I stole it from. — David Letterman
• 
  
• Let's be naughty and save Santa the trip. — Gary Allan
• 
  
• I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. — Maya Angelou
• 
  
• The main reason Santa is so jolly because he knows where all the naughty girls live. — George Carlin
• 
  
• There are three stages of man: he believes in Santa Claus; he does not believe in Santa Claus; he is Santa Claus. — Bob Phillips
• 
  
• I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph. — Shirley Temple
• 
  
• It's Christmas Eve! It's the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be. — Bill Murray
• 
  
• I wish we could put some of our Christmas spirit in jars and open one up every month. — Unknown

 

[LadyLocust]

10 more days

 

[Weedygarden]

It’s been weird here- the stores aren’t busy. Regular lunch or 5 o:clock grocery thing but not many cars out and about.

I've been doing more online shopping and I think there is more and more of that in the world.

 

[jazzy]

Either of those would likely give me a migraine.

this is so true for me too. something funny today
i was going thru bag of jewelry i inheirited i set aside to deal with later. there were the usualy watches, brazcelets, some pins, earrings a few rings and broken stuff , was this metal button, bright yellow--and it said

GET EVEN
GIVE FRUITCAKE

made me laugh my butt off. dont remember my mom having that. kinda made the day better ya know? lol

 

[Weedygarden]

This looks pretty authentic. Way to many ingredients, and way above my cooking or baking skills, but everything he does is period authentic.

I've watched much of their stuff. I enjoy the depth of information and to learn about how things used to to be!

 

[Weedygarden]

This looks pretty authentic. Way to many ingredients, and way above my cooking or baking skills, but everything he does is period authentic.

There is a Czech baked good, similar to kolache, but the fruit is encased in dough, called buchty. In this video, they make a sauce to pout over the plum pudding that has butter, sugar and maybe brandy. My great aunts would melt butter in a sauce pan, dip a buchty (fruit filled bun) into the melted butter, and then dip it into sugar.