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CHESTNUTS HAVE BEEN ROASTING

We took the dogs to our local park at the weekend and found these little beauties, nestling in their spikey covers. I've never seen this many on the ground, as they usually get eaten by the wildlife.  The trees are pickled in them too, so many more to come.  We actually went back with my sister as she wanted some too.


I know, some of them look like conkers, but they're not.... they're just lovely and fat! 

I am going to mention the 'C' word, but only because this is the time of year I get my pudding and cake sorted.  I was going to cook the pudding in the Aga, but I messed up my timings as *I'm feeling a bit under the weather. I've never used my slow cooker for this before and thought I'd give it a go instead.




I decided on a different recipe this year. My usual choice is Mary Berry's Aga Christmas pudding, but this year I went for the Stir Up Sunday Christmas pudding recipe from the Country Living website. The only change I made was to include some dried cranberries,  as I like their slight sharpness.

I cooked it for eight hours on high, making sure to top up with boiling water when needed. Then, when cooked, I took the greaseproof and tin foil wrapping off.


Mmm...smelt boozy! Once I'd re-wrapped this little baby, it went into the freezer. I did the 'store it under the bed'  as advised by Delia once, but mine went a bit mouldy, so the freezer it was.

*I've just spoken to my aunt about my upset tum, and she suggested one teaspoon of baking powder in a tea cup of cold water. I can't believe it! I was up all night with stomach pains, having tried bicarbonate of soda in water as my first go to. It didn't touch it.  Within four to five minutes of taking the baking powder, the pain had gone, who knew! It's far more pleasant than bicarb too. This will be added to my repertoire of stomach cures!

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