Visiting another club

Andy and Ruby, one Triplet short, on the steps of the Overseas League Club, London

I had arranged to spend a quiet Saturday morning with two of my fellow Triplets, and since my regular club was closed for some ball or other, we had to seek refuge at one of their reciprocal clubs.

There was a selection of four, but three of them were happy to accept us for lunch or dinner, but not just coffee - like what are we, millionaires or something?

However, the Royal Overseas League Club came to our aid, and I cannot praise them enough.  I had visited them in 2013, and slagged them off a bit - as per the link below.

http://dblenck.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/what-to-do-on-rainy-day-little-london.html

However, I am pleased to report that they have since renovated and beautified the premises, and the staff couldn't have been more helpful.  If I wasn't already a member at the OCC I swear I would join the ROSL!  Lovely lovely club.

We spent a most enjoyable morning, drinking tea/coffee and reading the papers.  It surely has to be one of the great little pleasures in life to read the papers in congenial company, sometimes sitting quietly, sometimes sharing little snippets of the printed matter, sometimes having little discussions about an article we have just read.

After a few hours we left the club and had a stroll around Green Park in the afternoon sunshine, before going our separate ways.

That's what Saturday mornings should be like ....

 

Just around the corner, nice little drinkery in St James

Corner of OCC and ROSL

St James's Palace

Heading towards St James's Park

St James's Park

Christmas Preparations - Christmas Pudding

The pudding after five hours of boiling

Since I was confined to my home for much of yesterday (locksmith had to open the door for me, jammed lock) I decided to make my Christmas Puddings early.

I used a basic recipe, but instead of just using raisins and currants, I substituted some of them with apricots, dates, and figs.  I also threw in some candied ginger for good luck.  And I used homemade candied citrus fruit peel.  All carefully chopped, of course.

Christmas Pudding gets better the longer you keep them, so there is no problem with making them early.  I usually make little rather than large puddings - too much to eat in one sitting otherwise.

And no, I didn't add silver coins or lucky charms - one wrong bite and there goes another tooth!

Since puddings have to be boiled for such a long time, be prepared for a chalky substance to form on the outside of the pudding bowl and your boiling pot.  This is the result of boiling hard water for a long time, and is the same stuff you find in your kettle.  Nothing to worry about, but a good reason not to invest in expensive beautiful looking pudding bowls, and don't use your best cooking pots to boil the pudding, either.

Assembled ingredients, nicely chopped

Notice that bottle of dark ale? I only needed a quarter of that, and had to drink the rest myself.  How much difference can such a little amount of ale make?  Is this just an excuse to get drunk after making the pudding mix?  There is twice as much dark rum in the mix as well - a good Christmas pudding needs lot of alcohol, as everyone knows!

A large chopping board is useful for extending one's work surface by putting it over the sink!

Use the biggest mixing bowl in your possession - this one is bigger than my sink!

Mix dry ingredients first, then add the wet ones (you know, the alcohol and eggs).  The white things that look like chopped up white worms is suet, by the way.  Great stuff, suet!

Butter the inside of the pudding bowls well

That's what I mean by 'well'

Cut some kitchen paper circles the size of the bottom of your pudding bowls

Put into bottom of pudding bowl - it sticks well onto the butter.  Pour batter over this paper circle, it makes the pudding less likely to stick when the time for up-ending it prior to serving it in its flaming halo arrives.

Three pudding bowls full of pudding mix, ready to be boiled

Cover with aluminium foil, secure foil with string, set onto  the steamer inset, add water until it reaches half way up the pudding bowl, cover the pot with its lid, and bring to a boil.  Then simmer for 4 to 7 hours, depending on size of pudding.  Once pudding is boiled, leave to cool.  Remove foil, dry of any water with kitchen paper, cover with new aluminium foil, secure with string, and put away to a cool dry place until needed for use.  Before use, boil it again for another hour.  Then take out of the bowl onto a nice plate, and do the usual flaming etc.  Make sure you have a nice sauce to go with it, like brandy sauce or heavy cream infused with Amaretto, that sort of thing.  Leftovers keep well, can be frozen, or fried in slices.

Taking a Little Comfort as the Days Draw in ...

From Wilhelm Busch, who was rather fond of puddings

The days are getting shorter, and - occasionally at least - colder, so naturally one's mind turns to steamed puddings.  Steamed puddings with suet, naturally.  

I recently managed to find a supply of real suet - not the dry long life variety, but fresh from the butchers.  I just bought two kilos of the stuff and froze it, so I am all set for the winter.  Today I decided to try out my new Quick Cooker pudding bowl.

I achieved good results, and the pudding cooked within 1,5 hours, twice as fast as usual. However, the funnel in the middle also needs to be coated with a layer of pastry, so the relation of pastry to filling came down decidedly on the side of pastry!

I made beef and mushroom pie, which was good but needed a bit more gravy.  With the leftover pastry I also made an apple pudding, in an old Oxford Blue Cheese container.  It worked well, but the pastry lid stuck to the pot lid.

With regard to the string I used to tie up my pudding containers, the kitchen string I used for the large bowl worked OK but needed to be discarded after use.

For the small pudding container I used some Hermes ribbon, the sort they use  to tie up the box their scarves come in, and it was excellent!!!  If I think of all the things I use this ribbon for (see also orange pomanders below) I have to conclude that buying all those scarves was an excellent investment, even just on the basis of the many uses I find for this ribbon...

Steamer pot - it has an insert, very handy for resting the pudding basins on

 

Beef and mushroom pudding

Turned out of the form very easily

Cut open - not enough gravy!

Apple pudding in an Oxford Blue cheese jar, tied up with Hermes ribbon

Top stuck to lide

Again, turned out of the pot easily

Too much pastry versus fruit?

Yesterday I also involved myself in a comforting activity - making orange and cloves pomanders! Basically, you stick cloves into oranges, dust the result in a mix of different powdered spices like cinnamon and cardamon, and hang them up to dry.

The string I used for tying around and hanging up was, you guessed it, Hermes ribbon!

It is very a restful activity, sitting with a bowl in your lap, poking cloves into oranges! I did seven oranges and felt quite mellow afterwards.

In my house whatever needs hanging and drying inevitably ends up on the chandelier. What else are they for? In the kitchen things get moldy more easily, so the parlour is the natural place for this.
I think this is what our ancestors did, too - one reads in old novels about visitors being put up in the parlour or 'best chamber', where they made themselves at home amongst hanging bacon flitches and sausages and hams, and drying bunches of herbs and garlic and onions, and even Christmas puddings and cakes.....

Well, why not? The parlour is the least used room of the house, usually unheated, and less prone to dust and creepy crawlies, given the lack of use.

Resplendent and useful chandelier

Newspaper rack also pressed into service

Orange and cloves poander

Parlour window looking good, with thyme and hyacinth

 

The Door Project - Part 6: Adding the Panes and Hanging It

All done - ish ....

Well, I spent another weekend on the Door Project.  But I am not complaining - I am almost done, that is, if I can control my perfectionist instincts.

The thing is, the new door is head and shoulders above the old door - but it isn't quite right.  For example, one side of the frame has moved a little since it was built 30 years ago, so my perfectly proportioned door is a few millimeters too narrow for the door gap on the top right hand side; I will probably add a piece of plywood to reduce the gap.

Another problem is the remains of the previous door, which I couldn't completely pry off the frame, and which constricts the movement of the current door somewhat.  But I didn't have time to yank it off since it was getting dark and the new door had to be installed - one has to be sensible about timings.  Anyway, the door fits pretty well and can open about halfway, so is perfectly servicable for the time being.

Right.  I laboured much of the previous weekend attaching the plexi-glass panels.  Not as easy as I had hoped - they don't attach as well as I had hoped, but curved about disgracefully.  I may add a thin rail around them to ensure that the panels are completely waterproof.  My cunning plan of bridging the gap with paint didn't work - too much movement.  Never mind, the rails once added can be painted a different colour - red? - and will look like a special feature and improve the overall appearance of the door.

Now that the Door Project is almost complete, I cannot honestly say whether ti was all worth it - it was a hell of a lot of work, and counting all the tools and whatnot wasn't cheap, either.  On the other hand I now have access to my garden again, and didn't have to get irritated by incompetent handymen who would almost certainly have charged me a fortune, ruined the carpet, and settled me with a wonky door. 

So right now I am contemplating my assorted blisters and aching muscles, and suspending judgement....

'Course, there are all sorts of similar jobs that need doing around the house, painting the front door and grouting and painting the windows, and refurbishing the Mouserleum ...  Well, at least now I have my little workshop, and a few good tools!

Watch this blog for other riveting D-I-Y jobs!

In due course ...

Like Christmas ...

Door frame with plexi-glass panels

Close up

Adding paint under the panel to bond to the frame - didn't work!

Old door almost dismembered - the top to bottom plank on the left hand side didn't come off!

The bottom plank came off last

The garden is a total mess

Bolt and handle attached - door open, thus the gap on top

Door in place - one or two millimeter space all around, to allow ease of movement

Bolt and handle