Take a Butchers

Guild Christmas meal tonight instead of the usual monthly meet. We went to the Butchers Arms in Alltwen and it was very good indeed. Huge servings, rather too large perhaps, hardly anyone finished.

Perhaps it is a sad thing to say or not but the finest thing about it was the sauce on the Christmas pudding. I've always made mine like a custard, thickened with cornflour but in this one there was no trace of thickeners at all, egg nor flour and the texture was amazing.

Anyway, just as I was rhapsodizing about it out from the kitchen came this enormous chef (always a good sign in my opinion) and he went to get a well earned drink at the bar. So I thought why not, he can't possibly mind an admiring comment and he can only decline to share his recipie with me, so I went up to him and asked him how he made the sauce and it tuns out it is the most simple of stuff, all the best things are I think.

Take double cream, brandy and brown sugar and bring gently to the boil until it starts to thicken and there you are. No one in our house likes Christmas pud apart from me but I don't care. I'm doing this just for me and the rest of them can have the usual cheesecake.

The felted stocking that I made for the chairman's challenge (like a secret santa but with home made items) went down and okay and I got in return Isobel's beautiful conical 3d knitted Christmas tree made from homespun and dyed with woad and indigo, beaded and wrapped with gold braid for tinsel.

Isobel's Tree (mine now!)

That little stocking of mine was easily the most simple thing made there, but these are craftswomen, not just dabblers such as I. However, I don't think I let myself down. Far better than the mutant fairy that I made as my first attempt. I put so much effort into it too and it looks purely awful. It is hanging up on the wall but only because I worked so hard on it. I don't think it will make it out for next year. Poor thing.