Boston Baked Beans & Brown Bread

It seems my last post has caused controversy in the main office with the ladies. My dislike of baked beans in tomato sauce vs Boston baked beans in molasses has surprised many of them...they have never heard of baked beans in molasses, and generally molasses itself seems to be reserved as something to be used to mix with animal feed! To my surprise, I have learned that "cooking" molasses generally is not a staple in the local grocery stores.

Additonally, while Boston Baked Beans are usually made with navy beans, the local fare are haricot beans. Just one more example of how one learns something new every day.

In this conversation with Margaret Anne, who made a special trip to my classroom just to have this discussion, we talked about the tradition of Saturday night supper, which, when I was young, and especially if I was having supper with my Pepe, included hot dogs and beans and maybe even some brown bread - traditionally cooked in cleaned, recycled tin cans.

I have also determined that hot dogs here are not exactly what I deem to be a Kayem, Fenway Frank or the gold standard of all dogs - the Deutshmacher! Hot dogs here are barely edible, in my opinion, as my sole experience with the local product, after one bite, found the entire package discarded in the rubbish bin.

I have promised that cans of these delectable New England delights will find their way to Fairfield after the holiday season; along with a myriad of other products that have been requested from across the pond.

The history of the Boston Baked Bean is actually an interesting one. "Beantown" is the city of Boston's famous nickname,dating to colonial times, when the city was awash in molassess due to its rum-producing role in the triangular trade. Sugar cane harvested by slaves in the West Indies was shipped to Boston to be made into rum, which was then sent to West Africa to buy more slaves to send to the West Indies.

Even after slavery's end, Boston continued to be a big rum-producing city. The Great Molasses Flood of 1919, which killed 21 and injured 150, occurred when a tank holding molasses for rum production exploded. (About.com)

Below are recipes for both Boston Baked Beans and Brown Bread. I have found these on the web - but you will be able to make them for yourselves if you want.


Boston Baked Beans

Ingredients:

16 ounces (2 cups) dry navy beans
2 quarts cold water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup molasses
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
4 ounces salt pork
1 medium onion, chopped

Rinse beans; add to water in saucepan. Bring to boiling and simmer 2 minutes; remove from heat. Cover; let stand 1 hour. (Or add beans to cold water; soak overnight.) Add salt to beans and water; cover and simmer till beans are tender, about 1 hour. Drain, reserving liquid. Measure 2 cups liquid, adding water if needed; mix with molasses, brown sugar, and mustard. Cut salt pork in half; score one half. Grind or thinly slice remainder. In 2-quart bean pot or casserole (I prefer the bean pot), combine beans, onion and ground salt pork. Pour molasses mixture over. Top with scored pork. Cover; bake in 300 oven for 5 to 7 hours. Add more liquid if needed. Makes 8 servings.

Boston Brown Bread

This is best made the night before, this way the flavor will be enhanced and you can clean up some of the mess the night before. Wrap the bread in foil, freeze a couple and just reheat in the oven. This is also a nice bread to bring camping or hiking. Keep in the can and just heat near the campfire (away from direct flames).

Sift together 1 cup sifted rye flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon soda, and 1 teaspoon salt; stir in 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon allspice. Add 2 cups buttermilk, 1 cup raisins, and 3/4 cup dark molasses; beat well. Divide batter among 4 greased and floured 16-ounce fruit or vegetable cans (labels removed). Cover tightly with foil. Place on rack in deep kettle; add boiling water to depth of 1 inch (cans should not be resting in water). Cover; steam 3 hours, adding more boiling water if needed. Bread is done when it has risen almost to fill the can and the center has puffed slightly. (If center remains indented, steam 15 minutes or so more). Cool 10 minutes. Remove bread, best done by removing bottom of can and pushing bread out of can. Wrap; store overnight. Makes 4.

Bon Apetit!

What I'll miss...and what I WON'T!

As I approach the final week of my exchange - I still can't believe its about to come to an end - I have been asked numerous times by my new friends and students alike, what I will miss the most about Fairfield and England, and what I am looking forward to doing/seeing the most when I return home. I suppose it is worthy of a blog post; as up to now my life has been an open book - well, almost...

So in no particular order (other than the first two)-

The Things I Will Miss the Most:


The people - I have definitely assimilated myself into the culture of Fairfield and I have made so many new friends, it feels like I have known most of them my whole life! I will miss so much the ladies in the English department, and my good mates in the PE dept., along with the kind ladies in the office and Kath and Josie - there are just too many people to name. Thank you all for your kindness and friendship these past four months; I truly have had a most wonderful experience.



I will miss my students - they have been so good and have taught me as much as I hope I have taught them. I will miss my form group; and I know that somewhere in that group of young footballers is the next David Beckham. My Year 7 group, while the most challenging on some days, have lived up to the expectations I have set for them and they have all adjusted well to high school life. I will miss my Year 8 class; we have come a long way from the start of the school year and I have developed a particular fondness for this group of students. I promise there will be care packages coming your way soon! I will miss the chattiness of my Year 9, but they have been great to teach, as have been all the Year 10 and 11 students that I have had the pleasure of knowing since coming here. Thank you all so much for sharing your school and your lives with me - hopefully you will each get an email partner in the next few weeks.



I will also miss:

...Kath's flapjacks & mince pies - although I won't miss the calories!

...the view of mountaintops and green pastures filled with cows, horses and sheep.

...the Pandy Inn.

...basketball, netball and rugby matches.

...my Year 7 boys win their tournament game in February!

...wild mistletoe, holly bushes and ivy.

...Mel's Christmas pudding and brandy butter (after I eat the one she gave me to take home).

...my neighbors: Debbie, Katie & Lucy and their dogs.

...cloudy lemonade.

...fish 'n chips and chips 'n cheese.

...authentic Indian curry.

...London.

...running to France for a weekend.

...a one hour lunch break.

...the projection screen for lessons.

...my Fulbright friends and the British Council gatherings.

...writing my blog.

...BBC Radio 1.

...Cadbury crunchies.

...the Walsh's and the Kerby's.

...Lucy Hockey hair salon, especially Katie! She gives an awesome cut!

...Tracy and Chloe nail salon, love them!

...cold cider on tap.

...rugby matches in Brecon with Ellie and her friends.

...crashing at Jan & Ian's.

...cranberry cheese and cinnamon apple cheese.





What I Won't Miss:



...the drive to school.

...driving on the left.

... shifting with my left hand; a serious case of neck/shoulder/wrist pain has started to plague me.

...spending money on petrol.

...the exchange rate.

...the smell of putrefying rats under floor boards.

...flies.

...rain, more rain, wind and mud.

...stinging nettles.

...sheep; they're creepy.

...hedge-lined lanes.

...baked beans in tomato sauce; it's just not right.

...AQA mark schemes!

...the chairs and tables in the classrooms; individual desks with welded chairs are my thing.

...registration after lunch.

...Mondays without a prep.

...low water pressure.

...hanging clothes to dry.

...a 3:30 dismissal time.

...the bulletin board with all the crazy notices; please could we use email!!!

...handwriting student reports.





What I Am Looking Forward to the Most:



...seeing Michael.

... seeing Zachary.

...sunshine & snow.

...cuddling with my dogs, Duke & Charlie.

...seeing ALL my friends and family at home and all my students at NHS.

...going to the NHS basketball game on Tuesday.

...my morning coffee stop at the Little Coffee Bean!

...a 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. day.

...my car!

...my country music station.

...my tumble dryer.

...the warmth of the coal stove.

...Patriots football games.

...chips & Helluvagood Onion dip.

...pizza.

...Chinese & Thai food!

...margarita's on the rocks with a salted rim.

...the Outback, Longhorns, and Vinny T's!

...Friday afternoon's with the crew!

...having a cold one at the VF, Hawks Nest and the Barn.

...Boston Baked Beans...in molasses!

... my homemade sauce and meatballs.

...the teacher contract negotiations; this exchange has strengthened my confidence- bring it on!

Tea with the "Queen!"

Prior to departing for this exchange I had written in an earlier post, after receiving my Patriots tickets for the London game, that this exchange could only get better if I had tea with the Queen; to which Dave Provis responded that the Queen had been known to occasionally stop by Fairfield - well, yesterday, Her Majesty did indeed stop by Fairfield for tea!

My Year 10 drama students, Micaela included, surprised me with a fantastic, creative and original production as a goodbye and thank you for working with them this term. (Despite the fact that I have been an absolute rubbish drama teacher!)

I arrived for the term's last drama lesson a bit late, as Mel had given me a heads up that I needed to give the kids a few minutes because they were planning something for me to see, and they needed to get ready. I arrived to an empty drama room, except for Micaela and two other students seated on the floor. The stage was set with a banquet table and chairs, and some treats displayed. As I took my seat, one by one the students entered from "backstage" and began performing a "tea party"; each student dressed in costume and playing the part of various British characters. Their play was quite humorous and at one point,as I was a spectator I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes.

The tea party progressed with more and more people joining it, additional food being delivered and then one character made a phone call to the Queen to invite her to the tea party - the role of the Queen being played by Mel, dressed in her royal purple especially for the occasion. It was at that point that I was invited to join the tea party on stage and was presented with a thank you card and many well wishes from the group. Of course, at that point, the tears in my eyes were no longer from laughter, as I was deeply touched by this lovely gesture, completely generated by the students.

The tea party continued, everyone still in role, and then Jo, Ruth and Jayne (the rest of the English dept.) joined us also. The students performed karaoke, we played the "minister's cat" game and other drama games during the remainder of the lesson. Each student had cooked something for the tea party - from homemade scones and sausage rolls, to cucumber sandwiches and chocolate cake! I wish so much I had this performance on videotape, because for the first time all term I saw how truly creative and talented the entire group of students, acting together really are.

The students had planned this during their lesson last week, when Mel worked with them, and spent the entire of this week rehearsing during lunch times. I had wondered on several occasions about all the noise coming from the drama room all week long, as it is directly above my classroom. On one occasion three young ladies asked for the keys, and when I asked why they needed them, they hesitated for a brief second and then came up with some excuse about doing something for Mrs. Williams. I thought they were trying to avoid hurting my feelings, thinking they were continuing to rehearse a bullying drama concept, without my involvement, as I truly am rubbish with giving dramatic advice. So at that point, seeing their hesitation, I assured them that my feelings were not hurt one bit if they were working with a proper drama teacher. They nodded, took the keys and off they went. Even Micaela kept the secret, carrying on with the bullying production practicing and making some pointed remark about one student constantly complaining about having to use lunch time to rehearse for a whole week; sounded plausible to me, so I completely believed her.

It was a truly touching gesture and a memory I will fondly cherish long after I depart Fairfield. Thank you so much GCSE Drama Year 10 students - you truly are a remarkable group of young people and I have been truly privileged to have been your teacher for this short time.

I Luv Me Mudder and Me Mudder Loves Me...

One of the bright spots of the exchange has been discovering the remarkable British black poet, Benjamin Zephaniah. I vaguely knew a bit about this man prior to my arrival, but instructing the Year 7 students the past few weeks, and preparing them to write an essay of comparison, for his poems has truly been quite enjoyable. On any given day for the past several weeks you may have openend the door to the classroom and found a group of Year 7 students and their teacher jammin' to the beat!

My students fell in love with him as much as I did and one of the best activities they did was to perform the poem, "I Luv Me Mudder and Me Mudder Luvs Me" in Benjamin's unique style. My friend and co-worker, Ruth, once worked with the poet and she contacted him. He agreed to answer four questions from our students in an email before we leave for Christmas break! NHS English department will be glad to know that we have this connection for future reference. I will definitely be introducing this poet to my students at home, as some of his poems are of a rather mature nature, as demonstrated in the clips below, but I think they will really find his poetry accessible and inspiring...I did.

Discover Benjamin Zephaniah through the links below, I am sure you will love him too!







Below is the email response that our Year 7 group received from Benjamin Zephaniah. The third question in the list came from a student in my class!

How has poetry changed your life?

I've done poetry all my life so I don't really know anything else. I did go through a bad period in my life when I was getting in trouble with my parents and the police, and I think poetry help me then. I had something to concentrate on, something that could help me to have ambition and dream of a better life. The real answer is that poetry hasn't just saved my life, it is my life.


What is your favourite word and why?

I like all words but the words I like the most are made up words like Jabberwocky. It just sounds like in should mean something but a poet made it up. I also like overstanding, understanding is okay, but sometimes you just need a little more. Oh yes, and I like mushymushy, it means hello (on the phone) in Japanese.

If you could shape, design and control a world of your own, what would it look like?

My world would have no armies. Governments would be forced to sort out their problems without killing. Like most other people have to. I would not tolerate homelessness and every house would have a mango tree. There would still be cars but they would only be allowed in certain areas, pedestrians would have priority. And people wouldn't have to works so hard, half year working, half year having fun.


Which events or experiences in your life most affect your poetry?

Many events affect my poetry, sometimes I experience something and it doesn't affect my poetry until many years later. I think the thing that affects my poetry more than anything else is travel. I usually travel to what we now call developing countries, when I am there I see so much poverty, and so many people suffering from diseases and homelessness, that when I arrive home I feel I have to try to remind people how bad things can be and how lucky we are. The other thing that affects my poetry is remembering all the things that made me laugh when I was young. This is why some of my poetry is very serious, some is quite funny, and sometimes I manage to do both in one poem.

Benjamin

Bonjour! J'aime la France!

J'ai voyagé en France en Ferry, quittant Portsmouth et arrivant dans le Havre pour un beau lever de soleil. Nous avons apprécié le dîner un dîner délicieux de cari avant que nous ayons laissé le port et nous avons dormi solidement pendant que nous voyagions à travers la Manche dans le dormeur confortable assied. Mel m'a invité sur ce voyage, comme mon cadeau d'anniversaire, à rendre visite à ses parents et parents qui vivent dans le beau village de Roncey, en dehors de la ville de Coutances.

En arrivant dans le Havre la première vue impressionnante était le Pont du Normandie. Une structure élégante et géométriquement intrigante, elle dirige le trafic au-dessus du fleuve Seine.

La ville de Coutances a été occupée par les Allemands pendant cinq années pendant la deuxième guerre mondiale, et l'hôtel de ville soutient toujours l'évidence, comme mortier et des trous de coquille peuvent néanmoins clairement être vus dans des ses murs en pierre pleins. La cathédrale de Coutances est également une vue impressionnante. En tant qu'un voyage sur la route d'anneau en dehors de la ville la cathédrale et ses flèches se lèvent majestueux des brumes un jour obscurci.

Les jardins de Coutances sont également impressionnants, et partout on tourne dans cette belle ville ne peut s'empêcher mais envisager chaque film comporter des batailles combattues dans la deuxième guerre mondiale. Les rues et les belles maisons françaises, granges construites avec de la belle pierre, toutes semblent comme une bande de décor de film de frères. Un des événements les plus drôles de ce voyage était l'aventure à l'épicerie, où les specials décrits du jour dans la boucherie étaient langue et lapin. Yum !

Nous avons dîné qui soirée dans un restaurant local de village où la mousse de chocolat était lisse et crémeuse.

Une église locale a également comporté un village miniature de Noël construit par main, construit pour perfectionner la balance, et comporter le plus petit des détails, y compris les chiffres miniatures d'étudiant se reposant à leurs bureaux dans la maison d'école. Dimanche matin nous avons assisté à un office pour la communauté anglaise locale comme Mel' ; les parents de s sont très en activité et ont fondé ce groupe particulier de paroisse. Tandis que le jour commençait par la pluie torrentielle et le vent, avant que les services aient été complets le soleil était brillant en cieux bleus. Nous avons conduit dans la ville et avons eu un repas merveilleux ; gallettes et crepes traditionnels. La nourriture française est fantastique !

Avant que nous la sachions, il était temps de partir et de faire notre manière de nouveau au Havre de prendre notre bac. Un week-end de tourbillon en France - un de mes rêves viennent vrai pour certain. J'avais été craintif que je peux devoir retourner en Amérique sans visiter ce beau pays. Merci que Mel pour faire un rêve viennent vrai. J'ai eu le temps fabuleux. L'hospitalité de vos parents a été considérablement appréciée. Merci de partager votre visite de Noël avec moi. Faites attention de ces distributeurs de savon ! Aimez-vous tellement !

To translate: select English from the drop down menu. It's not perfect, but you'll get it! This was fun just the same!

Bah Humbug...Assessments & Marking Schemes!

Well, for every success, there are some failures; and this exchange process has certainly proven this edict to be true. While I was quite pleased with myself for having marked (graded) all the Year 10 top set coursework essays on Great Expectations; spending hours reading, re-reading, annotating, and commenting in detail - as it turns out - not quite up to snuff! Sitting down with Melanie last week, and reviewing several of the essays I had graded, it turns out that the mark scheme, (a rubric - but ten times more complicated than I normally use) is still completely foreign to me! I miserably failed at grading these essays - well, maybe that's a harsh criticism of myself - but with only two weeks left to go in the exchange, it became apparent that it would not be possible to go back and recorrect these essays, so sad to say, they will be unfinished business left behind.

On the bright side - I apparently, and this will be of no surprise to anyone back home, have been especially harsh and critical in my grading of these essays, in some cases marking two grades below what Mel's trained and skillful eye assessed as the student performance on a handful of randomly selected essays. I have not overmarked, but I have apparently severely undermarked - again, no surprise to anyone back home, certainly not my students, as they are accustomed to harsh, albeit fair, grading of essays and projects; but I have a seriously high standard of expectations and this has been to my detriment on this particular set of essays, as it has been difficult for me to compartmentalize the reading, literature and grammar aspects of "marking" on this side of the pond.

In some cases, even though an essay is not particularly well-written or organized - if that is not part of the mark scheme one is to "ignore" those aspects and look only for the "insight" and "analysis" - at home I wouldn't consider that there is much difference in these ideas, but here there definitely is - albeit a fine line at that. At home, if an essay is not grammatically in line and not organized, this too seriously affects the grade earned.

Therefore, viewing this entire exercise in an optimistic light, I instructed these students brilliantly, as their essays are much better than I gave them credit for, and even some of the lowest achieving students in the class have apparently achieved a C on this essay! Yay!

A Day at the Academy...How to Make a "Dalek" Cake?

I am a bit behind in the blogging...but here goes a catch up day! Last Thursday I spent the day at Hereford Academy. Hereford is a much larger school than Fairfield, bragging a student population of over 800; so on that account it reminded me more of NHS than Fairfield does. Set in the middle of the city of Hereford, and smack in the middle of a Council Housing Estate, it also has a much different socio-economic demographic than Fairfield High School.

With a proper lobby and reception area, requiring buzzing for all visitors to the campus, the school reminded me more of what I have come to know as an American high school than Fairfield - although it still lacks lockers in the hallways. (The concept of an American high school is quite stereotyped here with movies such as High School Musical and Grease, which depict all American schools with lockers - I guess, though, technically, that's not really a stereotype, as it is a reality for all American schools.) It is a cultural difference that our students do not carry their backpacks during the day, emphasizing school safety, and instead store all their items in a locker and then returning to it throughout the day prior to each class. The English department at Hereford consists of ten teachers, and they use the Welsh Examining Board curriculum; as they have found that this particular curriculum works best for the needs of their students.

I was invited to observe at Hereford Academy by Abby Hughes, the Head of English. I observed a variety of classes throughout the day, including two classes related to the new Heroes curriculum for Year 7 - which actually involved observing a physical education class and a related period of instruction in a classroom where students were learning about leadership skills, as they examined various sports and coaching figures. It was quite interesting. This new curriculum at Hereford focuses on improving student skills in the five "R's": Relationships, Readiness, Resilience, Reflectiveness and Resourcefulness. This program has been in effect for a couple of years, I believe, and the teachers involved do say they have seen an improvement in student preparedness, motivation and success since its implementation.

The first class I observed was a Year 7 mixed ability lesson where the teacher was instructing her students on a Fairy Tale Poem lesson. Students had spent four lessons learning and researching the structures and backgrounds of fairy tales. They had researched and chosen a fairy tale of interest and their task was to write a poem based on that fairy tale using elements of a fairy tale in their poem, such as the phrases, "Once Upon a Time" and "Happily Ever After." While there was a lot of chatting, something I too have experienced with my teaching groups at Fairfield, the students were generally focused. Every classroom at the Academy is equipped with Activeboards, equivalents to our Smartboard technology in the US, and the teacher made excellent use of the timer feature, as she provided certain amounts of time for student work, followed by teacher directed sharing as a whole class, and teacher directed peer evaluation and sharing. I found the church bell chimes quite engaging, and it was apparent that this class had been trained well, and knew the teacher expectations when the bells would ring, as they all redirected their focus to her within seconds. The teacher will be using this assignment for a variety of assessments including a writing focuses and speaking and listening components, as the students are to present their poems. I liked this lesson and idea, because it reminded me a bit of my gothic fairy tale project I use at home when I am instructing Frankenstein and studying elements of gothic fiction. The children were very interested in asking me lots of questions about America and I enjoyed assisting some of them with their task.

One element of classroom management / school discipline that I discovered being used consistently throughout the school was a process I had learned about when visiting the British Council in September. The C4 system. This basically entails setting a school wide set of expectations for behavior and all staff use it. A student is progressively assigned warnings, until they have exhausted their chances to correct their behavior and may end up at a C4 stage where they will be excluded from classes, or perhaps even from school. This system encourages discipline with dignity, as not one teacher raised their voice while I was in the room, and also puts the ultimate responsibility of changing behavior upon the student and applies a consistent procedure of discipline to every child in the school for the same offense. Some would say that Hereford is a "rough" school, but I did not see one child reach any higher than a C2 while I was in the room; and every teacher consistently used the process.

I also observed a Speaking and Listening lesson taught by Abby to her Year 10 top set students. This was quite entertaining, as I was exposed to a cultural phenomenon called "Blue Peter", which is a television program where guests appear and "prepare" something while explaining it. (See the posted YouTube link for this episode.) The demo version that we watched involved the guest baking a "dalek" cake, and basically she had prepared a "cooking" show, where each step was explained, and stages of the cake had been prepared in advance. The students were then asked to select their groups of no more than three and begin planning to demonstrate, in this style of "Blue Peter", how to make some object of their choice: such as a paper airplane, a christmas card, or some other item of their choice. They were instructed on taking into account the importance of their audience, the use of command verbs, present tense, pronouns to involve the audience, connectives (transitions) from one step to the next, etc. Students were instructed to think about props they would need and stages of the finished product they may have to complete. Students were told this was a coursework presentation that would be due for completion the last week of term; I do wish I could return to see their finished presentations.

I also observed a bottom set (bar one) of Year 8 students and a bottom set of Year 9 students at the Academy. The Year 9 students were engaged in a library lesson, so there wasn't much to interact with or observe in that class, but the Year 8 students were in the middle of filming an animated version of The Hound of the Baskervilles as part of a unit on Myths and Legends. The project had been student driven, as, according to the teacher, the students had shouted one day - "Hey, we should make a film!" -and so the idea was born. The students built "sets" out of legos, and were using animation technology with a series of still photographs to illustrate the various events of the story line. I was seated with a group of students who were "rehearsing" the positions of their figurines for each still photograph. The hardest task was determining how to make it look like the characters were running. The Hound? A large dinosaur...! Hilarious and creative with a low ability group. I was impressed with their creativity.

Overall, it was a really valuable experience to observe at a school with a much different demographic and style than Fairfield. The students were well behaved, inquisitive and fun to watch. The faculty that I ate lunch with were also very kind and informative, and inquisitive about the Fulbright program and the details of the exchange process. It was fun to share and be an ambassador for the program, as it definitely is a life altering experience on a myriad of levels.

Thank you to the Hereford Academy staff for allowing the opportunity to visit and learn even more about the English educational system. Good luck with your new multimillion pound school building- which also promises to be a state of the art and modern facility, set for completion in 2011.

Christmas Yummies...

Today I had my first mince pie, a Christmas tradition here in England. Mince meat is actually a blend of dried fruits, liquor, candied peel and suet. The treats have never been something I have been eager to try, as I just didn't have a notion of what they could possibly taste like. Today at break Kath made some, which were nice and warm - she made certain that I got one. All present in the moment were shocked that I had never tasted the warm gooey goodness before now. Sprinkled with powdered sugar on the flaky crust my pie was indeed a sweet treat and one which I savored.

Likewise, Christmas pudding, as I have previously blogged about, was also something I had never actually tasted. In the States I don't really know anyone who makes their own, and it is not something I would typically purchase at the store during the holiday season. The traditional Christmas pudding is something I always equated with the Cratchit household; I never understood why this large family was so excited at having such a small bundle of pudding. In August I got to have a taste of Mel's Christmas pudding and it too was a gooey goodness - and very rich, so a little can feed a lot of people - hence the excitement in the Cratchit household. Ironically, many people I have met here don't really like Christmas pudding, but they make one, or buy one anyway, just to have it on the table. Yesterday, Mel brought me my very own Christmas pudding to pack in my suitcase and take home with me. Attached was a recipe for brandy butter...can't wait to have a taste and share it with my family on the holiday.

Thank you to Kath and Mel for providing my taste buds with a cultural pleasure!