Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 27: Calmly through the day

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Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 26: Calmly through the day

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Dinner and tea vs lunch and dinner is the real index of North or South if you’re in the UK - I grew up in the North and our evening meal was 'tea' (‘what’s for tea, mum?' was a frequent cry). Dinner was/is traditionally the midday (ish) meal.

If you’re in the South you’re more likely to have lunch and dinner although there are those who eat 'supper' - they’re the posh ones!

Hilda, I'm going down the rabbit hole googling now. Seems here in BC and back east in southern Ontario, dinner, is the common term for the evening meal like it is in the States and supper is used commonly everywhere else here in Canada. Who knew? 🤷‍♀️
Dinner is still used as a more formal term as well.
I read a thread about pudding v dessert a while back. I recall pudding being the common term and dessert the formal.
Here, pudding is specific to mean custard, but we would understand custard meaning a pudding if someone said it. We also understand plum pudding, sticky toffee pudding and Christmas pudding as an old fashioned Christmas cake usually served with caramel sauce of British origin that would be extra special if home made and a yummy treat in a restaurant at Christmas.
mmmmm, sticky toffee pudding!!!😛😛😛

@HildaTablet what if you have lunch and tea and dinner is some freakish word that other people use?

@Aethelberht not sure what you mean?

Sorry. I'm not sure I have ever had dinner in my life. Lunch and tea, yes. But dinner is some random meal other people have, whenever they choose to use the word.

Oh right, yes, I see - I think we all have our own specific words for things, and it’s very family-driven too. We never said dinner, always had 'tea' as well. When I moved south I picked up the habit of calling it dinner because that’s what everyone else called it (and they gave me funny looks if I said 'tea' - which to them meant sandwiches and scones at 4pm!).

Mum; Christmas pudding in England is not the same as Christmas cake, although it does have a lot of dried fruit in it. It also has suet, and is steamed rather than baked. I've also never heard of it being served with a sticky caramel sauce; a sticky toffee pudding here is a sponge pudding. Christmas pudding would be served with cream, custard or brandy butter or sauce.

Sue, I've made steamed Christmas pudding with caramel. It was about 5 years ago now and I wish I kept that recipe! 😋
No suet, though. We might have different versions here? I changed the dried fruit to dried mixed tropical fruit and added cho chips. I've also made "Christmas cake" which for us is shaped like a rectangle and heavy and is either "dark" or "light" and, again, switch out the traditional dried fruit for dried cherries and choc chips, pour hot caramel sauce on it and wrap tightly.
Growing up I remember mincemeat tarts that my dad loved. Hardly hear about them now, though, and I'm not a fan.
I also remember one time going with my mum to my auntie's house to make Christmas cake one year. That was with dried red and green cherries, currants, dried orange peel I think and marzipan on top...a long time ago. Every year there will be discussions on the radio about how everyone hates Christmas cake...
I also remember the same cake was given as little wrapped slices at weddings to take home. I don't know anyone who does that anymore, either.

Oh.... Christmas pudding.... When should I make one? And what do you serve yours with.

And what's the main Christmas Meal called then....? Christmas Dinner everywhere? Or Christmas Lunch.... Or Christmas Tea....

@TheSweetEndOfTheLollipop We mostly say "Christmas dinner" here.
As for making Christmas cake, most recipes say to make a couple months in advance, wrap tightly and "age" in back of fridge. That's usually with some rum or brandy poured over before wrapping. I do it my own way with hot caramel poured over hot cake to soak in, cool then wrap in foil and do it a few days/day before Christmas. Serve with whipped cream, more caramel sauce, ice-cream, whatever you like, warm or room temp as dessert or snack with coffee/tea.

You have to "feed" your Christmas cake by adding some more alcohol every 2 weeks in the run up to Christmas !!

Stops it drying out.

Never heard of it being stored in the fridge though.

Ours are normal kept in a tin wrapped in greaseproof paper in the larder..

Not that I have made one mind 🤣.
But my nana always did !

This is Christmas pudding UK style - we have it with like a white brandy custard here. The basic ones don't have nuts etc in but I find sometimes the ones with less in taste nicer. We are getting one from the butchers this year and DH will also have one in his Christmas hamper. Christmas cake is different again - a fruit cake which looks similar to this with a layer of marzipan and a layer of icing. Just eaten like a cake.

Always Christmas dinner here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/christmas_pudding

My gran used to make Christmas cake but no-one has bothered since. Its not actually that nice. Eat it as feels like you should at Christmas but can't say I like it that much unless its an exceptionally good one.

We also have mince pies around now, sometimes with mulled wine.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/unbelievably-easy-mince-pies

Ahhh, yes. Fruit cake is the rectangle tin shape often with marzipan on top, booze, aged. Typically made fun of and hated by most. Which is why I was on a mission to change minds and switched to dried cherries/tropical fruits and choc chips.
The dome shaped one is the steamed one, here. I make both. Interchangeably say Christmas cake/fruit cake/steamed Christmas pudding. The former I give as gifts (keep one!) the latter for dessert on Christmas Day at home on occasion.

Does anyone ever do different desserts, or always the traditional? I sometimes make gingerbread cake with caramel sauce.

@Lemonsandlemonade Is that Ynyslas opposite Aberdyfi?!
We’re off for a fortnight in Borth tomorrow and that my favourite place 😍

@Mumtobabyhavoc sadly I have been unable to find a xmas pudding sans alcohol and hence never tried it :-(. i do spend a lot of the winter months scoffing panettone and mince pies. although funnily for a long time I thought mince pies had meat in them and hence didn't try them 😅(I am originally from Bangladesh and a lot of other non UK born brits make the same mistake lol).

You can sometimes get alcohol free ones though not tried this so no idea how it tastes. It does need some kind of sauce or cream to go with it, my French inlaws tried eating it on its own. We make white custard sometimes which is the brandy custard without the brandy. Some people use double cream.

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-christmas-alcohol-free-christmas-pudding/731272-811662-811663

thanks so much @Silkiefloof 🙏 I must give this try for this year. I am thinking with maybe a vanilla and orange custard ....

cookiemonster, I am glad that I am not the only person here who is confused by certain British terms. When I first joined MN, tea confused me. I like tea. Tea is a beverage. Tea is not spag bol, which I had to google. The evening meal here is dinner.

I have moved most of the plants from the deck to the living room, including the giant aloe plant and its offspring. The shelves they are on is new, no assembly required. I bought something similar from Amazon and the parts didn't fit together, so I returned it. The leaves on the trees surrounding the house have started to change color, but I think we're still two to three weeks from peak foliage color.

M & S do an alcohol-free one as well, @therealcookiemonster, I haven’t tried it, though (I don’t drink and I don’t like Christmas pudding either!).

Havoc, I was intrigued by North American Christmas cake when I first saw it, as I think it’s typically much more fruit-packed and dense than British cakes. I use the same recipe every year and I vary the recipe with slivers of preserved ginger and chopped pecans as well as the sultanas and raisins. I don’t add candied peel as I don’t like it. I like to see a decent amount of cake in between my fruit!

I don't like dried fruit so that rules out Christmas cake and Christmas pudding for me along with a lot of other desserts

I've done today as have lunch with a friend, the rest of the day I've just been laid on the sofa watching gossip girl

I do this one. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiH16PQxIKCAxWbX0EAHVMaDdUQrbMEegQIDRAN&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk%2Frecipes%2Fchocolate%2Fspiced-choc&usg=AOvVaw0v9egPRSsQBOhPOQefQFCE&opi=89978449

Nobody likes Christmas pudding in my house either, so I make sticky toffee pudding instead 🤣

Hi, Marks and Spencer’s do a Christmas pudding without alcohol. I buy it for my Muslim relatives so they don’t miss out on the day.