Ronnie’s Easy Recipes

Hi Everyone, I thought I was long overdue to add some more of my very favourite recipes, as Christmas is just around the corner and everyone is busy planning there Christmas with family and friends whether it be for a white christmas or hot sunny day!

Christmas puddings are still a favourite but are often left out because we all remember our Grandmothers making the Christmas pudding weeks before Xmas and having to tie it in cloth and hang it till the big day around! Well I can assure you that I don’t have that time and I would imagine most of you reading this would rather have a Christmas Pudding that is quick and easy to make with no fuss!

I am going to share with you my favourite Christmas Pudding Recipe that I have kept to myself for 18 years. They make a wonderful gift as many people either do not bake or just simply do not have time these days. I have always made the puddings for my children’s school teachers, dance teachers, friends, neighbours and family. They are easy and inexpensive to make and because they are handmade make it even more special to receive.

In all the years I have never made less than 8 Christmas Puddings often up to 18!  You are thinking ” Why would she make 18 puddings?” It is because they are so easy and inexpensive to make with the recipe making 2 puddings at a time.

The great thing also about this recipe is that it freezes so well and just takes 3 minutes on high in your micowave to heat. I have several puddings made in the freezer several weeks before Xmas and then when I need one for a gift, I just take it from the freezer and gift wrap it!

After covering them in cling wrap when cool, I  wrap the Christmas Puddings in coloured cellophane and tie it them with a Xmas ribbon bow!

Christmas Steam Pudding

Ingredients:

2 Cups Flour
4 oz. Butter (125 grams)
2 Cups Milk
2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 Cup Sugar
3 Cups Mixed Fruit
3 tsp. Mixed Spice
3 tsp. Cinnamon
Method

Mix all dry ingredients. Add baking soda to cold milk and then lastly add melted butter.

Pour the mixture into 2 greased bowls.

Put enough water into two saucepans to cover half/two thirds of the bowls (with the mixture in it).

Bring water to the boil and place the bowls into the saucepans.

DO NOT cover the bowls but cover the saucepans with lids.

Reduce the heat to a simmer and steam for 1 1/2 hours.

While hot use a knife to slide around the edge of the bowl and turn the puddings onto a plate to cool.
The puddings refridgerate well for 3 -5 days or can be frozen after they’ve cooled.

Hope you and your family have a wonderful festive season and enjoy this yummy treat.

I would love to hear how you get on with this easy, delicious recipe - email me at ronniesrecipes@hotmail.com

Here are 10 ways to ensure that any dinner party you throw will be a complete failure

1. Invite conflicting guests - This is a great way to ensure trouble before your meal is even served but this can be hard to achieve especially when the group of people you plan to invite all know each other. Your best bet is to try and include partners and friends who are less connected to the group, preferrably with strong beliefs on subjects like religion, politics, ethics, or sexuality.

2. Make sure you don’t serve appetizers or drinks while you’re the guests are waiting for you to complete the preparations. What you want to avoid is your guests talking amongst themselves and potentially having fun. Ideally you want to make sure they have no food or drinks to snack on at all during this time so they have no energy with which to carry on any kind of interesting conversation.

3. Take your time with the cooking, particularly time after the guests have arrived and are waiting. The worst thing you can do is have everything ready shortly after everyone has arrived. Surprisingly, people like to
wait extended periods of time with the smells of a delicious meal filling their nostrils without actually being able to eat it. This is particularly true if you have gotten steps 1 and 2 right and in combination, these
three can create a strong sense of frustration, anxiety and general overwhelm at the whole evening.

4. Make loud noises, cries of frustration and excessive amounts of smoke be clearly noticeable to your guests as coming from the kitchen. In the best case scenario, by the time your guests are at the table, they will be so concerned about what all the racket was in there, they’ll be too scared to enjoy their meal no matter how good it is!

5. Serve an offensive dish - This part is easy. Anything from particularly objectionable types of seafood, foods that are too spicy, even the humble red meat can cause offence if one of your friends has decided to become vegetarian just for the occasion… If you choose wisely, you’ll surely be able to offend at least 20% of your guests with this one…

6. Overcook, undercook or generally just wrongly cook the food you have prepared. If steak, you want blood, if chicken, you want raw flesh. You will know something is wrong if at LEAST one person doesn’t leave with food poisoning.

7. Next it’s all about attitude. Your goal should be to show a blatant disregard for what your guests might want. A good way to do this is to bring desert out immediately after the main meals conclusion without asking anyone how they’re feeling. You don’t want the guest to feel like they have any control over the evening whatsoever.

8. Keep the desserts in the freezer while you’re preparing dinner. This will ensure that even though the serving will look delicious, even the most durable spoon will not be able to penetrate it’s icy surface.

9. Ask everyone what they thought of the meal, one by one and have them answer in front of the group.

10. Invite them back for another dinner party! IF they aren’t upset about everything that just happened, inviting them back to go through the ordeal again will surely tip them over the edge.

Hey Everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know that I’ve just posted a bunch of great new recipes for you!

There’s everything from Caramel Slice, to Banana Cake and much more. All of these recipes
have won me praise at some point in the past, I’m really giving you the best here!

Anyhow I must get back to writing, I have plenty more great recipes to share. Hope you
enjoy what I’ve posted so far and I look forward to hearing your feedback!

Ronnie