In which GG gets festive.

Busy week in the Glutton household. Saturday saw the annual girls' christmas dinner. This has been a tradition for six years - me, Emily Jo, Ailsa and Charlotte congregating at Sharmin's for dinner. Lots has changed, including boyfriends, husbands and locations and in fact this year was the first year that a boy was allowed to attend - Emily Jo's new baby Jonah. So, we love it. Sharmin is a great cook and a brilliant host and for me, this annual dinner marks the start of Christmas - we have pressies and dancing and I wouldn't miss it for anything.

We kicked off with some spectacular canapes - pink devilled eggs (eggs dyed with beetroot) and blue cheese and apple in red chicory leaves. Dinner was amaze. A sweet onion pie had a lovely doughy crust and a really savoury/sweet filling. This came with roasted red peppers with capers (sharply flavoured, went brilliantly with the onion pie) and a salad of sprouts, green beans and


lettuce. Dessert though, was the star. Sharm has never really forgiven herself for serving, two years ago, a ready made dessert. The excuse (and it was one we all could get on board with) was that she had just hooked up with her new man and had more important things to do than make puddings. However, on that occasion she served mini pancakes as canapes, made from mixture left over from breakfast pancakes that the new man has suggested she save for us. We were disposed to like him. Anyway, back to 2009. The dessert was a chocolate and prune steamed pudding. The prunes were puree and it had the most velvet texture, was light and rich and I had to restrain myself from wolfing it. All in all, a brilliant night.

As we speak, I am steaming three Christmas puddings. I was so worried about them boiling dry I overfilled the pans so in the mad boiling frenzy the puddings may have become a bit waterlogged, which I hope isn't a huge problem. To be honest, I imagine that anything that has an initial 5 hour steam followed by another three hour steam can stand a bit of water, but any advice, as always, gratefully recieved.

Lots of love,

GG