Puddings and pies and little white lies......

Hopefully you are all in touch with your swap partners for the cracker swap, if you are having any problems getting in touch let me know but remember we are getting into a busy time of the year so you may not get a reply straight away. 

it's been a busy few weeks and I can't believe it's Friday again already!

Master Madaboutbags was back at school last, last week after a 2 week half term holiday, and my first week was a busy one full of fun things and a few blunders. 

Monday I enjoyed a day of sewing, playing catch up on my projects for some of the swaps I'm taking part in and attempting free motion embroidery on a mini quilt for the first time. It was a lot harder than it looked and I don't think I have concentrated that much in a while. Initially I wasn't that happy with the finish and I hope my swap partner will realise that I did try my very best. The mini quilt is now pressed and the binding has been added and I'm feeling much happier with the finished project. 

I've now also made some extras from the left over fabric and my parcel is in the post on it's way to my swap partner. 

On Tuesday I spent a lovely afternoon at a friends for lunch and a crafternoon. Lunch was delicious and I was amazed at how much sewing/crafting was actually achieved. I was too busy chatting, crafting and eating to take any photos! 

In the evening I went along to my daughter's church to make my Christmas pudding. 

There were over a hundred of us, just look at all those eggs!

it was a wonderful evening, of great company and conversation 

and we even had a roaring fire too. 

This year I had my own special pudding stirring spoon made by Lauren at Rockery Cottage. I'm hoping this year's pudding is as tasty as last years.

The finished puddings looked fabulous all lined up on the table.

My pudding is now steamed and hiding in the back of the cupboard until Christmas Day, 

and it's funny because I'm the only one who really likes Christmas pudding and I used to buy and individual one just for me but since I've started making my own Christmas pudding everyone wants some so I'm having to share.

Wednesday was another sewing today, one of my daughter's friends came over with her gorgeous baby daughter to make a draft excluder whilst I enjoyed a few cuddles. 

Thursday was WI day and my job was to pop into town and collect 27 pie and mash lunches, with the help of Mr Madaboutbags too as he was doing the driving. They were made for us by the wonderful family that run The Little Cafe in Moulsham Street, Chelmsford, so if you are ever over this way and fancy pie and mash (amongst other delicious meals) pop in and enjoy. 

This was from the slide show and shows one of the original pie and mash shops in the East End

With the lunches safely delivered and served onto plates it was time to sit down and enjoy our food, with many of the ladies trying liquor (parsley sauce) and chilli vinegar for the first time. There were lots of worries that the parsley sauce was made from eel juices but our speaker for the afternoon, Sharon Gould, explained that that myth came about because they sometimes used the water from the boiled eels to make the parsley sauce and it had  natural gelatine in it.  After lunch Sharon shared with us her experiences of growing up in the East End of London, she had many of us nodding and laughing away as she told us her childhood memories, of school, shared houses, outside toilets, cockle picking and what seemed like weapons of torture which masqueraded as beauty products. 

Sharon also bought along jellied eels and pickled herrings for us to try, now I do remember going to weddings and parties as a child in the East End and there was always jellied eels and cockles but I don't remember ever trying the jellied eels as I don't like the jelly, but I did have a try on Thursday and they weren't as bad as I thought they would be, I did only eat the eel not the jelly though.

 Now we have covered the puddings and the pies and I bet you are wondering where the little white lies comes into my week, well.......

as I explained Mr Madaboutbags helped me to collect the pies from the cafe and dropped me off at the village hall for my WI lunch and meeting. So that I could collect our eldest son from school when the meeting was finished I drove my car to the village hall and Mr Madaboutbagscollected me from there and we drove into town to collect the pies. Once they were collected we drove back to the village hall where Mr Madaboutbags dropped my and the pies off and then went home. I had a wonderful afternoon and then it was time to go home, so i helped clear away and then just as I was about to leave I couldn't find my cars keys, I searched my pockets, bags and even the car but they weren't anywhere and then it dawned on me........I'd left the in the passenger door of Mr Madaboutbags car!!! Oh NO!!! Now my memory has been getting pretty bad of late and Mr Madaboutbags has been ribbing me a little lot about it so I couldn't possibly phone him up and get him to bring me the keys could I, so knowing that the car was on the drive and then he wouldn't see me from the house I asked one of the WI ladies to take me home and I snuck in the gates and grabbed the keys from the door of the car and then she very kindly dropped me back at the village hall. Mr Madaboutbags was none the wiser, safely tucked up on the sofa watching TV and I picked up our song and drove home. The WI ladies and I had a chat in the car about whether it was really lying if I didn't tell Mr Madaboutbags about the keys but as we tell each other everything I couldn't keep it a secret and blurted it out as soon as I got home!!! He just rolled his eyes and seems resigned to the fact that this is how it is going to be from now on!!!! I would like to say this was a one off but that would be telling even more lies as this week there were even more blunders!!! I am now being referred to as Brenda the blunder woman and my head is so woolly I could knit my own jumper!!!!