York1Dave, I've never had plum pudding. Is it anything like what we call a fruitcake?
Hi John,
The two are very close. Traditional plum pudding is boiled in a muslin cloth as opposed to being baked in a pan.
By the way, there are no plums in plum pudding. The term 'plum' comes from 17th century England (or thereabouts) and it referred to any dried fruit, usually raisins and currents. Candied fruit like orange and lemon rind and cherries are also added. Some people add chopped nuts. The recipe that I followed came from a cookbook published in the 1700s.
Plum pudding is usually served with a white or carmel sweet sauce. I'm going to offer our guests some brandy butter as well. Brandy butter is made with 90 grams of unsalted butter, 90 grams of brown sugar and 6 or 7 tablespoons of brandy all whisked together. A scoop of vanilla ice cream is a nice modern touch.
It is traditional to pour some brandy over the pudding before serving, then dim the lights and then set the brandy on fire! The effect is very eye catching! As soon as the flames go out the pudding is served and the warmth from the pudding helps to soften the brandy butter.
I have decided to make a second plum pudding for New Years.
Cheers!!
Dave
Edit:
Top of the page! How about plum pudding all round!?! Those of you who might not be interested in the pudding can just have a snifter of brandy. In fact, everyone can have a snifter of brandy!
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Good Evening,
Another warm day here. It hit about 50F..
John, my wife is like yours. She is up to 4 a. m. and rarely gets up before noon. I get up with the sun which is about 7:30 now to put out the bird feeders. When it was earlier I did go back to bed afterwards. We haven't been missing birds here. Plum pudding isn't christmas cake. It is steamed and served hot usually with a sauce. Often brandy is pourd on it and set alight. Nice when it is still on fire when it hits your plate. In our family we called christmas cake fruit cake. I never liked it. My mother would age hers about 6 months.
I did a bbq or grill per Kevin. Didn't do it right per my wife the chicken ended up in the garbage. Well my wife's did, I ate mine and it was fine. I won't do chicken again. Trying hamburgers tomorrow. Last time before the weather changes.
Tomorrow I have to finish getting the yard ready for winter. More pots to empty. If you don't they will freeze and crack. I may pump the pond too.
CN Charlie
Good afternoon everyone.
Talking about cold weather... we are in for another unseasonably "cold" evening tonight.
One of the people I work with is an older Cuban woman. I was talking about people asking for heated gloves and such. She said "I know, I heard about how cold it gets up here in the North, but until you live in it, you just can't understand."
It never ocurred to me that for Cuban people, South Florida is "Up North!"
They are probably in as much shock as I am when I spend a Winter day in Jacksonville! Maybe we should start selling heated gloves.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I don't have any, but I could sure use them when out running the snow blower:
York1 John
Good morning Diners. Tea and toast please, Brunhilda.
Only half an hour to go wearing the heart monitor then I can takeit off and return it to the hospital.
Will be back later for some of Dave's plum pudding.
A short film of getting supplies to Russia.
Convoy of lend-lease materials arrive in Iran and go to Russia by way of the recently British-built Trans-Iranian railway.
David.
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Hello:
Loading War-time supplies. Can't really tell if those crates are moving from the gondolas to the embankment or vice-versa?
Erie Crane by Edmund, on Flickr
That stacked rail there looks like the Bullhead type used with chairs in the UK. Any thoughts, David?
More loading. This photo was retouched with ERIE being penned onto the whirley.
ERIE_Whirley by Edmund, on Flickr
I had a friend over Sunday and we ran trains for five-hours straight! Lots of fun!
Cheers, Ed
Good Morning All!
hon30critterPlum pudding is usually served with a white or carmel sweet sauce. I'm going to offer our guests some brandy butter as well. Brandy butter is made with 90 grams of unsalted butter, 90 grams of brown sugar and 6 or 7 tablespoons of brandy all whisked together. A scoop of vanilla ice cream is a nice modern touch.
John, to go with those heated gloves while snow blowing.
Charlie, is your wife a picky eater? Even if you forgot to season it, grilled chicken is usually okay unless it's burned down to charcoal.
David, glad to hear you get the monitor off. Hopefully all is well.
Ed, neat pics. I wonder why the one was touched up with the Erie markings on the cranes. They even did the third one in the back as well. Sounds like fun running the trains too! I don't know anyone in my area to do that with, so it's lone wolf all the time for me.
MLC, I hear you. My oldest daughter would put up Christmas decor the day after Halloween if we let her. She usually starts listening to Christmas music sporadically in October, gradually ramping up to listening to it daily starting about this time. Not much different from me when I was a kid. Your comments got me to thinking about getting mine up. Rain forecast all weekend, so that might be out. We'll see.
Garry, Lion, TF, JR, Ray, Brent, Ricky, Bear, Douglas, Rich, Jim, et al. chime in when you can.
Mike
Good Morning All,
Back after two weeks on the road. It went well enough for us but I was glad to sleep in my own bed last night. Got a bunch of blood work done when I got back as I have a bunch of follow up appointments through early December starting with the neurologist tomorrow. Oh Joy.
Nothing on the layout front yet and I haven't caught up post here so I'm just flying blind for now.
At Daytona I helped my son who is crew chief on one of the Pescarolos we run. The Peugeot we run had a problem and dropped out before halfway but the Pescarolo ran through to the end (actually 4 sessions in a 24 hour period with time between sessions - it's complicated) and we came first overall. Not as good as two years ago when we finished 1,2,3 but a good result especially with the Chevron B21 we also ran (different crew) finishing first in class.
thuJuan Daytona bankingmbnail (1) by J.R. Mitchell, on Flickr" alt="" />
The Pescarolo at the bottom of the picture is a Lemans Prototype that finished 4th at that race when new - the best showing for a privateer at the time against the factory Audi's. Driver in tis pic is the owner Juan Gonzalez Moreno and the co driver is Butch Leitzinger. The Corvette is a former factory team car with a motor built by our friend Dan Binks who worked for Corvette Racing. It ran untestricted and wow was it fast - just not quite as fast as us though.
J.R. Good to see you back with more stories. Congratulations on the win!
Don't be such a stranger.
Thanks Kevin,
It's been so nuts I haven't had the time and with no layout a lot of the motivation is lacking as well. Hopefully as the season winds down and the outdoor work at the new place diminishes I can get after planning the layout room.
Ciao, J.R.
Good morning, everyone. Bacon, eggs, and black coffee, please.
Not much going on today. More leaves to work on. A meeting tonight -- at least this meeting is held at a restaurant and we eat while the meeting goes on.
I'll be working on the wife's Expedition this morning, getting ready for winter. With so many projects going on, the layout has been ignored. I see a lot of work coming once the snow comes.
J.R., good to have you back, and congratulations on the winning.
Good morning.
The corner booth is full this morning. David, Ed, Mike, JR, Kevin, and John York 1 : It is good to see each of you.
JR ... Congratulations on your racing success.
Update on me. It was three weeks ago when heart issues sent me to ER. Now I have been home for two weeks..
Recovery is progressing slowly but generally in the right direction, but there have been minor setbacks. I am on oxygen. I see my cardiologist tomorrow.
I thank each of you who posted encouragement to me.
Have a good day.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Garry, good to hear from you!
Let us know what the doctor says tomorrow.
I know it can get discouraging, but slow is better than none at all. Still praying.
Good morning all.
Chloe - Let's have one of them lovely looking cinnimon rolls. Thanks.
J.R. - Congrats on the win!
Garry - Glad you are doing a bit better. Wishing a speedy recovery.
Ed - Running trains for that long sounds like great fun!
Sitting here with my good doggo today, who is less than happy. He had to have surgery yesterday, and has "the cone of shame" today. While the surgery went well, they did send the removed tissue for a biopsy. Hopefully it comes back as a "FLT" and nothing else. (Funny Looking Thing.)
He had a swelling growth inside his nose, and nothing could explain why. No injury, no thorn or twig from a bush, nothing odd, just some odd growth. So, while hopefully it was not malignant, not too sure. He is certainly breathing easier now though.
Weather - Our "lake effect snow" fizzled out... Maybe a 1/4 of an inch, tops!
Layout room remodel - Not as far as I would like, but progressing.
Driving discussion (countinued) - I also never speed. Back when I delivered the auto parts, one of the others employed ther stated, in front of a customer, that I take way too long to run deliveries. I simply replied that it takes as long as it takes, as I am going the speed limit.
Her snotty reply, still in front of a customer, was "You don't have to go the speed limit you know."
That was her big mistake. I've done retail long enough to know there are certain things you never do, and getting confrontational in front of customers with another employee is one. So, as she was not in any position to be scolding me, as she was simply a coworker, not a supervisor or in charge of anyone or anything, I kind of taught her that lesson...
I replied "I'm 33 (at the time) and I've never had a speeding ticket or collision with another vehicle in my life, and I don't plan to start now. If you dislike that, you run the longer delivery trips. However, you are correct. I do not have to go the speed limit. It's perfectly legal for me to drive slower than that if I so choose."
The customer (who knows me well) laughed her head off. The owner, who was listening in on all this but waiting to see how I handled it, did the same. (Had it been a random customer who did not know me, I would have left off the last bit of my reply.)
Many times I have avoided a collision or accident simply because I never speed, tailgate, etc..., and go slower in snowy, slick conditions. When semi's or locals are going slow, there tends to be a reason.
So while others are out wasting money on speeding tickets and collision repairs, I have that money to spend on trains.
Hello to all those I did not mention by name.
Hope all are well, best wishes to those not, and all enjoy the day!
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
Hi Everyone,
This is probably tangent to the subject, but in this month's MR, there's an article about sprucing up grain elevator models. Hopefully, here's a couple of pictures of a sweet little grain elevator complex in Rapid City, SD. This is obviously a small market operation in reality, but would make a really nice model on a medium to large size layout. Hope you all like it.
Grain Elevator 1 by Jim S, on Flickr" alt="Grain elevator in Rapid City" width="600" height="800" />
Grain Elevator 1 by Jim S, on Flickr" alt="grain elevator complex" width="600" height="800" />
Grain Elevator 1 by Jim S, on Flickr" alt="elevator and flour mill" width="600" height="800" />
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Good morning from sunnyville.
I think today will be the final chopping of the leaves as we had a blustery night and the stragglers are now off the trees. The John Deere will then get blasted with the pressure washer and tucked away for 4 months.
Ricky, good on you for your driving habits. A daughter of a friend got a job delivering auto parts and got three speeding tickets right off the bat and each one cost her a week's pay and an increase in her own insurance premiums. I had a talk with her about how she should never bow to pressure from people to put herself or others at risk. Speeding is going outside the workplace safety envelope.
JR, love hearing the details, highs, and lows of your profession. Sounds like an interesting life you have there.
I had a 1990 Mazda RX7 TurboII. I bought it new in 1989 and sold it to a racing team for probably twice what I thought it was worth in 2004. I had a bidding war for it that I'll never understand. I have no idea what category of racing it would be in. I was told it had something to do with the VIN # as it showed it was one of only three RX7s that came from Japan to North America with that VIN # that year. I took the money.
It was 46 years ago today that the "Fitz" left port for the last time.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Brent: Thanks for posting about the Edmond Fitzgerald. A lot of information. Well done. For whatever reason, I listen to the song every November 10th. I have absolutely no connection to anything related to the ship, lake boats, or anything else, but I still play the song. If Gordon Lightfoot had never recorded the song I probably Would've never heard about any of it.
Thanks, Jim, being a bit of a history nut I love posting bits along the way.
Speaking of history, yesterday will be remembered as the day the U.S. opened the border back up and the Canadian snowbirds were on their way to Kevin's part of the world. The race to the border was newsworthy.
Water Level RouteSo what time do I need to show up to get some? Every iteration of that sounds good!
Hi Mike,
My family's Christmas dinner is on November 27. You are most welcome to join us! However, you may want to hold off until next year given that this is my first attempt at making a Christmas pudding. I figure that, no matter how bad it might turn out, all I have to do is pour more sauce on top. The brandy should cure all ills!
Good evening everybody.
My air conditioner just kicked on for the first time in three days. I guess the cold snap is over.
The World Is A Beautiful Place.
Hello Railfans!
Top of the evening to yas! Hope everyone is atleast shiny side up. If not, hope you make back into the fast lane soon!
Just wanted to stop by and say howdy. Catch up on the posts, see what i been missing.
Furnace been running about two weeks now here. I guess our cold has done snapped cuz its gonna get alot cooler from here on out.
Not much going on in the train dept., so nothing to report there.
Have a great evening folks!
Clear Ahead!
Douglas
Good morning Diners. I hope you are all well.
Tea and toast please, Janie.
Listening to my favourite piece of Classical Music. Dvorak's Symphony Number 9.
Yesterday I received a parcel of model railway carriages. My daughter, Julia, demanded they were put away as they are a Christmas present from her. I was allowed one to run on the layout now.
Dawn is being ruthless. She is getting rid of some old things. I was worried!!! Then she said getting rid of things not touched for over a year.
U.S. Naval Railway Battery at Verdun 1918. (Enhanced Colorisation).
Dreadnought Railway Artillery Guns
Thoughts & Prayers to All who Require.
David
hon30critterYou are most welcome to join us!
Brent, that video reminds me of Top Gear (BBC, not the other ones). They've done races like that with both cars & trailers, and racing motorhomes. Great stuff!
David, what a great surprise! Nice you got to have one early too.
When we ordered our groceries this last weekend, I ordered two turkeys for Thanksgiving like always. A big one to roast, and a smaller one to smoke. Got two small ones and told they were out of the large ones. Figured it was because we ordered for pickup Sunday evening. Ran out there last night. No turkeys, just a big empty cooler. Was told once upon a time that Tuesdays were restock days. This can't be good.
Good morning everyone. I am starting out the day with coffee, orange juice, and a bowl of Wheat Chex cereal as soon as Chloe returns.
One week now until the countertops arrive for the closets, and I can get moving again. Hitting a dead spot on house renovation wiork has been tedious. I need to get back at it.
I am doing yard maintenance today before heading to work. I am going th fertilize all the trees and straighten out the rock gardens.
Garry: I am relieved and joyed that you are improving.
I hope everyone is well.
Water Level RouteNo turkeys, just a big empty cooler. Was told once upon a time that Tuesdays were restock days. This can't be good.
I have not been to the grocery store in two weeks. While my wife was in Ohio I just scrounged what we had on hand. Since she has been back she has not been feeling well, so more scrounging in the pantry. It is amazing how much stuff we had stocked up for just the two of us.
Good morning, diners. Black coffee, please.
It's supposed to rain today, so the outdoor projects will wait. The temps are in the 40s, so no snow worries yet.
It's always good to hear from diners who haven't posted in a while.
My wife is on the warpath. We have raccoons that raid her bird feeders each night. She doesn't mind them eating seeds, but they clean out the suet and woodpecker bars in one night.
She has run a cable between two trees, and has hung the six feeders on the cable. She believes the raccoons won't be able to navigate the cable. She doesn't mind the squirrels.
I told her I can solve the problem in two minutes, but she doesn't think much of my idea.
Good Morning,
Garry, glad to hear you are on the mend.
Ricky, hope your pooch is ok. They always look sad wearing a cone.
A very busy day here yesterday. We worked about 6 hours getting the back yard ready for winter. It got dark and we finished with a flashlight. The pond is pumped, garden furniture stored, and soil emptied from 30 pots. I was exhausted when that was all done. I don't have the stamina I used to. We are expecting a storm here. It is raining lightly but will turn to snow tonight.
Not much new. A good day to run trains.
A visit to the dentist today, no issues. Still pretty decent weather and an opportunity to chop up some leaves with the Deere. Maybe tomorrow I'll hook up the vacuum trailer and Hoover all the clippings for the compost pile.
NYC_War_Troop by Edmund, on Flickr
A few weeks ago I ordered some speakers for HO engines from a fellow in Marion, Ohio, that other users have praised. I was convinced that they are excellent and make a very noticable difference in sound output. My second order arrived today so now I have speakers to swap out in about two-dozen locos .
Ed: Thank you for sharing the NYC Troop Train poster. That was all very interesting.
In 1922 the Canadian Pacific commissioned sculptor Coeur de Lion McCarthy to craft a memorial to the CPR employees who fell in WWI. Three were made and placed in Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Montreal.
Canadian Pacific has been touched by the tragic impacts of World War I and World War II. Over 33 thousand CP employees served in the last century’s two world wars. Sadly, 1,774 employees died in battle. In the two World Wars combined, 24 of 74 CP ships were lost to enemy action. In the air, CP pioneered the transatlantic delivery of bombers to Britain. At home, Canadian Pacific’s efforts included transporting troops, supplies and equipment in addition to making its shops available for the output of Valentine tanks, engines for frigates and landing craft, naval vessel power equipment components, naval guns, anti-submarine devices and fire-control equipment.
A salute to all Veterans out there
My dad served for just over six years having volunteered for the Massachusetts Army reserve for two years prior to his four year stint in the regular army.
There he is, right, um, there...
JJT_181st-inf by Edmund, on Flickr
Oh yeah —
JJT_181crop by Edmund, on Flickr
To all the allied defenders of freedom, I salute you.
Joseph Ambrose, WWI by Edmund, on Flickr
My son gave me a copy of this a few years back. What a fascinating look at the Great War:
* Thanks, Kevin. I have a few more coming over the next week or so.