Our pudding was quite spectacular this year.
You can imagine the headlines.
"Family perish in pudding conflagration"

There was one year when Canon Chasuble came within an inch of braining his father with a champagne cork. What a way to go ;-)

Perished by pudding, and regretted by all.

>>He wears a gingham bonnet and rocks on his veranda dreaming of all the exotic locations he's like to visit.<<

With a foaming glass of Hammerite in hand..

We can never get our pudding to flames. Sometimes it gently glows for half a second, but it never flames. Is there a technique?

And tod, not to be smart-assy, but I think that would be Eau de Nile.

sheila, I put a half cup brandy into a metal ladle and hold that over a burner flame for 30 seconds maybe. It will ignite a lot better prewarmed. Then at the crucial moment touch a match to the surface of the brandy. It should start flaming. Pour from the ladle onto the pudding and the flames will dance for quite a few seconds.

Unveiling Pal's true identity provides much of the dramatic tension of my Fodors-based novel, coming to bookstores near you as soon as I write it and find a publisher, etc.

(Miss P: I'm glad to hear that things worked out for you and Rev. Chasuble in the romance dept.)

Thank you.
If you remember, we two were among the happy couples at the end of Mr. Wilde's play

If I'd had creme fraiche I'd have slipped it in when no one was looking.>>>>

Will no one free us from this creme fraiche nightmare!

Not at all Sheila - at last someone has solved the spelling but please translate into English for me!
Nothing to do with waters of the Nile has it??

Ah right, eau de Nil, gotcha - should have tried saying it aloud ! Yes, it's French for Nile water, although (not having been to Egypt yet) not actually the colour I'd imagine the Nile being ?

Flaming brandy = a waste of good alcohol to me !

Martin WSishart's sprouts were very nice - sliced & sweated with pancetta, diced onion, carrot & diced celeriac & finished with cream. But I think I'll have them plain steamed tonight.