planning ahead. way ahead.

This is crazy talk, but I have to confess that I’m already thinking about the holidays. This is a sickness, I know. I hate that the drugstore has been pushing Halloween since mid-summer. Now I’m no better than they.

But of course, I’m about to try and justify this madness. My in-laws were going to come to California from Ireland for the holidays, and that made me want to try and replicate Christmas puddings we have over there, complete with brandy cream. And that requires some planning ahead.

I dug out a recipe from the holy grail of Irish cooking, the Ballymaloe Cookbook. Apparently, the puddings need to mature for about six weeks, so I can cool my gung-ho pudding craze for the moment. But I do need to secure some shredded beef suet, which apparently is fat around beef kidneys. That might take me a while.

In the meantime, here’s another make-ahead-for-the-holidays project. It’s called bachelor jam, and the recipe is from my beloved go-to preserving book. Everytime I open the book, I'm plunged into daydreams of wellies and hedgerow fruit and Irish stovetops.

As author Pam Corbin explains, this isn't really a jam, but a cocktail of rum-soaked fruit: 

“The idea is that the mixture of fruit, alcohol and sugar is added to gradually, as different fruits ripen throughout the growing season. This preserve is usually prepared with Christmas in mind, when the potent fruity alcohol is drunk and the highly spirited fruit can be served on its own or with ice cream and puddings. “

How delicious does that sound? And I love that you just kick back and let alcohol take care of business. Much like our holidays usually go.

We started with the strawberries below, and have since added raspberries, blackberries from our urban foraging, and late-summer peaches. No strange animal lard required.