Food, glorious food

This time of year is about food and more food. Social gatherings have food (and drink…), and also more food. It’s a terrible time of year to be on a diet, so I’ll just ignore the consequences of all that food—for this post, anyway.

We had family visiting us over the weekend and, among other things, I was telling them about some of the things Americans often have for Thanksgiving dinner. As a result of that, we decided I’d make some cornbread for our Christmas dinner (which will require a trip to Martha’s Backyard for authentic American ingredients—such a burden I have!). I’m planning on bringing some other special American food treats, but I’ll leave that as a surprise for the family (some of whom read this blog…).

But among other food things that have come up recently as that Tom, a guy I know through social media, has started a food blog, The Cooking Petrolhead (so-named because he’s also bigtime into cars). Among the things he’s done—even before the blog—is reviving forgotten/abandoned British regional recipes, baking in particular. That’s interesting in itself for me because, like a lot of Americans, I have some English ancestry, but none of the English recipes were handed down over the generations.

However, Tom recently decided to make an American fruitcake, thereby doubling the number of them in the world (and he mentions that joke in the post). I don’t like fruitcake, but he does (and I found out though all this that an American friend of mine actually likes it, too, so I know two people who like it…). Even though I don’t like fruitcake, I found Tom’s enthusiasm infectious.

American fruitcake is not what people in Britain or New Zealand would have at Christmas. Since New Zealand has British heritage, Christmas cake is common here (and Tom shared a recipe for that, too).

But in New Zealand, one of the most common Christmas treats is Christmas mince pies (here’s a good recipe). Many people do make them, but—maybe unusually—most commercial ones in the supermarket are actually quite nice. I’m sure we’ll have some of them at Christmas.

Next month, I’ll probably do some food-related posts of my own, as I make things for our Christmas feast. Or, as I just have things in this season of food. Well, both, actually. In the meantime, if you’re into food, check out Tom’s blog.

Bon Apetit!