I had no idea! Most of my childhood was questionable if you ask me.....

we saw Tarzan almost naked, Cinderella arrived home after midnight, Pinocchio told lies, Aladdin was a thief, Batman drove over 200 miles an hour, Snow White lived in a house with 7 men, Popeye smoked a pipe and had tattoos, Pac Man ran around to digital music while eating pills that enhanced his performance, and Shaggy and Scooby were mystery solving hippies that always had the munchies.

Now I find out Figgy Pudding has booze in it and all those kids were begging us to "bring us some figgy pudding ... and we wont go until we get some......." Little boozers.

Shaun, you crack me up!

Here is a wassail punch recipe from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

2 quarts apple cider
2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
12 whole cloves
4 cinnamon sticks
1 pinch ground ginger
1 pinch ground nutmeg
Directions

In a slow-cooker or a large pot over low heat, combine apple cider, orange juice and lemon juice. Season with cloves, ginger and nutmeg. Bring to a simmer. If using a slow cooker, allow to simmer all day. Serve hot.

And a variety of both boozy recipes and not boozy in the link.

I did a quick look for figgy pudding recipes. I have a feeling kids will be unimpressed with this traditional English dessert. Here is a simplified version. The booze is in the sauce poured over it later. Simply leave it out or add some brandy or rum extract.

Figgy Pudding Recipe (a simplified version)
One package of dried figs (10 to 12 ounces). Put them in a saucepan with enough hot water to cover, at least 2 cups. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Let sit until soft (a few hours).
Once soft, remove figs from the water and place in a bowl. Save the water, which will already be fragrant, and add a cup of sugar (optional). Bring to a boil and let reduce slightly. Remove from heat. Add a bit, perhaps 1 tablespoon, maybe more, of orange-flower water. Cool.
Chop up your figs. Chop them fine, but do not pulverize. Do this by hand.
Using a boxed cake mix for carrot cake, follow the directions, but instead of the water they request, use the fragrant sugary water from the figs. (Save the remainder of this water.) Then add oil and eggs as recommended on the carrot cake mix. Add some cinnamon (about 1/2 teaspoon) and a lot of fresh-grated nutmeg (about 1/4 teaspoon). Mix in a food processor. At the end, toss in the fig pieces and beat in a bit. Turn into a bowl and add a bunch of sliced almonds (about 1/2 cup) and some raisins (about 1/3 cup) that have been softened in brandy if you like. Add the grated peel of one orange and a big dollop (1 tablespoon) of marmalade.
Line a big metal bowl (about 4 quarts) with foil. Use enough foil that you will have a big collar around the top of the bowl. Spray the foil with nonstick spray. Pour your cake batter into the foil-lined bowl. Set into preheated 350° oven for 30 minutes, then bring the collar gently over top of cake. Continue for another hour and half. Use a skewer to test (it will come out clean when pudding is done). It will take a while because it is dense.
Remove from oven and cool overnight.
Uncover and overturn onto a big serving platter. Carefully remove foil. The cake will be a mound, its size depending on the depth of your bowl.
To serve, take the reserved fig-and-sugar syrup and add to this maybe 1/4 to 1/2 cup of brandy or rum. Heat. You can, if you wish, ignite as you would for plum pudding, but it tastes just fine with the sauce poured over it just before serving. Use whipped cream or crème fraîche with each serving. (If your cake is less than perfect to the eye, you can instead quickly frost the cold cake with whipped cream, covering any imperfections, and serve the warm sauce on the side.)

Good Housekeeping

Here is a link that might be useful: Wassail.

No booze in this one. It gets mixed reviews but it sounds like the bad reviews are from those who have no familiarity with this dessert and didn't know what to expect. Not sweet enough for American palates?

Here is a link that might be useful: Figgy Pudding

OMG Shaun. Snort!

hahahah!!! I saw that on facebook the other day.

It still gave me a laugh, Shaun, seeing it here, though I too had seen it on FB.

I had looked at the figgy pudding recipes myself and figured that the kids probably won't like it. However, what they WILL like - Mrs. R bringing food to choir and us taking the time to eat it.

Thanks for the recipes, everybody!!!

Donna

How about a Sticky Toffee Pudding. Made with dates. I think that kids might like this pudding over a fig pudding. Also, it gets served with a caramel sauce.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Sticky Toffee Dessert
=====================
Source: Vancouver Cooks - Chef Rolf Gunter from Rim Rock Cafe & Oyster Bar

1 cup whipping cream
1-1/4 cups unsalted butter
2-1/4 cups brown sugar
6 oz. Pitted dates
1 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/4 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. Baking powder

NOTE: I used Medjool Dates
. This comforting Pudding lives up to its name! For an extra touch,
garnish dessert with a drizzle of chocolate sauce. Serves 6 to 8.

Note: I used my Caramel sauce over this dessert.

Preheat the oven to 350�F. Line an 8 inch springform pan with
aluminum foil and butter it well.

Place cream, 1 cup of of the butter and 1 3/4 cups of the brown sugar
in a saucepan on medium heat. Boil for 5 minutes, until the sauce
begins to turn brown and thicken slightly. Pour half into the
springform pan. Save the rest of the sauce.

Place dates and baking soda in a bowl. Add boiling water, mix and let
cool.

Place the remaining butter , the remaining sugar and vanilla in an
electric mixer. Beat on medium high for about 5 minutes, until well
creamed. Beat in the egg, then stir in the date mixture.

Combine flour and baking powder in a bowl. Fold into the egg mixture
until evenly incorporated. Pour into the springform pan and bake in
the oven for 30 minutes. Turn down the oven to 300�F and bake for 60
minutes, until golden brown and firm when touched lightly.

To serve: unmould the pudding, slice it and place on individual
plates. Drizzle with the warmed reserved sauce.

NOTE: I found that this cake cooked much quicker than the time called
for in the recipe. I baked it for 30 minutes at 350�F and then for
another 20 to 25 minutes at 300�F.

Caramel Sauce
=============
Caramel Sauce

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup cream
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
. Mix all the ingredients together and simmer for about 5 or 6 minutes.

Serve over Bread and butter pudding, apple pie and icecream, warm
gingerbread, etc..

Just Google

"Partridge in a Pear Tree" Recipes

No birds harmed.

dcarch

This is a T & T Wassail recipe from St. Martin's Episcopal Church. I have used is for about 40 years.

Wassail

6 C. apple cider
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 c. honey
3 T. lemon juice
1 20 0z. can unsweetened pineapple juice
1 C. sherry (opt.)....I have never made it with the sherry

3 oranges studded with whole cloves

Heat cider and cinnamon. Bring to boil and simmer covered 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and simmer, uncovered 5 minutes. Heat oven 325. Place oranges studded with cloves in baking dish with water. Bake 30 minutes. Float on top of wassail.

Giggling over the Partridge in a Pear Tree recipe having no partridges harmed. :-) I will do the Google search, but we aren't doing "Twelve Days of Christmas" in Choir. (I do that one every year with 4th, 5th and 6th in Music class rather than choir.)

Donna

Finishing up the story:

Today, I brought figgy pudding and hot wassail to my choir for an informal party. These are elementary school children. I used barnmom's recipe, but I made a few changes to it, to make it more "child-friendly".

First, I didn't use dried figs. The ones I purchased were quite moist, so I didn't have to let them sit to soften after boiling quite so long. I also eliminated the nuts and the raisins (since my own children always asked if something had either one in it and then refused to eat it if it did). Instead of a metal bowl, I used a Bundt pan, but I still used the foil collar. Then I used whipped topping for the "frosting".

I was stunned at their response. One little girl didn't care for the figs in it, and two others weren't so sure about it. Yet about 3 or 4 came up for 2nds.

As for the wassail, I just heated up apple cider in the crockpot. I didn't know you weren't supposed to heat up sparkling cider, but you know, it turned out pretty good. The kids drained the crock, and asked for more. Only one person asked if I had any cold apple cider.

Thanks for all your help.

Donna

Shawn - thanks for adding humor! A lot of these posts could use a touch of it.

pink_warm_mama_1

"Shawn - thanks for adding humor! A lot of these posts could use a touch of it."

???

What is your question, angelaid?

Strange comment on a 5 year old thread.

For me, it's kind weird to see necroposts being resurrected.

I find myself reading posts without noticing the date/year, and I do have to admit, I often find a useful reminder in them or in a germane update... not a criticism, just saying it's weird for me to see or realize something is a necropost. :O)

Smiles,

Sooz

I don't see a post from "Shawn" and I don't understand why "a lot of these posts" could use a touch of humor? Odd comment to bring up a five year old thread.

I also find it weird to see posts that are several years old, I've learned to start looking at dates. There's another one right now by Doucanoe about ruined pans, and it was from 2010.

Annie

....the dark ages.....before Magic Eraser sponges...;-)

I read this through before I looked at the date, and found it pretty interesting. And I also got a good laugh out of Shaun's post. A little humor is almost always a good thing.

These old posts often show up on Google searches. There is no law against anyone responding to them, is there? I mean, it seems like if there was a time limit on responses, they'd just disappear when it was time. I'm glad they don't, good information would possibly be lost.

Rusty

Nothing disappears on the internet....there's always the Way back Machine.

Rusty, I know it doesn't disappear, it just seems odd that it's gone for 5 years and then, suddenly, here it is again. I know sometimes someone is searching for specific recipes or information and old threads come up, but sometimes they just come back, like this one, for no apparent purpose.

Annie

Maybe this happened: Do you think that maybe a spammer posted a spam comment that in the mean time, before Pink's post, the spam post got deleted because it was spam? That could have made the post come back to the front. It's easy to forget to check the dates.

I think the point was that the person you were addressing, Shaun, hasn't been around here for years. His post was funny. ;)

I think people think it's a bit odd that you would go searching back to pages that are 5 years old to comment on the humor of one post not on the information that might be indicated by the title. I went back 167 pages and didn't find any as early as 2011 that had not had at least one pull up by another post.
Not sure how you even found that post......
That's what angelaid and I thought was odd.

Pink Mama, I think you're the kettle calling the pot black. You talk about there not being any humour here, yet at the Table, if someone accidentally puts a wrong word, or used 3 words instead of 2 to be funny, on the Chain Reaction thread, you're jumping down their throat for not "following the rules."

plllog, shaun is a "she"...:-) She was funny as heck, too.

Annie

Jasdip - thank you for your kind words; however, you've misquoted me as I did not say there was no humor here.

Ahem - in case anybody missed Rusty's comment above, try a google search for 'T&T holiday recipes' & see if Gardenweb posts show up in your results. Here's what my results looked like - & that's not the only time. I've gotten G'web results for my own searches, often...

Honestly! I do not think anybody (or hardly anybody) is searching through the back pages of forums & commenting on old posts simply to annoy others.

It's also the first thread that comes up if you search at the top of Garden Web. I often use that search feature. It's not the greatest but it usually gets me what I want.

still think it's a bit odd that someone would search for "T & T Holiday recipes"...in August....and only remark about the thread was thanking Shaun for a touch of humor...because a lot of these posts could use a touch of it.
Not that it's an offense....just very odd.

So, lindac, you think what I said is "very odd", and you are determined to make sure everyone knows how you feel by posting your objection more than once. Not that you care, but Christmas means a lot to me, including recipes, so I quickly tuned in without ever checking a date. While your intelligence is surely appreciated, these forums are also full of your bark and bite replies which in mho could/should be tempered.

As for Jasdip, who does not play by rules and apparently walks on water, I'm harshly chastised by her for not avoiding use of my blue pencil in games she'll be pleased to learn I shall no longer join.

Although neither of you know me or anything about my life, it is not open to grouchy rudeness and unnecessary criticism, so I shall temporarily bring myself down to your levels by saying, with good humor, you can both KMA in Bloomingdale's window.

No need to reply. Thanks to you I will no longer be here. Ta-ta.

wow! A genuine hissy fit!