My father had a long English ancestry and made this himself when I was young. I still make it every once in a while at Christmas. I think this is what you are looking for. English Plum Pudding 8 ounces mixed candied fruit (this includes the cherries) 4 ounces candied citron 4 ounces candied pineapple 1/4 pound butter 1/2 cup walnuts 1 1/2 cups raisons 1 cup currants 1 Tbsp. cinnamon 1 1/2 teas. ginger (grated finely) 1/4 teas. nutmeg 1/2 teas. allspice 1/4 teas salt 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup strawberry preserves 1 1/2 cups dry bread crumbs 4 eggs 2 Tbsp. milk 1/2 cup brandy 1/2 cup sherry Chop candied fruit, citron, pineapple, and walnuts. In a large bowl combine fruit, citron, pineapple, walnuts, raisons, currants, preserves and bread crumbs. Beat eggs, sugar, butter for 3 minutes. Add salt and spices. Beat in milk, brandy and sherry. Add egg mixture to fruit mixture, mix well. Turn into a well-buttered 1 1/2 quart Pyrex bowl. Wrap bowl completely from the bottom up with large squares of cheesecloth in several layers and thicknesses, and secure with string tied in bow at the top. Place mold on trivet in large kettle or roasting pan. Pour boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the cheesecloth wrapped bowl. Cover. Steam pudding 4 hours. Water should boil gently. Add water as needed. Unmold and serve or cool and store. Loosen edge of pudding from mold with spatula and turn out on serving tray. Flame pudding. Serve with hard sauce. To Store: Refrigerate, still in bowl wrapped in cheesecloth. Can be stored several weeks. Hard Sauce 2/3 cup butter, softened. 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 cups powdered sugar In small bowl cream butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and powdered sugar. Serve with pudding as side dish to dollop on like whipped cream. Brandy for flaming. To flame pudding: Pour several Tbsp. brandy over hot pudding. Heat 1/2 cup brandy in small, tall saucepan. When vapor rises from brandy, ignite, pour flaming brandy over pudding. Hard sauce can be made one or two days before serving if pudding is stored. If pudding stored, steam cheesecloth wrapped pudding 50 to 60 minutes in lidded kettle or 'til heated throughout. Loosen edge of pudding with spatula and turn out on serving tray. Pour several Tbsp. brandy on pudding. Simmer 1/4 cup brandy and ignite; pour on pudding, Serve with hard sauce.

Here are a couple of recipes that I have tucked away in my cookbook. I did make marzipan one christmas to make minature fruits for decorating a cookie tray. It worked out well. Don't know about the total yeld, but think you could make a couple of batches.....or adjust the ingredients to suit your purpose. (Bought some marzipan once, but it did not have a good taste, so it was a waste of good money. That is when I decided to make my own!) ALMOND PASTE 100 g blanched almonds 100 g icing sugar egg white 2 ml almond extract Grate the almonds finely and mix with the sieved icing sugar in a bowl. Mix in egg white, little at a time, until you get a soft and kneadable mixture. Add the almond extract and continue kneading with your hands. Wrap the almond paste tightly in plastic. Use it to make candies, to cover cakes or to fill traditional Finnish shrove buns. Almond paste may be coloured and flavoured with food colourings, cocoa powder and various essences and extracts. There is enormous confusion about the difference between what we call "almond paste"and what some confectioners call "marzipan," and candy manuals are not much help. Some would say our recipe is one for marzipan, others would say, that it's almond paste. But whatever name, you can use the paste made by this recipe in pastry and cake fillings, as well as to make small candy shapes that you can tint, using a small brush and food coloring. The advantage of making your own, over most of the versions available in shops is the absence of inexpensive fillers and excessive bitter almond extract that compromise the delicacy of the flavor. Those with nineteenth century leanings might prefer rose water to the almond extract in the recipe. (Nice for wedding or special cakes.) Well wrapped and refrigerated, the paste will keep for many months. .1/2 pound whole, blanched Almonds 2 tablespoons Water (for processing almonds) 1 cup Sugar 1/2 cup Water (for the syrup) 2 tablespoons Light Corn Syrup 1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract, or more to taste Preheat the oven to 250 degrees and spread the blanched almonds on a baking sheet. Bake, stirring frequently, until they are heated through but not browned. While the almonds are still hot, put them into the container of a blender or food processor and grind them as fine as possible, adding the 2 tablespoons water gradually and stopping to scrape down the sides of the container occasionally. When you pinch a bit and feel no coarse grain, the nuts are fine enough. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, 1/2 cup water, and corn syrup. Boil without stirring until the syrup reaches 235 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and stir in the flavoring. Start the blender (or food processor) and add the hot syrup in a thin stream through the feeder opening in the cover. Continue to process until the mixture is uniform. Cool the almond paste and pack it into a jar, or wrap it in plastic, allow it to ripen in the refrigerator for a week or so before using it. (If necessary to soften the almond paste after storage, heat it, wrapped in foil, in a steamer over boiling water, or put it unwrapped in the upper part of a double boiler over boiling water, just until it is pliable enough to use.)

It's just food, food, food all day! For breakfast, we always have an egg and sausage casserole, a jazzed up hashbrown casserole, ham biscuits and garlic cheese grits (with jalapenos -- Yum!) Fruit will be something very simple like cantaloupe wedges or fresh pineapple. I may or may not get around to making muffins or French toast fingers since sweets aren't a high priority with my crew, particularly early in the day. As some leave to go to 'the other' family's house, and others wander in for the first time, we sort of gradually segue into the brunch phase. I'll add their favorite Cajun crab spread with toasted garlic rounds and a dip or two to the buffet. Once the biscuits are gone, we'll bake some rolls for the ham. I make a super-spicy mustard sauce that my children adore and an herb-flavored mayonnaise so everybody can put together mini-sandwiches. There's always some sort of seafood -- usually poached shrimp with cocktail sauce since it's so easy to do ahead -- and a couple of salads (broccoli and pasta are the faves). Oh, and Bloody Marys to help the cook forget how bad her feet are hurting at this point... By the time everybody who had to leave has returned and we've all worked up a little bit of an appetite again, it's usually 7:30 or so. Our dinner menu varies a little, but this year we'll have Boston Clam Chowder as a starter. (Gift from a dear friend who feels sooo sorry for her poor, deprived Southern pal who didn't grow up eating this. lol) Spinach salad with poppy seed dressing. Beef tenderloin, if I can afford it. If many extras are going to turn up, it will be prime rib instead. A green vegetable TBD, and a potato gratin. Dessert will be Italian cheesecake with a strawberry/Grand Marnier topping -- not that anybody will have room for it, but you have to have one, right?

I didn't cook my goose (er, either of my geese). And I DO hate to admit it here. Our local Jay C, a rural subsidiary of Kroger's that has kept its wonderful personal service, will cook any fowl (and maybe beef or pork, I never asked) that one buys at the store. The only geese available in our area are frozen, and last year and this year I had an out of town trip and then in-house guests, so the convenience was too good to refuse. Jay C cooks the goose (and usually, for most folks, turkeys) in plastic bags. Mine are the only two geese they have cooked. Ada, the cook who does mine, understands that the fat and drippings from the goose are gold. I want them all. Maybe because the breast meat on goose is dark, the breast is not dry and overcooked. The whole thing is pale, but a quick trip into a very hot oven yields a respectable looking bird (goose was chilled when placed in the oven). Last year I used the goose fat to roast assorted root veggies. They were beyond delicious. This year I did the wild rice, equally wonderful, maybe better, and still have all the goose fat (about a quart from one goose) and the stock from the initial bag and simmering the carcass (about 2 quarts), as well as the liquid from cooking the wild rice (about 2 cups). Ahhh, what riches. But I do have to and hate to admit that, although my goose is cooked, I did not do it.