FOGGY PUDDING

     How many Christmases have I been singing the song We Wish You A Merry Christmas, second verse, Oh, bring us some figgy pudding, third verse, We won't go until we get some? Without ever having been brought some figgy pudding I got to wondering what figgy pudding might actually taste like.

    So I set about wandering the internet looking for recipes for figgy pudding. I venture there are at least twenty dozen recipes for figgy pudding. Some give directions for steaming -- you know, using the heat from the steam of boiling water to do the cooking -- a process that seemed cumbersome and time-consuming. Other recipes called for baking in a bundt pan. I chose the latter.

     Recipe called for buttermilk, and, strangely, baking powder. My mother cooked a lot with buttermilk, in those days cheaper than fresh milk, and buttermilk usually requires baking soda, not baking powder. The dough was extremely stiff and I wished I had thinned it with a bit more liquid, i., e., more buttermilk.

    The result was a dense fruit bread, which I took to church for fellowship time. I wanted to make a sign to let everyone know they were eating figgy pudding. Alas, the word 'figgy' does not appear to be in the spelchek dictionary -- it always came out 'foggy'.

    Rather than argue with spelchek I think we should change the lyrics . . . oh, bring me some foggy pudding . . .