Bring Us a Figgy Pudding

During our Christmas luncheon at work last Thursday, we played Christmas trivia, answering a lot of questions about Clark Griswold, cousin Eddie, Ralphie and his chance of reaching adulthood with two functioning eyes, what the lamb does while the little drummer boy bangs away, and what goes into a Christmas pudding, choices a, b, c, and d. Nobody in this North Carolina office had a clue what a Christmas pudding is. Ask the Canadian, they all said , she will know. Actually, I did know, but before I had a chance to answer, Dr H., our medical director, piped up saying, aw, she's a French Canadian, she won't know. I was struck so speechless by this pronouncement that by the time I was able to protest, the answer had been produced by process of elimination and the emcee explaining that currants were like raisins. French Canadian????My Scotch ancestors would roll over in their graves. Why on earth did this man who knows me only slightly say I was gasp..French? Then I thought I knew. I had made Caesar salad for one of our many holiday meals, loaded with garlic, and had said within his hearing that I came from a long line of garlic eaters. Of course !!!! Everyone knows that the British Canadians eat only bland British pap, pizzas with pineapple, and Tim Horton Donuts. I must be French! I eat escargot! I have eaten escargot in the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. Lord, I never knew how much that 1/8th French blood my father claimed due to a great great who took a tumble with the French maid and spawned the poor branch of my dad's family ...little did I know how much influence that little bit of DNA had on my behavior. And yes, I do spout French words now and then, not words picked up from my french immersed childhood in Ontario, but from my fifth grade teacher in Jacksonville Florida who had spent the previous summer in France and wanted to keep the language alive in her mind. And years of high school and college French. Sheesh, I am NOT French. I am Scotch Irish. And YES I know what is in Christmas pudding. And option B was ALSO the answer. It DOES contain beef and flour (NO, that's Yorkshire pudding, the emcee scoffed. ) My protestation that it has both flour and beef suet fell on deaf ears, ears that had moved on to "Who REALLY lost all that money in "It's a Wonderful Life" Uncle Billy I whispered, didnt want to answer ALL the questions first.
Then I was driving home yesterday, listening to NPR as usual, and the subject of All Things Considered was....FIGGY PUDDING. What IS that asked the fearless reporter. Plum pudding the expert cook replied. They also call it Christmas pudding in some places(yeah, like MY house in North Carolina I said) The expert cook gave a great recipe that was loaded with rum and brandy and steamed for two hours in a Bundt pan in a pot of water. I was so impressed, I may try it one year...but as I tried to explain to the nonbelievers at work, it comes in a CAN. No, not a can, they all said. Pudding can not come in a can! But yes it does, every year, with a Crosse and Blackwell label on it, our figgy pudding, heated in the oven, drowned in whatever liquor we have that will ignite, and served with a hot carmelized sauce or whipped cream, yum, bring me a figgy pudding and BRING IT RIGHT NOW!!