Wednesday, November 28, 2007

blood pudding, anyone?


due to the curiosity of my many readers (sarcasm inserted here), i thought i would further explain the whole "full english breakfast" thing. i tasted my first english breakfast in all of its glory while at a quaint bed and breakfast in edinburgh, scotland in 2002. we had a weekend break from school, so i spent that time with school friends trudging up and down princes st. taking in all that we could in that short amount of time. for some reason, that breakfast has always stood out in my mind as a highlight of my trip. during the visit we took to scotland and england in the spring of 2006, josh and i heartily enjoyed sharing the full english breakfast experience with his folks. that was the first time i sampled blood pudding (also called black pudding) and didn't much care for it. upon returning to north america, josh's dad often reminisced about the delcious breakfast and decided that we should attempt to re-create it in our own home. brad (josh's dad) knows of a wondeful british shoppe that carries many authentic british delicacies (for a steep price, of course). he purchased the necessary items to make a meal as close to the real thing as possible. namely: bangers (sausage), fried mushrooms (ew), beans on toast (we tried to fry the bread like they do in the uk, but it didn't work out too well), blood sausage, eggs, and bacon, which is more like canadian bacon than american bacon. we didn't bother with the cooked tomatoes, since none of us really care for them. josh cooked up the whole meal for his folks and gramps, and it was DELICIOUS! i'm not really a fan of the blood pudding, probably because i know what's in it. here's a definition from wikipedia:


Black pudding or less often blood pudding is a sausage made by cooking blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. The term blood sausage (first attested in 1868) is a North American term that may be a translation from German "Blutwurst". Blood sausage has become a useful term for similar blood-based solid foods around the world.
Pig or cattle blood is most often used; sheep and goat blood are used to a lesser extent. Blood from poultry, horses and other animals are used more rarely. Typical fillers include meat, fat, suet, bread, sweet potato, barley and oatmeal.


we ended up with tons of blood pudding left over (big surprise), so if anyone would like to try some, just come on over! i think we just may have to start a new thanksgiving day tradition of eating a full english breakfast, since we don't celebrate thanksgiving until the saturday after anyhow.


thank you so much for your prayers for tristan. he still has his shrieking episodes, but they don't last nearly as long and his night wakings are less frequent as well. i did some reasearch on night terrors, and found out that if you wake the child up during a night terror, he will have a much more difficult time calming down. that would explain why it took him an hour and a half for him to stop crying the first night. i'm not positive if he is suffering from night terrors, but it it seems as if a lot of what is described is the same as what he is doing. he's also come down with a nasty cold, so is all around more weepy (and drippy) than normal, so i hope that once it clears up, he'll be back to sleeping through the night again.


other than that, i'm STILL unpacking (feeling as if it will never be done) and also beginning to get into the christmas spirit. i'm excited to experience tristan's first christmas, though i know he won't have much of a clue about unwrapping presents and all of that. i'm also super excited that my mom just booked her ticked to fly down here for tristan's first birthday on january 1st. she is arriving on the 31st, so will be able to stay with him while josh and i get to ring in the new year together! last year we didn't go out for new years since i was beyond sick, with no idea that i'd be popping a baby out the next day! wow, i can't believe my baby nearly isn't a baby anymore. it will be wondeful to spend a week with my mom, i can hardly wait!


here's a question i have for everyone who has kids: what do you do about the christmas tree? we want to get a small one this year, but aren't sure how to keep tristan away from it. any genius ideas?

14 comments:

Meredith said...

Re Tree: Don't put any glass ornaments on it (Michael bit a glass ball once). Keep Ornaments high. Teach him that this is something you look at and don't touch, it's a tough lesson but well worth learning from the begining. Or put the tree in the Play pen and let Tristan run wild :)
Good Luck
P.S. New Mailing address please? need to send cards soon :)

Anonymous said...

Re Tree: We've had ours up for almost a month now, and Hunter hasn't seemed too interested in it. He'll go over every now and then, but we just flick him and give him another toy to distract him. One idea I was going to do, but haven't had to yet is put up a baby gate around it. We haven't had to do that yet, so I don't know if it would work, but its an idea. Maybe just put it up and see what Tristan does. Don't encourage him to look at or go near it, just put it up and go on your daily business and he might not care. And of course keep things a little higher then normal, I haven't really had to do that with the ornaments yet though. You just have to try things and see what he does. Good luck. Let me know how it goes.

Shannon said...

There are many things I wont eat just because I knew how they were made. Or I might have actually enjoyed it. Anything with the name blood pudding is a given. :)


We avoided the tree some years only because I was too lazy to police it. So long as Tristan understands the word "no" and listens fairly well, then put the tree up. Be sure it is in an area that if it were to tip, that it wouldnt take down the room like dominos. plugs/cords are where he cannot crawl to and so on. No glass, tinsel or precious ornaments in reach. I have some fabric ornaments that I keep lower. No candy canes in sight is a given... that's just cruel.

Z-Mama said...

Thanks for the pic and clarification on your "full english breakfast!" Honestly, it still really doesn't sound that great to me, but it obviously holds a place in your heart and allows you to reminisce. I feel that way about the breakfasts we used to eat while we were in Tahiti...well, I still have a love for all Polynesian food. Mmmmm....

Oh, and about the tree, I don't really do anything special. Just put the ornaments up a little higher. And so far this year I haven't had a real problem between my two girls as well as the two littler ones I watch. Good luck!

Z-Mama said...

Oh yeah, Blood Pudding...barf. I can't believe any of you would even let that stuff touch your plate. Someone must eat it, though, for it to have even been purchased...

Kathy said...

I'm glad you're reseaching night terrors. Steven had those.

Trees - we just put the breakables up high and the non breakables down low. The kids were allowed to touch them but not hold them. Never a problem. I, on the other hand, understood the word 'no' but would take glass balls off when no one was in the room and if caught would immediately toss the evidence. Each child is different. Most kids love the lights.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I just came across your blog on Korrine's blog. I have to say, reading that Wiki description of blood sausage almost made me gag. You are one brave woman lol!

Jennifer said...

Put up a glorious tree as always. After he tries to pullup to stand using it and it falls on him a few times he may learn not to do that again so much :)

Anonymous said...

Hi - I'm just an anonymous lurker, but I thought I would offer my idea about toddlers and Christmas trees. When my kids were in that stage I felt sorry for them and all children who were constantly told "NO!" every time they innocently tried to explore their world. So I decided I was going to allow them to touch things, but I would teach them HOW to touch them. Anything delicate I would stroke gently, and softly say "Nice" (more like "Niiiiiiice"). I practiced it many times with them, and you know, it worked!!! Every time they saw an ornament they would know to stroke it gently and say "nice!" They thought that's what you're supposed to do! I don't know if it works for every kid, but even my rough little boys learned it. So there it is, for what it's worth!

Taxi Driver said...

Hello Heidi,

I have also experienced "English Breakfast", but I look forward to going back anyway.
I have been wanting to write the Brits and tell them the war is over, they won, they can have a nice breakfast now.

-ML

Lovella ♥ said...

Heidi, That breaky looks really yummy. You know I eat just about everything. I'd for sure try the blood pudding. My mom was into eating weird things, like pickled pigs feets and head cheese and other such lovely named things. I never tried those but that was quite some time ago.

I'm glad Tristan is a little better with the night terrors.

Pop by my post today pleae. . .I need your thoughts.

Anonymous said...

Blood Pudding - I am not brave enough.

Kids and Christmas Trees - I used unbreakable ornaments when the kids were really little. At the beginning of the season the tree looks nice and by Christmas Day the ornaments are all on the top half, but oh well, relax. I also think it is nice to have a small nativity scene that the kids can play with. My kids really enjoy that. Actually Fischer Price makes one.

Thirsty said...

Hey Heidi,
I'm glad to hear that Tristan is doing better. We will pray that his sleep continues to improve.

I agree with all the other comments, blood pudding just sounds horrible. Although, the rest of the breakfast sounded really good.But then I love bacon and eggs yummmy!!

About the christmas tree ornaments, can't really give you much help there, as we aren't having a christmas tree.

L&D said...

I had the same concern with the little boy's 1st christmas. So we blocked the tree. Yup, full on blocked it with the turned on its side coffee table. It worked. It kept him away. I know Tristan and my dude are born 3 days apart so I get exactly which stage he's in. I feel your pain sista. Also, I didn't put any ornaments on the bottom 1/4 of the tree. It doesn't look too pretty but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do.