PLUM PUDDING AND HARD SAUCE!!!!!!! Oh God! How I miss it. Mother always served it for dessert on Christmas. After she died, my friend Marion and I would get together for a traditional post Christmas plum pudding and hard sauce gorge with sister from hell stories. (She wins the sister from hell contest. Mine never comitted a felony.) Then Marion got married and moved to Redmond Washington. I probably could eat a whole plum pudding with hard sauce, but I don't think it would be a good idea.
Hard sauce is butter, powdered sugar, a bit of cream and some vanilla extract, blended together to make a very thick icing. Since the recipe came from my dad's family, and they were Methodists, no brandy or whiskey in our hard sauce, though I understand other families indulged.
Now, it is my opinion that a Christmas book can not be read, unless one is eating a piece of Christmas candy. Others may disagree.