A Wee Drappie

So you know how when you're under the weather, everything's all topsy-turvy?  You don't feel wrong wasting time in front of the tv without knitting, not even slightly guilty, though you do realise that it's highly unusual.  The usual foods just aren't appealing (I've had no coffee today) and sometimes you just have to eat Cape Brandy Pudding for lunch:

From Pam Hirschsohn's Treasury of Recipes, first edition, published by Don Nelson, Cape Town, 1988, I offer you Phyllis' Cape Brandy Pudding (serves 8-10), transcribed here without permission:

PUDDING

3T butter

1C sugar

1 egg

1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking powder

1 1/2 C flour

1C chopped walnuts

1C boiling water

1/2 C dates, broken up

1t baking soda

Preheat over to 180C/350F

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, salt, flour, baking powder and nuts and mix well. Pour boiling water over dates and mix in baking soda. Add to flour mixture and blend well. Bake in a greased 12"/30cm dish for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

SYRUP 

1 1/2 C sugar

2t butter

1C water

1t vanilla

1/2 C brandy

Bring sugar, butter and water to a boil, allow to cook for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add vanilla and brandy.  Cut pudding into blocks and carefully pour syrup over, until all absorbed (I poke holes with toothpicks in lieu of cutting).

Serve warm.  Goes well with ice cream, unwhipped or whipped cream.  You can always use more brandy.

Pam was a friend of my mother's; I never really knew her, though I was slightly friendly with her daughter.  Pam finished writing this wonderful cookbook, illustrated with her own sketches, as she was dying of cancer, too soon, too soon.  I think of her every time I open it.  I guess she was about my age.

I could also try my dad's cold remedy: tea, honey, lemon with a good dollop of brandy, though you can leave out the tea if you like.