In this episode, Robert and Lisa share fond memories and hilarious stories of the annual making of the Boiled Christmas Pudding hosted by Robert's mother and his Aunt Carol. If the holidays are a time for catching up with old friends, laughter, and taking a respite from the drudgery of every day life, this is the ultimate holiday episode. Between high school and college, I spent a gap year in Japan. There I met Robert, truly one of the funniest and fun-loving people I know. After that year, we stayed in touch as he met and married Lisa. They raise their family in Japan. Our families only see each other every 4 or 5 years. However, as you will hear, those times are as joyful and familiar as if we saw one another every day.

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Highlights of The Christmas Pudding Episode

A lot of laughter What is a Christmas Pudding anyway?? Memories of stirring the pudding for good luck Interpreting multiple versions of the same recipe More laughter 4 generations born in 4 different nations A non-food Christmas tradition from Robert's family that deeply affected me

Recipes Associated with This Episode On this one occasion, I flexed the rule that podcast guests must share their recipes with our Storied Recipe community. When scheduling our interview, Robert agreed to share. However, when he called his family to get the recipe, they informed him they would prefer to keep it secret. He wanted to honor his family's request and I wanted to respect that. Because the episode was already scheduled and mainly because I REALLY wanted to share Robert's story and humor with listeners of The Storied Recipe, we moved ahead.

Here is a recipe that is somewhat similar to Robert's family's boiled Christmas pudding: Traditional Clootie Dumpling from The Spruce Eats