We could have ham and eggs, if we had any eggs

I maded a ham*, I did!

I cured it in salt and sugar and molasses and nitrite, and then I baked it; and I hadn't done either of those things before, and it's all good. I always cooked a Christmas ham at home, but I never cured my own ('cos uncooked hams are everywhere; here they appear to be nowhere) and I always boiled rather than baked. I think it's the national tradition; certainly the recipes I have for "baked glazed ham" should be punctuated better, as "baked-glaze ham", because they're boiled first then have a glaze baked on. Which indeed is what I've always done. And will do next time, possibly next week, because it'll be a better comparison. Really this was just a trial run to see if the process works. Which it does, admirably. I'm very pleased & proud.

Today I must make a Christmas pudding, for I am late and my dried fruits are ready (they've been soaking in sherry for a few days now); but if I have time after, I might make kimchi too. Ham & kimchi sounds good to me...

*For the purposes of this discussion, "ham" is taken to mean a cured piece of pork on the bone, rather than a particular cut of hind leg. This is because it is ridiculously hard in this country to find a particular cut of hind leg still on the bone. So I used shoulder. So what?

This must surely be how most people through history have done the thing

The Christmas pudding is boiling now. I ... am trying not to be concerned.

Thing is, I had three recipes, all different: and never quite the ingredients of any one. So I have mixed and matched, added a little of this from here and a little of that from there - "molasses sugar and black treacle? but I have neither of these things! so I will use raw sugar and molasses instead!" - and mostly just ended up hopeful.

I'm ... not really very good at being hopeful. It should be fine; it's got fruit and alcohol and eggs and grain-based binders (flour and breadcrumbs and ground almonds, in guessable proportions that don't quite meet any of the recipes' demands), and of a surety most such puddings have been made like that for most of human history, so. I can haz a hopeful?

(Also, of course, I still have a week to make another if this one turns out crooked.)

(Also also, it's got chocolate in it. What can possibly go wrong?)