Nuttier Than a Fruitcake

This is the first fruitcake that I've made for years. I had to wait until all the ingredients like the candied fruit (fruta escarchada it's called here) were made available. Then I had to cut up all the fruit and take the stones out of the dates and chop them up. Sticky work I tell you! The recipe I used called for nuts, and I thought no way was I going to crack, hull and chop any nuts. As it is, I hope I don't drop the cake on my toes, because it feels like it weighs 2 or 3 kilos. If anyone wants the recipe, I'll post it. However, I think most people either don't like fruitcakes or they buy them already made. I used to buy things like that, well Christmas cake really, when we had a Marks and Spencer's in Madrid. I'm still angry at old Marks and Sparks, the British department store, for leaving me without hotcross buns, rhubarb crumble, sausages, etc. I don't live near Gibraltar like Tracy so I can pop over and get some pork pies whenever I fancy them.

It's getting busy time of the year for me. I've had so many requests for buckeyes/peanut butter balls that soon I'll be up to my eyeballs in them. Just hope what happened last year doesn't repeat itself. Zara, ever so sneakily, got into one of the packages that I made up for my friend Chris and ate at least 10! That's not the first time she's eaten chocolate, and supposedly chocolate is dangerous for dogs. Zara doesn't think so! I'll just have to be careful and not leave them where her nose can find them. BTW, the recipe for these is in my recipe file. And the candied fruit that I have leftover I'm going to put in thumbprint cookies for the kids.

Hope everybody who celebrates Thanksgiving has a wonderful day. How I love those smells! I'll be celebrating Thanksgiving and my birthday in a Mexican restaurant as usual. Have a good holiday and week everybody!