Plum Pudding with a Kick

Now that I'm thinking about Christmas at my grandmother's house, I remember another anecdote that I could share. We always had plum pudding for dessert with an egg custard dressing, delicious and touched with a spot of whiskey. Our family weren't drinkers and certainly my grandmother wouldn't imbibe, except for the bit she would put into the dessert at Christmas time. One year as her eyesight seemed to be getting dimmer and her memory not quite as sharp as usual, my mother watched her tip the bottle into the sauce and then a few minutes later come back and do it again, with an additional flourish. As the forks plunged into this delicacy at the table, I recall eyebrows flying up, a few coughs and someone said, "wow"! My grandmother didn't seem to notice and nothing more was said. But that had to be my first encounter with the hard stuff. I was probably 11 years old.