Steamed jam pudding

It's a long time since I have made a jam steamed pudding. I had an excuse to do so today because my school friends Petrina and Liz, and their husbands Stephen and Tony, came to our flat for supper this evening. Tony is a particular fan of nursery food, so this pudding was really for him. I love the making food this way: s l o w l y, using heat and water for cooking following a process that our ancient ancestors would also have used.

The full menu was as follows:

Smoked salmon pâté on blinis (by me)
Sweet potato and butternut squash soup (by Mr hazelh)
Lobster thermidor - at Stephen's request (by Mr hazelh)
Jam steamed pudding (by me)
Cheese (by Mellis)
Tea and coffee with fudge and Hedgehog chocolates from Canada (brought by Liz and Tony)

While we worked our way through some fine fizz, wine and spirits we discussed ski-ing holidays, insomnia, the NHS, the economy, arthritis, Trump, work trips, retirement, films (principally should we go and see La la land given that it's won so many awards, even though it doesn't sound like our kind of thing at all?), wedding invitations, flat square footage, body hair, university applications, Internet speeds, mice, moths and moles.

No exercise today, although I was on my feet most of the afternoon preparing for dinner, and I had a quick walk to the shops to pick up a bottle of port.