Month: February 2010

  • Inspiration

    I love how the Web can reveal how we are all thinking and
    reacting in our various ways to images and ideas, every day.

    For example, here is a beautiful photograph of sweet little
    birds (couldn’t track the original source of this):

    wXRne 

    One person felt moved to grab a sheet of paper and create little birds of their own.

    And here’s another great creative response:




    And why not? They are irresistible wee puffs, aren’t they. Many thanks to whoever took that sweet picture.

    Later edit: All over the Internet, people have been trying to decide what kind of birds these are. Many people have thought they might be snow buntings or McKay’s buntings, but their beaks are very tiny, so that can’t be right.

    Although these little birds look mostly white, they are in fact long-tailed tits (here’s a side-on example, and here’s another photograph). These particular ones don’t have much black on their faces, and so they are a colour variant that is commonly found in Scandinavia, the Baltics, and Russia.

    CG

  • Happiness

    “Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.”

                             ~Margaret Lee Runbeck

  • The Definitive Yorkshire Pudding

    Believe me, this is the real thing, passed on to me by my very own personal English mother.

    The most important thing to remember is that underneath it all, the Pud, while very simple and unassuming in its ingredients, is actually a sensitive soufflé. Yes. Therefore, once you have it in the oven, you shall tiptoe about and hope that it will make a big dome (or at least a series of little hills) for you to admire. If it doesn’t rise at all, it will still be tasty and edible, but not quite the same culinary triumph, of course.

    Also, do not believe anyone who claims they have made Yorkshire pudding in a bunch of little muffin shapes. Bah! Imposters.

    NEEDED:

    • blender
    • rubber spatula
    • 9×9 metal or glass pan

    INGREDIENTS:

    3/4 cup all-purpose flour
    1/2 tsp salt
    2 eggs, room temperature
    1 cup milk, room temperature
    3 tbsp hot fat

    INSTRUCTIONS:

    1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
    2. Put 9×9 metal or glass pan in oven to preheat.
    3. Mix flour and salt together with a fork.
    4. Break both eggs into the blender and blend for 15 seconds.
    5. Add a third of the milk and all the dry ingredients to the blender. Blend for 1 minute.
    6. Scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula and add remaining milk. Blend for 1 minute on high until totally smooth and a bit frothy.
    7. If your “hot fat” is butter, heat it in the microwave until you hear sizzling. If your “hot fat” is from your roasting pan under the beef (extra points!) then just make sure it’s hot.
    8. Remove hot pan from oven, add hot fat to empty hot pan and tip it around briefly.
    9. Pour batter into pan.
    10. Bake 20 to 30 minutes (remove before end if it starts to turn really dark all over).

    Extra family sekret tips from me to you:

    • Do not open or even touch oven if possible during cooking time.
    • Regard vision of splendor through window before it collapses at the end of cooking. Take pics, post here, in Facebook, &c.
    • Divide up by number of people eating.
    • Pieces will seem too small no matter how few of you there are.
    • Ignore the inevitable “he got more than me” squabbling and carrying on.
    • Pour copious amounts of your richest beef gravy on your piece.
    • Enter realm of bliss.

    You heard it from me. This is the best Yorkshire Pudding in the world. If it doesn’t rise properly, blame this on the altitude or the barometric pressure and offer to eat everyone else’s piece if they don’t like it. Works for me.