Why is Yorkshire Pudding a Pudding?
It’s not Christmas in our house unless we have prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, peas, gravy, and trifle. Oh, and matching jammies.
I was responsible for the jammies but Christmas Eve dinner prep was a family affair.
Zeke ordered the meat (including oxtails and bones for the au jus) from our local craft butcher, Gambrel & Co (aka Gambrel’s) and picked it up a few days before Christmas. He salted it the night before and set it aside.
I set the table (look familiar?) and once Rei was up and had fixed us scrambled eggs for breakfast, Rei and I went to the grocery story to pick up provisions for dinner and Christmas breakfast (we decided on Dutch baby and berries and maybe bacon. We ended up skipping breakfast to save room for dim sum). That’s not true — we had dessert for breakfast!
I am almost embarrassed to post this picture. Canned peaches, packaged custard mix, and frozen pound cake. But these are the staples for my childhood trifle. I wanted to get this into the fridge for the flavors to meld before dessert (which we didn’t end up eating). Until breakfast. And it didn’t even go into the fridge; it was so cold out we ended up just putting it in the garage.
I cut up the pound cake to line the trifle dish and then spread raspberry jam on the cake. Rei and I don’t like alcohol in our desserts so I left out the liqueur. I wasn’t planning on eating any either way. Trifle is not my jam (pun intended).
I drained the juice from the peaches and added to the dish. Rei made the Birds custard and once it was cool, I poured it over the peaches. We didn’t have any room in the fridge so I put the trifle on the treadmill in the garage. It was 40 degrees out there. It was fine. I stole a couple of the peach slices…what can I say? I fucking love canned peaches! Maybe I should try to can my own next summer…
Once that was done, Rei and I popped downtown to take some cookies to Cuyler and Elizabeth at Pomegranate Seeds (and pick up a few goodies for the table and the cats).
While we were downtown, we stopped by Mademoiselle Collette to get a baguette. Rei added a raspberry and custard pastry to the order and as we were crossing the street, Rei wasn’t paying attention and threw their pastry to the ground. Rei didn’t believe the 5 second rule counted if food lands face down on a public street so I picked it up, put it back into the bag, and put it into the garbage just in case someone else wasn’t so picky. It was missing a few raspberries. Okay, I didn’t throw it on the ground — it slipped out of the bag as I moved my arm while walking! I just wasn’t paying enough attention and paid the price :( (No, I am pretty sure that I paid for the pastry.~Terri)
Rei decided that it was a sign from the pastry gods that they needed to make their own and whipped up some lemon infused crème patissière. Actually, I took it as a sign that I shouldn’t have any fruit pastry, and decided to spite any deity present by doing the exact opposite.
To fill these beauties that Rei whipped up. Don’t judge me for stacking that one shell. I didn’t want to pull out the big pan and it was so close to being a perfect fit. Sue me.
Some assembly was required. That part was easy. Also don’t forget how I soaked the raspberries in lemon juice and a bit of sugar for a few hours before assembling these little beauties.
They tasted as good as they look and were significantly better than the trifle. This may be our new tradition. Out with the old. In with the new! I’m fine with that! I’m actually really happy with how they turned out — in the past, I’ve had dubious luck with crème patissière, so it was nice to have a success for once.
Sometime later, Zeke got the bones and oxtails braised and the veggies prepped for the roast which he cooked low and slow. I don’t know the recipe but he’s successfully executed it several years in a row so I don’t ask questions. :)
My parents were expected at 4:30 and we planned to eat at 6:30 (we ate after 7). My son Adam was expected to be home from work at 5:30 so we started with snacks. Look familiar? We need to change up our playbook. If we don’t mention how we use very similar snacks in all of our boards, no one will notice, so shhhhhhhh…
Rei and I decided on our old favorite d’Affinois cheese and shook it up with a goat cheddar. I didn’t have any. The one in the red crock is my other favorite, La Tur and I can eat it by the spoonful. The goat cheddar was fine but not particularly suited to my tastes. I do love d’Affinois and La Tur, though.
My mom asked what she could bring and I said deviled eggs, Rei’s favorite. Mom decided to gussy them up a bit with some fish roe and parsley. I think they are adorable. She made celery reindeer with peanut butter, raisins, and pretzel antlers too. It’s true. One of my (many, I must admit) food weaknesses is deviled eggs. Seriously, if you ever want to catch me, just put a plate of deviled eggs in a cage and I’ll come running. You’ll have to close it quickly, though, because I can down like four eggs in a minute if I’m taking my time.
I prepared the mashed potatoes somewhat following the recipe we used for Thanksgiving. I infused some whipping cream with garlic and rosemary and added to the cooked and riced potatoes with some butter. They were delicious. The peas were simply Julia peas. Homemade chicken stock, butter, chopped shallots, and frozen peas. Yum.
Felix was watching the kitchen activity, waiting for us to turn around so he could get a taste of the action. And yes, he always looks this grumpy. That’s because he always is that grumpy. We love him anyways.
I heated up the oven to 400 degrees and got some of the grease from the roast and decided to do Yorkshire pudding popovers (my mom always makes it in a large Pyrex dish). I heated up too much of the grease and had to whip up a second batch of the batter. The first batch got to set for a few hours. The second one was still spinning when I filled up the remaining cupcake wells. Whoa whoa whoa there buddy! You whipped up that second batch? I seem to recall it was me who swooped in and saved the day and made that (albeit four ingredient) recipe FROM MEMORY in a solid three minutes flat!
They turned out really purty. Lovely and yummy :)
The meat was perfect. But next year Rei and I want gravy instead of au jus. The au jus just doesn’t work for the mashed potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. Plus it was just too winey for my taste — I’m not a particularly big fan of cooking with wine in general, so I passed on the au jus altogether. (No, you are a little to whiney.~Terri)
I made everyone wait until I got pictures to serve themselves and eat. We got impatient. I may have eaten a candle while Mom took pictures. You can’t see it in the pictures, though, which is good.
Check out those new glass candle holders! They will be perfect for Valentine’s Day. At least that’s what Cuyler and Elizabeth told me when we picked them up earlier in the day along with the nutcracker place cards. They’re very pretty.
I did change things up a little bit with china and crystal and silver. I still love it 23 years after picking it out for our wedding registry. The crackers are from the Nordic Nest in San Carlos (I am part Norwegian so it’s fun to lean into that part of my heritage instead of lutefisk and lefsa). I’ve never had swans before and I really like the feathers.
Finally it was time to eat. That poor Yorkshire pudding, despite being tasty, is screaming for gravy.
Rei was one happy camper and all lit up with Christmas spirit. Those were Nana’s lights until I relieved her of the responsibility of being the most festive one at the table.
After dinner we rolled ourselves out of our chairs, someone did clean up (Zeke?), and we opened up presents including the matching jammies which make me so incredibly happy.
Violet (our dog) got a special treat, too. Is it weird that we gave her a dog treat that is a decorated dog? Cannibalism! Unless that’s a weird looking reindeer? (Rei, the chickens love to eat leftover chicken and pick over a chicken carcass. I know this grosses you out but you should see how quickly they attack it!~Terri)
Rei Rei…any chance I can get you away from the rabbit-raising videos long enough to add your much needed snark and spice?
I’ve actually moved on to rabbit-cooking videos, thank you very much. Tomorrow night’s dinner will have a mushroom cream sauce (because obviously) plus other stuff that I’m not going to tell you because:
(And they haven’t fully figured out the menu!~Terri)
Anyways, Christmas was fun, we had dessert for breakfast on Christmas morning, and those tartlets were surprisingly good. I made the crème patissière lemony by steeping lemon peel in the milk before making the crème, but I think it could have used a tad bit more lemon flavor, either by adding more lemon peel or by letting it steep longer. Everyone else liked it, so maybe I’m just being picky. (The raspberries were soaked in lemon and sugar which added to the lemony taste. They were perfectly balanced.~Terri)
I don’t remember what we’re doing for dinner tonight (Mom’s planning tonight, I’ve got tomorrow) so that’ll be an adventure. Who knows, maybe we’ll actually follow a recipe for once. I highly doubt it, to be completely honest. We’re really bad ‘follow the recipe’ chefs. I already know we won’t be following any strict recipes tomorrow. (Tonight is all about Alison Roman’s new cookbook, Nothing Fancy. Zeke and Rei gave it to me for Christmas.~Terri)
Alright, fine, here’s what we’re doing for dinner tomorrow. At least, it’s the general idea for what I think I want to do, but we won’t be following the recipe exactly: link
Now that that’s out of the way, I’m going to go help with dinner now! Until next time, ciao, and have a grotufluctuewal day!
Rei and Terri :P
