Roast Beast For Mum

After spending the better part of today searching for roast beef to cook for tomorrow’s family get together, I dragged home victorious. You’d think in a city the size of mine, it wouldn’t be so difficult to find a haunch of the proper beef to cook, but ahh, the hard part is it has to be perfect—the exact type that my mum cooked as a girl and young wife over in England.

A pork shoulder wouldn’t do. Nor would a Yankee beef pot roast— the horrors!  Oh no. For Easter (which is another story in itself) my mum wants all the traditional English fixings…baby potatoes, carrots, onions and of course—authentic Yorkshire pudding. Oh yeah—the works.

I should be thankful she didn’t want spring lamb. I am so not cooking lambiekins! Yikes!
Add to that, this sudden craving she has for cheesecake, and my goose is cooked…so to speak.
I forgot to go by Adam Matthews outlet and pick up cheesecakes on Friday. Eeps!

I didn’t feel like going out in a torrential downpour yesterday and drive 20 miles to go to the cheesecake factory.

So, I am spending today baking cookies (3 types) in a valiant attempt to distract her tomorrow when she realizes I still didn’t buy a cheese cake today. Adam Matthews is closed on the weekends—who knew?

But by God, I shall have Yorkshire Pudding and Roast Beef and it shall be good and all who partake of it shall be satisfied! Or else! Grrr.

Thank goodness for You Tube! I lost mum’s Yorkshire Pudding recipe, and I dare not call her, but I found this recipe and it’s wonderful! So is the sweet old lady in the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEx-vwSEr6k

Enjoy your weekend and Happy Easter or Eostre!
I plan to soak my cookies in some hot cocoa and take a well deserved break to chill.

For The Birds...

I can hear birds chirping madly outside my window.

I have to go investigate, so I push away from my table and take a peek and find that several birds are flocked around the bird feeder and the bigger ones are chasing the smaller ones away. I guess like the bird version of schoolyard bullying. I open the window and they all fly away.

Quiet remains, so I go back to my computer and rewrite a scene to layer in more description. I’m almost finished when I hear the first tweet. Then another. Soon, a veritable feathered orchestra descends on my window.

I swivel to check it out and the birds are pressed against my screen. I see that the bird feeder is almost empty and the bigger birds are guarding it for themselves, hogging the seed trough. Oh my.
I guess the smaller birds are squealing on their kindred. :P

If I am to get any further writing done this morning, I’m going to need more seed. I grab the bucket and go outside. The minute the door opens most of the birds fly away. A few brave souls watch as I refill the bird feeder and also scatter some of the seed on the ground near the Holly bush by my window. The second I go back inside my home, I hear the flapping of wings.

I manage to finish the scene and the chapter. Yay me.

Now, I could have simply put on my headphones and drowned out the little blighters, but nope, I fed them and gave in to their demands. Basically, the little squirts have me good and trained. And people call them bird-brains. rofl.