The Best of Yorkshire

The following recipe is for one of my family's favorite things to see on the dinner table. It's my own rendition of what is called Yorkshire Pudding by some and German Babies or Dutch Babies by others.


Don't be fooled by the names; it tastes neither like a creamy sweet dessert nor like an infant (or what I imagine an infant to taste like anyway...) It's a bready concoction, soft in some spots and crispy in others.

We all love it.

Yorkshire Pudding:

5 eggs
1 1/4 cups of milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups of flour
1/4 cup of butter

Crack eggs into a blender and mix. Add milk and salt. Mix. Add flour and mix until smooth. Warm butter in microwave just until melted. (Don't make it too hot or it may begin to cook the eggs when you add it to the blender.) Add butter to the egg mixture and blend thoroughly.

Let it set in the blender on your counter for awhile, even up to an hour. (The reason for this is that the pudding seems to "puff" better if the batter isn't too cold when it enters the hot oven.) Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 pan heavily with butter or oil. Put pan into oven for just a short time. You want it nice and hot when it receives the batter, but watch carefully because you don't want the butter to burn nor the oil to smoke.

Retrieve the pan from the oven and pour the batter into it. Return the pan to the oven and cook the pudding for about 12-18 minutes. Keep checking it by turning on your oven's light and looking through the window, but don't open the door because that may cause it to deflate and there are few things as lovely (in my kitchen, anyway) as a lofty, glorious Yorkshire pudding, rising in the oven.


I love all the ridges and valleys. It's like a delicious, 3-D topographical map. :)

Sadly, it doesn't quite maintain its resplendence for long because as soon as you take it out of the oven, it begins to deflate:


However, it is at this point that you realize you're about to eat it, so all woe is quickly banished. :)

I've found it's easiest to cut it into servings with my kitchen shears. Serve it as soon as it's cool enough to handle (within five minutes) to enjoy it properly.

Yummy, yummy...

Some Holiday Pics

I don't remember exactly what Jeff was telling them, but they were interested. I love photos in which the subjects seem oblivious to the camera. They capture real life.


Here's my man, opening a gift from his offspring.


This is an odd pic but I think it's interesting how the camera focused on my hand. It's another oblivious-to-the-camera shot. I think it looks kinda cool.


No, you're not seeing things. It is a giant gummy bear (minus a large portion of its head). Jeff found these somewhere for the kids.


Believe it or not, there's a company that makes an even bigger gummy bear--a five pound gelatinous wonder, but the stinkin' thing costs $30 (before shipping) and it would most definitely rip a hole in the bottom of any stocking into which it is shoved.

Here are my twin nephews, poring over a book we gave to them. They sat next to each other, unwrapped it, cracked it open, and didn't stop reading until they had devoured the entire thing.


I love it when people obviously like a gift I've picked out for them!

So what's with the ugly, taped-up Rubbermaid container box?


It's a box o' wonders, really. You see, except for our artificial tree, every single one of our Christmas decorations fits comfortably into this unattractive, cardboard receptacle, including the lights for the porch, the tree skirt, the stockings and all the tree ornaments.

I'm certainly not begrudging you the joy of intense decoration if that's your sort of thing. Deck those halls!

But as for me: I (heart) simplicity.

*contented sigh*