Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding

I have book group on the 29th and I'm trying to set the menu. Since the book is set in Victorian London, I thought a traditional Victorian meal might be interesting. I combed cookbooks and the web and the most traditional thing I found was Roast beef & Yorkshire pudding.

I've never had Yorkshire pudding. I have no idea of how it should look or taste. But I gave it a whirl. The results were sketchy. It puffed up and browned like it should. It tasted like a rather bland pancake. The texture was much like a souffle. A bland souffle. And like a souffle...it fell. But this much I knew to expect.

Because I needed the drippings, I didn't do my usual roast beef (Coke, Dale's, garlic & Worcestershire)but instead applied a rub after letting it marinate for several hours. It, too, seemed bland.

And at some point during the day I decided to bake a cake. It's been so cold lately that I've had trouble staying warm. In my head, I know that it is 72 degrees in my home, but my feet and arms have trouble believing it. So I've turned to baking to a)warm up the kitchen, b) keep myself busy thus keeping warm, and c) bribing my co-workers.

I made a Maraschino Chocolate Cake. The recipe called for maraschino cherry juice and chopped cherries. It also called for melted chocolate. As I've said, my home feels cold to me, but I was honestly surprised that the chocolate hardened when added to the batter. Maybe my thermostat is the liar, not my feet!

I took pictures, but since I am neither proud of nor happy with the results of my experiments yesterday, I refuse to publish photos.

And by the way, I didn't make my bed yesterday because I just didn't have the heart to remove the cat from between the covers.

I'll try the Yorkshire Pudding one more time, but then I may move on to a working class Victorian tea...meat pies. We shall see.