Category: Britain

No Feast is Complete without Dessert!

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And last, but not least is our recipe for Easy Berry Mini-Trifle which we ate to round off our British Feast. (As if we didn’t have enough food to begin with!) After reading quite a few different trifle recipes it became clear that we could really customize this however we wanted. We left out the liquor this time and went the easy route and bought pre-made ingredients. Also, rather than making the trifle in one large glass bowl, we made several varieties in drinking glasses so that everyone could pick their own ingredients.

I would recommend using smaller, wider juice glasses if using this method. Sadly over the past 11 years of marriage all of ours seem to have broken or disappeared. So we made do with these. Continue reading →

British Feast Side Dishes Take Center Stage

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Our Sunday meal was perhaps one of our biggest undertakings yet. In honor of the Royal wedding we prepared a traditional British Sunday Lunch as recommended by Charles and Alison. And what a treat it was – I’m still thinking about it! In addition to the Roast Beef with Port Merlot Pan Sauce, we also made Roasted Potatoes and Yorkshire Pudding.

Let’s start with the delicious little spuds. We combined Alison’s roasted potato recipe with one we found on Epicurious. Miss A was on hand to help with the potato peeling.

We then chopped the potatoes and dropped them in cold water. After draining them, we placed them between paper towels and dried them thoroughly. Next, at Charles’ suggestion to make them authentically English, we incorporated the goose fat. Continue reading →

A Royal Feast

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This weekend we are diverting from our regular rotation for selecting international cuisine. I mean how could we pass up an opportunity to tour the culinary delights of Britain what with the Royal wedding and all! So, Dad agreed to push his pick off for next weekend in order for us to try a traditional British feast.

I was fortunate enough to visit Great Britain after I graduated college and even more fortunate to have arrived the day of the Queen’s Birthday Parade (which incidentally is not celebrated on her actual birthday)! Talk about a tourist delight – to see the Royal family parading by and I had a front row view! It’s something I will never forget…unlike the food, which I really can’t recall. I’m fairly certain for the two days we spent in London, I mostly ate fish and chips washed down with local lager. That’s why for tonight’s meal I consulted Charles, who is a Briton living in France and creator of the Five Euro Food blog, and Alison who comes from Northern Ireland and is the creator of Happy Domesticity about what to expect from a traditional British meal. Both Charles and Alison said the meal had to be a traditional Sunday lunch – Roast Beef with Roasted Potatoes. Two answers, exactly the same…we knew we had our meal plan.

We began the Roast Beef with Port Merlot Pan Sauce early this afternoon by cutting away the cartilage and excess fat from the top sirloin roast. Continue reading →