A QUIET FAMILY DAY

We all had a lazy morning and no one was up before nine thirty when I made us all a cup of tea to start the day. I was glad my son had a good long sleep as he has been very tired of late and finding it hard to sleep. We had porridge for breakfast with cream and brown sugar sprinkled on the top, we call it holiday porridge and very good it was. After breakfast Pa went out to the village and I tidied up the bathroom and rearranged the furniture,then changed the bed covers,I finished the morning by sorting through the laundry and it is plain that this weeks pile of ironing will be massive. Having put off that nice little job until the weekend I went down stairs and began to prepare the evening meal, pot roast of beef Northern style, with roast potatoes,Yorkshire puddings ,mushy peas and lots of gravy The meat is rolled brisket and it takes quite a while to cook so at two o clock I browned the joint in a deep pan and added an onion, a carrot and a parsnip and enough beef stock to cover the joint and popped it into the oven. Then I made the Yorkshire pudding batter

8oz plain flour
three quarters of a pint of milk
half a teaspoon of salt
3 eggs
Sift the flour into a bowl with the salt, add two of the eggs and gradually beat in the milk. After two minutes beating add the final egg and beat for a further two minutes then cover and leave for at least an hour. You can make this batter in the morning and use it in the evening if you wish.
Next I part cooked the potatoes and tossed them in dry semolina to make them crispy.
In the late afternoon we all played poka dice and Pa won again. An hour before the meat was ready I popped the roast potatoes into the oven and the Yorkshire puddings the meat was ready. I set the meat aside on a hot platter and then passed all the pot roasted vegetables through a sieve and added the stock from the pan, this made a nice smooth gravy which needed no more thickening. I confess to using a tin of mushy peas ,shocking bad form but needs must as I forgot to put the dried ones in soak last night. Fortunately no one noticed and I am sure you won't tell, will you?
The grape jelly was lovely and very light and refreshing after such a large first course. It has been a peaceful sort of day ,the sort we all enjoy,may we and you too have many such days to come.