Royal Wedding Fever aka a Meal Fit for a Prince

 So, unless you don't read the paper or perhaps you've been on a remote island of some kind, most of you would know that yesterday (April 29th) Prince William of Wales married Catherine Middleton.

No matter which side of the republican debate you're on, I think we can all agree that the English Royal family really do know how to "do" pomp and ceremony!  I have to admit that I was quite excited about the wedding, I remember when I was little that Mum would talk about watching Princess Diana's wedding, so I thought this would be my chance.  Even better, the timing of the wedding meant that it fell in prime time TV viewing here in Australia.

Now Sir Pinkying is fairly tolerant when it comes to watching an assortment of shows that he isn't interested in, but I knew that 3 or more hours of royal wedding was a little extreme!  I also wanted for us to be able to have a mildly English feeling to the meal, so I decided on a menu:
Roast Beef with gravy (and I NEVER make gravy), Yorkshire Puddings (that I've never made before) and Vegetables with a dessert of Apple Crumble.

I came home from work and figured out the timing of everything - hard to do when you have to take into account things like "7.51pm - the bride leaves for the church"!  I was most nervous about the Yorkshire Puddings, I've never made them before and I was led to believe that they're easy to get wrong.

On the advice of my sister I used the Jamie Oliver recipe from his book "The Ministry of Food" (I also did his roast beef and gravy recipes from the same book).  The instructions were very clear that you're NOT to open the oven door while they are cooking but I managed to snap this shot as I opened the door to get them out

 I'm so happy that they worked!  They were crisp on the outside and warm and soft in the middle - just like Jamie said they should be.  I had to rest the roast for 30 minutes, and it was quite cool here last night - so a double layer of foil and a tea towel helped keep it all warm.

 I don't think I've ever cooked roast beef before (pork, chicken and lamb: yes, beef: no) so very happy that the Jamie recipe made it perfectly medium.

 Needless to say Sir Pinkying was very satisfied with his meal, and this morning reading some of the wedding coverage - what do I see on the menu at the royal wedding reception?  Roast Beef, with Yorkshire Puddings!  It really was a meal fit for a prince.

Last up was a small apple crumble from a "secret" family recipe.

 

The wedding was great fun to watch, complete with texts from a very special person who was my "royal correspondent" on the Mall in London.  My highlights from the coverage were the carriage procession after the ceremony, the balcony appearance, and the sight of dozens of members of the royal family packed into "mini coaches" to travel to the palace!  

My absolute favourite though was something I only saw this morning - William and Catherine driving from Buckingham Palace in an Aston Martin decked out by brother Harry in bunting and ballons