Sunday Lunch

We love Sunday lunch and frequently invite friends to join us and find it often turns into a long and leisurely event. We had asked some friends over for this Sunday and I was really looking forward to it. However when I woke on Sunday morning I didn't feel particularly well. I decided to give it until mid morning before making a decision as to whether we should put our friends off until another weekend; we had suggested they arrive at about 1.30 pm for 2.30 lunch. However by about 10.30 am I was feeling much better and we went ahead with the preparations.

On reflection I wish in some ways I had postponed it because I just couldn't seem to "get my act together". I dithered my way about the kitchen, almost preoccupied and couldn't concentrate at all on what I was supposed to be doing.

I had made some bread rolls to go with homemade stilton soup - the soup was made on Saturday and was fine, the rolls were heavy! We had roast rib of beef, yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, veg and gravy. The veg was fine - OH always does the veg on these occasions. The beef was OK, beautifully tender if a little overcooked. The roast potatoes were slightly soggy I thought, nothing like as crispy as I normally serve them, the yorkshires failed to rise suffiently and the gravy went lumpy ( I did manage to retrieve this by whisking very hard and fast for a minute or so).

There was a choice of desserts. Home made cream caramel (always a favourite) and lemon surprise pudding and we had apple strudel and profiteroles in the freezer (bought from our local Tesco store and good standby's). Our friends both decided on lemon surprise pudding. That was a blow to me as it had not turned out at all as it should have done with a golden sponge topping and a "surprise" pool of lemon sauce underneath - usually delicious. Yesterday it was a sunken, slightly too brown topping and the sauce was just about runny!

But - we enjoyed our friends' company and they seemed to enjoy everything. We all ate our fill and lunch went on until about 7 pm. We chatted and laughed and had a good time - what more could I ask.