Pie II: Return of the pie

Second go at the steak and ale pie tonight - with its fresh pastry lid. Delicious, and the pastry even puffed up nicely despite the filling only coming half way up the tin.

Moved my computer today (and of course internet speed has dropped like a stone despite the computer showing a full signal). Hence the blip pause.

Our neighbour delivered a kerosene stove he's lending us to try and alleviate our heating issues (having just received our first electricity bill and nearly fallen over in shock, this is a welcome development). So I headed off in the pouring rain to buy fuel for it, along with fuel for the weekend in the form of a very large lump of beef fillet for Saturday night's Beef Wellington. The butcher, who's a jovial sort of chap, was asking when and how I'd be cooking it. I explained (only realising later that my repeated extolling of the name 'Wellington' was possibly not very tactful...) and he listened politely to my details about the mushroom/duck pate mix, the herb pancakes and the pastry before saying that it did sound delicious, but he thought it would be even better if I used foie gras instead of duck pate, and just didn't bother with the pancakes and mushrooms....