Pie

The days are whizzing by despite them all being pretty much the same!  Tony went off to do the supermarket run first thing and I enjoyed my breakfast in bed and my Peter May thriller on its second go round.  Once up it was the usual jobs: fill the feeders; water the flowerpots (from the new water butt!); open the greenhouse doors.  Luckily, I returned to the house just as the postman knocked with a surprise parcel.  He was almost as tickled pink as me when I said it was unexpected.  'It's from Betty's!' he said. 'Wonderful!' I said. I held back from opening it until Tony returned.  It was a very naughty Grand Cru Sachertorte from Jen and Pete for our 40th Anniversary this weekend!!  It is also Jen and Pete's 5th Wedding Anniversary on the same day, and they will be celebrating in the Dales, staying at the lovely B&B where we all stayed on the night of their wedding.  It looks like the weather will not be  brilliant on Saturday so we may be having our picnic (with Sachertorte!) on the living room floor!  Ne'er mind.

After lunch the plan was to make a pie out of the blackberries I picked the other day, and then mow the grass out back.  I found a recipe on the Good Food Site for Blackberry and Apple and set about it. TWO HOURS later it was finally in the oven, crikey!  Every pot and pan we own covered the surfaces, together with a layer of flour and icing sugar.  Always read the recipe in full first!  There was the special dessert pastry to be made in the mixer, then it had to be chilled and blind baked, then the apples had to be microwaved and mixed with the blackberries and several other ingredients, then there was the lattice to weave......By the time I had put it to bake (for another hour!) and washed up everything, I just had time to throw a lasagne in the oven before I ran out to meet the Hobblers!  Thinks I'll look for an easier recipe next time.  Good news though, it is very tasty!

It looks like it will be an indoor day tomorrow so I'll do some serious catching up of comments.