There I was, this afternoon at about 14:30, just about to stuff a pie with pie filling, when the ‘phone rang.
“I’m here”.
“Okay – see you in about 15 minutes”.
With it being a Sunday I’d tried my best to have a decent lie-in but it didn’t quite work out like that. I was awake at about 07:00 but I wasn’t going to get out of bed at that time. Even though 08:30 still wasn’t what I wanted, I couldn’t stay in bed any longer.
After the usual morning procedures, I started work. You’ll remember that I had my day off yesterday so that I could work here instead. I stripped the bed and put the guest bedding on, and then did a washing machine with the bedding that I’d taken off, and a few other bits and pieces that were lying around.
Another thing that I did was to make some pie filling. I’d had some lentils cooking in the slow cooker since breakfast, but now I fried an onion with some garlic, and then added some leets. A tin of green flageolet beans and the aforementioned cooked lentils, with tarragon, black pepper and a cube of soya cream.
That took half an hour or so to cook, and then I left it to cool. It needs to cool before it goes into the pastry, and this is where I’ve been going wrong.
It was now lunchtime so I took my butties out onto the wall with my books and lizards, and then came back to make the pie. Put the oven on to warm at 210°C, grease a pie dish, put the rolled pastry in the bottom, added the pie filling, folded the excess pastry over the top and bung it into the oven for 40 minutes. And then into town to rescue the perishing.
And that wasn’t easy either. There was the Sunday market today so the streets were heaving with people and there were diversions everywhere. That made it all complicated.
Hans and I have been friends since our first day at Grammar School in 1965. I’ve stayed at Hans’s in Munich on several occasions, and it was my turn to repay the compliment. Hans has recently bought a new motor bike – a Royal Enfield 500cc that although modern, is a design from the 1950s. He has hit the road on a two-weeks expedition and is spending a few days here.
We had a coffee and a good chat to catch up on our news.
Following that, we went for a really long walk around the headland and down to the harbour and into town. It was such a nice evening.
Down on the docks was this beautiful vehicle, which I reckon is a Jaguar XK140. The XK120 had the sidelights on top of the wings, and the XK150 had a one-piece windscreen
But whatever it was, it would be coming home with me given half a chance.
The pie was delicious. With mixed vegetables and gravy I really was proud of it. I wasn’t so proud of slicing open my finger with the vegetable knife though. And don’t I bleed so easily these days?
So tomorrow we’re off for an exploration. Hans is here for a few days so I’ll take him to see some of the sights.
