BREAD

I have only ever made bread once before and it was not good. My friend S was given a very posh gift basket of food for Christmas. It included this box of bread mix.

Even the box was expensive

She was not in the frame of mind to make the bread after she read the instructions.

All that kneading and sitting

So I went home with the box!
Finally on Monday I decided this was the day to make bread.

All of the ingredients in seperate packets 

I started at 7am - the seeds had to be soaked for an hour.

Then we got down to business

I know that I am not a good baker - not like No 1 son M. I don't have the patience but I really kneaded this as well as I could.

After resting (the dough) more kneading

It looked good

Not bad

It actually tasted very good. I took half of the loaf to S so that she could try it. Was even great toasted the next day. I was happy with the result but will not put bread making on my list of things to do.

Chicken and Leek Pie

My father used to make the most wonderful chicken pies to sell in our cafe (and wholesale to department stores for their cafeterias). I used to know the recipe for the filling but it was never written down that I know of. I haven't made the mixture since I was 15 years old (over 50 years ago) I don't remember it.
I suspect that he used a base recipe from Fanny Farmer's Boston School Cook Book and just went from there.

His cooking bible

He even used rendered chicken fat in his pastry. I was nostalgic for a chicken pie and researched some recipes in my library. I found one by Stephanie Alexander that uses my favourite ingredients, Chicken thighs, leeks, butter and cream. It had to be a winner.

I started with these

Fry the leeks, cut the chicken into small pieces flour and fry. Mix the lot with cream, parsley and seasonings and add the pastry.

The big pie

I made this a few times as it turned out so well. This week I made individual pies as I had lots of puff pastry in the freezer almost out of date. A good reason to use it up.

The same mixture made 12 pies

Just fabulous. I even ate one cold - had to do a test - as I thought they would be great for a picnic. I was right! Delicious!

Just the right size

The mixture can be made the previous day and then baked early in the morning. Packed when room temperature and bingo good solid picnic food with a crunchy salad.