Why say 'Valentine's Day', when you can say 'Pasty Day'?

I'm on the Cooking Trip like a new-born Nigella Lawson! Today's (semi) triumph was Cornish Pasties. Not to say that my Valentine's Day wasn't lovely, Eric got me roses and made me pancakes in bed (he brought them to me, in bed, he didn't make them in bed...yeah) but I wanted to try my hand at something new today, and anyway Eric loves a good pasty.

I had to buy a rolling pin to complete the task (great purchase, for £3 it also doubles as a dangerous weapon in case of BF misbehaviour) and, because it's easier to take a picture, here's the recipe:

They're actually surprisingly easy, if you have cold hands. Warmth is the enemy of pastry! The great thing is, you don't cook any of the filling, you just chuck it on the pastry (which you chill for a good while, see the necessity of coolness here?) brush with egg so you can pinch it all together, then cook on 180 for an hour.

See, the origin of the pasty, apparently, was actually the lunch of coal miners, whose wives would cook them meat in a pastry parcel, with a strong crust which they could hold and then disregard, it was never eaten. In Tudor Britain, pies were made simply as an economical way to cook meat, the pastry itself wasn't considered food. The top of the pie was lopped off, the inside spooned out and all the pastry thrown away. OK, British History lesson over.

Eric made these decorations with the leftover pastry after all the circles (use a 20cm side plate) had been cut out.

There's an E for him,

A B for me

And then a skull...yes, a skull. (think he's trying to tell me something about my cooking, reader?)

If you're observant (and reader, I know you are), you'll notice that of the 'Makes 4' specified in the recipe, only 3 are present on the baking tray. That's because one was sacrificed to get the others freed. My only shortcoming in this recipe? I forgot to grease the baking tray, and the first pasty burst apart when I tried to shift it! But the crumbled morsels tasted so goooooood.....

Pancake Day!

Ah, at the risk of seeming like some kind of domestic Delia, I'm loving cooking in the morning! Check it out, the first time I've been at home and able to flip flour-based foods from a pan in years!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to leave my feminist morals tied up in a pocket of my cooking apron, but this man holding out his plate for more is disarmingly cute.

Football, cake and the Royal Albert Hall

So the flat looks almost done, and my boyfriend looks quite content, both of which make me pretty blinkin happy.

So happy in fact, that when I went to the charity shop to buy a cookie jar "Because every flat must have one silly" (BF) I found one that looked like a huge muffin with free muffin-mix inside it and I BAKED. It's hard to believe, people, but I did. How domesticated are THESE? I mean, yeah, all you had to do is add milk, but I preset the oven myself....

One of the highlights of the week was a trip to the Royal Albert Hall to see Cirque du Soleil's Varekai. Here's my man, all suited and booted for the occasion.
The four of us had this box and this champagne buffet (more was served at the interval!) all to ourselves.
Right after I took this, I was reminded that NO photography was allowed. Ah well, they don't mind these ones, surely...

And then there's the Sunday football. Eric becomes quite a menace on the pitch as you can see.

And check out the infamous band of brothers, in their Davie 'V'.
I managed to watch for an hour, before losing all the feeling in my gloved hands and heading off to the pub for a bloody mary. Now that is what I call a Sunday institution!

Ooh, those naughty Bake-shop boys

So, because we've been in the very northerly Norwegian North of Norse Northness, yesterday was the North Cape, there's been no internet on the ship (I guess the Polare bears don't dig it much.)

I've saved up a bunch of pictures and stories to post about my travels when I don't have a show in 45 minutes, but until then I wanted to just share with you what the those naughty boys in the pastry room have been up to.

Now, it's not just just me....