Boxing Day Pie

 

Spot the Etonian flag :)

After the festive fun and family conviv. of Christmas, Boxing Day comes as pleasant "breather," time to relax and take it easy. 

Walk the dog to the nearest Pick 'n Steal, reflect on Stephen the Martyr, it's his Feast today, as you stroll down the boulevards of Olde Dallas, and return to HQ for an easy lunch. Warm bread, cheese, dates and grapes, raise a glass to the Incarnate Word, slumber over books on antedeluvia and then...

Return to the fray to make pie. Yes, beef and mushroom pie from the leftovers of yesterday's feast, it's not hard. Cut the beef off the bone(s), chop up an onion, some garlic and celery and saute in 3 Tbs butter till tender and fragrant. Add three Tbs of flour and stir it up, then add beef stock. Well done, you've got this far, but you're not there yet.

A typical Dallas Light Cavalry Mess scene. Keen-eyed readers will spot LL, WSF, Old NFO, drjim, Jim, Wild, 

Ed, Doktor Swankenstein, DOS, Ed. C, Mike C, Manhattan Infidel, Seamus, GenX, Paul M, 

RHT, Adrienne (out of frame) and so many more.

Let everything simmer and stir, like a faculty revolt at Harvard, and add the beef. This is key, obviously. While the meat's simmering in the mix, saute some mushrooms in butter till golden and add those too, along with some red wine, and let it all cook to desired consistency. 

That done, turn off the heat, add yesterdays cooked carrots to the mix and allow the delicious pie filling to rest and cool. Have a glass of the right stuff, listen to Handel, shoot some 5.56, sharpen a kukri, whatever, your call, no rule, and in God's good time roll out some pastry. Good work, fill a pie dish with its filling, cover with jolly old pastry and fire it all into the oven at 400.

Let that beast cook for 20 minutes or so until golden brown, you can even glaze the pastry with an egg yolk if you like, then fall upon your scoff.

Like a Warrior,

LSP

Just Taking a Break

 

Unlike Satan, I try to take some time off after Christmas and usually fly to Calgary, which is fun but wasn't on the cards because of the China Virus. So I pointed the rig at Dallas and went there instead. Big fun, presents, dogs, and family, and a delicious rib roast. 

The roast became a beef and mushroom pie on Boxing day, but that was after a haircut at Ramone's and a pint of Guinness at Cannon's.

Cannon's advertises itself as an Irish Pub and serves Irish style food, like bangers and mash, chicken curry and an "Irish Breakfast." The breakfast costs $18. 

We all went to Mass at St. Matthias on Sunday, and it was good to sit in the pew as incense rose like the prayers of the saints. I like that church and its Rector, and we made plans to go skeet shooting in the next week or so. Always fun to get out and blast away at the clay adversary.

And that, punters, is the story of that.

Cheers,

LSP