hearty vegetable pie

After yesterday's unseasonable warmth, Sunday dawns cold and blustery which is handy because it finalises today's "thank you for driving us to France and back" meal for Rob and Claire. Being vegetarians (urgh!), roast is out but hearty vegetable pie is 'in', with the extra benefit of being able to cook triple the required amount to stock the freezer and the milos.

As the anas tidy the flat, me and the newly shorn blond bombshell go to Mortlake playground for the morning, before heading to Waitrose in Sheen to stock up on our guests preferred drink of choice, Jenning's Ale.

With glowing cheeks hiding his morning intake of babyccino, the monkey has a surprisingly successful experimental lunch from Annabel Karmel - Tuna Muffin Melts - before going for his afternoon snoopy snooze.

So with him asleep we go into power-clean-cook mode ahead of Claire and Rob's arrival. The full menu is: caramelised pear and rocket salad, hearty vegetable pie and cabbage, followed by most of the cheese we bought in France on our way back from Matt & Virginie's marvellous wedding.

Good job we managed to get the beers in because Claire bravely battled through a hangover to squeeze in a couple of drinks, and Rob squeezed into his official Jenning's T-Shirt:

As tradition dictates, the blond bomber wakes up just before pudding and joins the table in his sleeping bag for some cheese. A pleasant and restrained sunday lunch then goes out of the window during a postprandial walk to the pond which actually ends up as two hours in The Sun. Monday hangovers beckon...

Food of the Milos
Cheerios and toast for breakfast, and apricot snacks in the park followed by a babyccino. The tuna melts are surprisingly successful, he doesn't really bother with lunch (unless he's at Julia's) so it's good to discover a handy snack for him. Vegetable pie and cabbage for dinner, which he loves. Bish, bash and indeed bosh.

sources
tuna muffin melts - Annabel Karmel, Top 100 Finger Foods, p122
caramelised pear and rocket salad - Donna Hay, The Instant Cook, p44
hearty vegetable cottage pie - Delicious, January 2007, p28
cheese - france
ale - Jenning's Ale