I have had a terrible crush on Jamie Oliver for years. He is (was) kind of a young guy, a drummer, a skater, a sort of devil may care hippy and not least, a chef. One of his latest shows is Jamie at Home. Z says it could be called Jamie in his shed. Jamie cooks either out in the garden next to a brick oven or in a sort of lean to kitchen filled with chipped pudding basins and hanging dried herbs. I have seen most of the episodes about five times. One of them is entitled pastry. Jamie flies through cooking a super-rich beef brisket, Guinness and Cheddar pie encased in puff pastry.
I’m here to tell you it took us like four hours-about 3 to make the stew and another 45 minutes to bake inside the pastry. The end result – a pot pie filled with luscious mushrooms, beef, thick sauce and cheese. We served it with the requisite peas, although not mushy to Z’s parents and grandparents with a bananas foster bread pudding with home-made caramel. Pretty amazing for a Monday night or any night.
My Urban Pantry 
>Your post reminded me of my first instant potato experience. When I was in college, I spent Thanksgiving at a friend's house. When I offered to peel the potatoes, his mother told me not to worry about it. When I asked if I could at least get them out of the pantry, she said sure, but I couldn't find potatoes anywhere! You already know the punch line. Until that point in my life, I never knew that mashed potatoes could ever come out of a box. lol.
LikeLike