You may have been wondering how the  the catering went when we invited Debbie and Trevor  to supper with us in Tom’s Barn last week, whilst we were guests there ourselves. Rather rashly I had decided to try the slow cooker recipe for Steak and Kidney Pudding; too late I had remembered that when catering even for very good friends one needs to be able to have a reassuring peep every so often while something cooks for eight hours. This is impossible with everything hidden from view behind grease-proof paper within the slow cooker.

Unwrapped, it smelt delicious. So far so good; the moment of high drama came when I couldn’t turn the pudding out of the bowl…

I should have just calmly run a knife round the edge but in my panic shook the whole thing more violently than necessary so it all ended in a jumbled heap on the serving dish!

Fortunately the lighting was low, candles glowing and a  quick top up of wine glasses ensured we all quickly forgot that we weren’t being served neat slices; in fact the suet pastry was deliciously crumbly and not in the slightest stodgy and of course the Tissington beef will never fail you.

So, as a modest cook but greedy eater I’d award myself 10/10 for taste and 3/10 for presentation. But the recipe is definitely worth trying again. Not only am I coveting the Sony Netbook, I am now coveting a slow cooker as well; in theory the bottom oven of the Aga is the equivalent, but as  the cooking space  isn’t as enclosed as inside a slow cooker the effect isn’t quite the same.