Pete’s blog

Venue: Gary’s house – Morningside

Ministry of information: Peter Nixon (MC), Gary Chenik (host), Caryn Main, Siobhan, Jeanine and Stuart.

Meal: Guinness pies, ratatouille and potatoes. Ice cream and hot summer berries for dessert.

Topics discussed: How horribly the Proteas were getting thrashed by the English, how great it was that the Springboks beat the Kiwis, running, hangover cures, how to play lie dice (which was played again).

Drinks consumed: Whiskey, Guinness and red wine – including a 21 year old Alto (yum).

Success rating: 6/10

Critique of meal: First time I’ve made pastry, made the pastry the night before. It was absolutely perfect flaky pastry for the trial-run… it was no longer as good on the night… hard, floury and not flaky in any way. The ratatouille was actually quite nice, thought I had overcooked it. Otherwise thought the meal overall was quite boring… spent too much time trying to get the pie right with very little return. The dessert fortunately saved the day as it was extremely simple and very good (thank you Annie).

Lessons learnt: Make pastry fresh on the day, don’t let evil frost-free fridge kill it overnight. Stop trying to do complicated stuff for the first time for other people – do simple stuff that you know (but then again that would be boring )