Pie obsession officially over. Had not one but two pies over the weekend...more than enough for anyone.
Pie 1: Marks & Spencer's steak and kidney pudding - steamed it for 35 minutes and it was perfect - dark rich gravy, melting steak and suety pastry. Pie 2: Chicken, leek and ham pie at the Badger, Ponteland. An unexpected bonus - but not altogether perfect as there was too much puff pastry (I don't know about you but I prefer shortcrust) and not enough chicken.

Made Portuguese cornbread yesterday - a bit of an experiment. It worked really well - using cornmeal instead of about 1/3 of the flour you'd normally use makes for a lovely yellowy crumbly bread. And for once I followed the recipe properly and left it to rise for the right amount of time, so it wasn't solid as hell. Didn't know the Portuguese particularly went in for cornbread, but hope they come up with some more good recipes...