British Invasion.

I've said it before and I'll likely say it again, I LOVE British food magazines.

With the strong Canadian dollar and the weak pound, I am able to subscribe to my beloveds (Olive, BBC GoodFood and Weight Watchers UK) and I love getting them in the mail every month!  (I'm pretty easy to please.)

Last week, the new Olive and BBC GoodFood came and hurray!  Lots to make!

First up was a Beef and Mushroom pie with Blue Cheese.  It was great BUT as usual, my crust fell apart and sank into my little pie.  AND my beef and mushroom filling didn't thicken up properly.  I combined the recipe in Olive with the recipe that came with one of the two magazines, a collaboration with Weight Watchers.  Maybe I should have cooked it longer?  I made the filling in the pressure cooker...

What? You want to know what it looks like?  Well hold it right there...

A little liquid with your crust?

 The secret to this pie was the blue cheese.  You roll it into the puff pastry crust!  Oh those Olive people are geniuses!  CLEVER by half!

So, despite my tears of frustration when the crust COMPLETELY sank into my pie, I managed to get through it.

I got through it so well in fact that I had to make Gregg's Perfect Pud from BBCGoodFood.  My favourite dessert, Sticky Toffee Pudding.

Now just wait a second.  I don't have a pudding steamer thingie.  But I do have a muffin tin and a bigger roasting tray.  So I made the cakes in muffin tins and it worked BEAUTIFULLY!  What didn't work so well was my toffee sauce.  I cooked it for TWICE as long as the recipe said and it still didn't get very brown.  Having never made it before, I kept thinking the magic would happen eventually, but it didn't.  I soldiered through and ate that sugary buttery bunch of heaven!

Sticky Toffee LOOOOOOVES Me.

So yea, it looks like a cupcake but it's OH SO VERY MUCH MORE!  :)  (The point count for the amount I ate of dessert last night?  21 points JUST for pudding.  TWENTY-ONE POINTS!  That's a treat that won't be repeated very often, just two more times each for G and I until all those little STP muffins are eaten!)

Pick up the February issues.  Lots of good stuff inside and I for one am going to keep cooking from them.

On an unrelated note, we close on our new house in a matter of weeks.  It's very scary and getting harder to cook as the kitchen and related items are slowly being packed away waiting to be moved to their new home.  Stressful, yes, but very very very exciting!!!!

(Oh, and I am watching this crazy BBC show (did I mention my love of the Brits?) called "How Not To Live Your Life".  It's MENTAL.  Any other suggestions?)