Guinness on a Monday...

It's Monday, so why not do a spot of entertaining this evening? After the morning school-run smash and grab in the reduced section of Waitrose I will produce, courtesy of the slow cooker, a marvellous Beef and Guinness Casserole for the Vicar, me and an old friend. Following a bit of late night cookery book stream-lining, I came across the weighty tome that is the National Trust Traditional cookery book - many of the recipes sound as if they are straight from a re-enactment banquet (words like Pease-pottage and flummery being new to me), but quite a number catch my eye, including a stew mentioning Guinness. More exciting than that, is that every page includes how to cook the dish on an AGA. This excites me a great deal as we have just found out we are moving house (and job) to a kitchen with an AGA *muffled squeals of delight*. I don’t actually know how to cook on a AGA, but I am willing to learn! Slow cooker pre-heating, meat, onions, mushrooms all browning nicely in the pan, I enthusiastically pour over the Guinness having taken a quick swig to make sure it tastes OK (it is now Midday). To my horror the result is similar to the frothy scum left at the side of the boat park after a particularly high tide. The lid goes on and I ignore, hoping that by the time I transfer it to the slow cooker it will look rather less coastal. The smell coming from the pan is certainly promising and I am hoping that served up with some nice greens and baked potatoes it will be a good warming meal to catch up with a friend over. Pudding is bought and the table will be simply laid after wrestling children to bed. No fuss needed, just a cork pulled and conversation to flow.