The Wisdom of Pies 2

Andy walked through the door of the flat, followed by someone I didn't recognise. "Chris this is Brian" he called. "He was my friend in the first year of my degree, and he's just in town overnight. I said you were a great cook and we could have tea?"

My heart sank. We were as poor as the proverbial church mice: I was still a student, and Andy was a trainee social worker on about £50 per week. I hadn't been shopping that week, and in the fridge was some bacon, half a dozen eggs and some marge. How to stretch the bacon and egg tea I'd got planned?

Somehow I thought of pork pies. While I couldn't make a pork pie, I might be able to do a bacon pie with egg in! So I made some short pastry and lined a plate with it. I cut up the bacon and fried it off a little, then I put it in the bottom of the plate. I broke 4 eggs over the bacon and rolled the last of the pastry over the top of the pie. Then I baked it for half an hour at 180C and opened a tin of beans.

What a success it was! Brian was quite amazed that you could turn bacon and egg into a pie. And actually so was I. I haven't made another one from that day to this (must be about 33 years). And neither do I particularly want to, because it reminds me of being too poor - but not too poor to feed a friend.