This meat pie almost became an optical illusion, but it is now in the oven and should be ready for the evening food soon. I have made numerous such creations in my life as a housewife, but you can always improve the situation.

My cookery online web site were offering a new fantastic backing tray which makes everything much more crispy. You can see it in the picture with the various holes in it. The idea is that at the two sides you can pull it out to make it fit any oven I have now used it a few times and it does give a crispier result, as the hot air escapes through the holes.

I would be satisfied but when I put it in the oven the sides slip as it is not as stable as it should be and the whole thing lands on the bottom of the oven. I uttered many profanities and eventually gave up and put it on my normal oven baking tray, hoping the result will not be an optical illusion.

The second problem was the pastry I bought. It was already rolled out, I do not make pastry myself and on the plastic wrapping it said 2 flaky pastries for top and bottom which I wanted. It was even on a special offer, However I was surprised by the first illusion when I discovered the pastry was round and not rectangular as usual. My second problem was that it is vegan pastry. My store does not always have everything as I like it and it was all they had, but I did not realise that it was vegan. I know there are people that find vegan is the answer to their vegetarian dreams, but I am not vegetarian, never have been and probably never will be. Now I am stuck with a vegan pastry which I did not want.

Anyhow it is smelling OK in the kitchen and now I will get ready to serve it, vegan or not. I wonder how pastry can be vegan. Do they substitute the fat with something manmade? No idea, I am sure the cows will be happy that I am not using their milk for butter.

And here is the finished product.