footy fever.

Last weekend we had finally had the Westside progressive dinner we've been trying to get happening for months. It was a lot of fun, though it's not that relaxing to know that you'll have to leave wherever you are as soon as the course you're eating is over.

We let little Jimmie (my 18 month year old housemate) choose the theme. She did this by running around the kitchen and eventually picking up the football. So, footy it was.

Dinner started at Lauren Kenny's with a tuckshop theme. Mini-burgers! And they came wrapped in greaseproof paper which really got us excited. The tinnies helped too.

My house had main course so of course we had to go with pies, the Aussie footy classic. I made a faux-meat pie filling with some soy protein, mushrooms and gravy and we put it in mini-pies. I have to say it was authentically gross. But kind of delicious. I tried putting the stalks from dried shiitakes in to see if they stayed tough like gristle but nobody spat them out.

For the main pie the filling was a bit more classy - roast vegies in a mustard bechamel. The pie dough I used for this one was a vegan version of my favourite russian pastry. It's a yeasted dough which makes for a pretty crazy pie. It actually flattened out a bit in the baking, maybe the filling shrunk. Mostly though, I was just happy the way the lacing and valve looked!