Him Indoors asked if he could have one of his favourite pies for lunch the other day, instead of his usual home-made sandwich.

At least he asked!

According to a new survey about our pie eating habits, Britain is a nation of secret pie eaters, with 67 per cent of men claiming to have gone to great lengths to hide them and their wrappers from their other half. And it is men aged 30-54 (obviously Him Indoors is the exception to the rule) who are the worst offenders – nearly half (48 per cent) admit to eating the last slice of pie and denying it.

The research was commissioned by sausage-makers Debbie and Andrew Keeble, who have just founded a new Pie Appreciation Society. Their pie research also found: Brits eat more pies on a Friday than any other day of the week (53 per cent).

More than one third of Brits have craved pie in the middle of the night and have even satisfied that craving by eating pie in bed - think of all those crumbs!

Even though just over half of the men surveyed claim their wife makes the best pie in the world, 66 per cent of women admit to having passed off a shop bought pie as their own (he knows I can't make pastry so no secrets between us).

A whopping 78 per cent agree that a slice of pie represents one of the simple pleasures in life, with 66 naming pie as the ultimate comfort food.

With that in mind my thanks this week to Dales Butchers at Kirkby Lonsdale for steak and ale pie made with Kirkby Lonsdale Brewery's Ruskin's Ale (£3.50, serves 2), and a cold cutting veal, ham and egg pie on at £3.25 per 250g.

More pies from Burton in Lonsdale Village Stores which sells Diggles of Lancaster hot pies including chicken and mushroom, steak and kidney, cheese and onion and Cornish pasties, from 99p each.

Also on the pie front, from www.beelocal.co.uk two pies from the Cumbrian Way ready meal main dish range - cottage pie (£4.50 / 380g) and shepherd's pie (£5.80 / 500g).

If you are looking for another instant meal idea, then what about the Pearsons of Ingleton range of own-make soups which are available from Country Harvest, also at Ingleton. Examples include tomato and roasted pepper, leek and potato, and curried parsnip £2.99 each.

This week's great deal comes from Aireys butchers at Ayside which is offering half lambs for the freezer, cut to your requirement, from £42.

And this week's sweet treats come from The Honeypot, at Hawkshead, solid chocolate letters and numbers, a great Christmas stocking filler from Choc Affair (£3.99); and a divine sounding cranberry and apple multi-grain bread from Oak Street Bakery, Windermere, and scrummy treacle bread, both £2 per 400g loaf.

Finally, an exciting new product from Furness Fish & Game at Flookburgh (open Tues-Fri).

Having won an innovation funding package from the North West Development Agency, FFG worked with students at Liverpool John Moores University to develop three new recipes for its potted shrimps.

The first to be released is Morecame Bay potted shrimps with chilli and maple syrup (£4.80 per pack of 2 x 57g pots).

They pack quite a kick according to Claire Worrall who recommends serving them with pasta, and perhaps a few pan-fried scallops.