Weekly cooking - things in a pie

This installment of weekly cooking involves two things we make in a springform pan that aren't cheesecake.  (P.S., I have yet to use the pan for a cheesecake).

The first is Gordon Ramsay's Fish Pie.  I don't generally go for fish, especially in pie form, but this one has a cup of wine, a cup of vermouth and a cup of heavy cream in it.  How can you go wrong with that?  It was delicious.

Bubbling fishy goodness  I tried to draw a fish with fork holes on top, but it didn't really work out.

The second one is far more interesting (and has a much more interesting story).  A few months ago, we were visiting my sister in Calgary and they took us to a Moroccan restaurant.  The food was great, and what's better is that you eat it with your hands.  It was a lot of rolling up couscous into a sticky ball and cramming it in your pie hole.  Janine and I had no problems with this.  James and Kathryn, however, being first-born children, had a real hard time accepting the Moroccan lifestyle and had to use forks.  Haha, I laughed at them through a food-covered face.

Anyway, we ordered B'Stilla, which is a chicken dish in pastry garnished with cinnamon and icing sugar.  Yes, icing sugar!!  Desert and entrée all in one!

A few months later, we had a package of pastry left over from something else, so I decided to make our own version.  I had to combine two recipes - something new for me - but it turned out really great.  We've made it a few times now and I think our guests have enjoyed it.

More bubbling goodness

Here's the first recipe and here's the second.

Basically, follow steps 1-5 of the first recipe, except use one or two onions instead of four.  Don't buy Phillo pastry, instead get puff pastry.  Once the chicken is all ready, start with step 4 of recipe #2.  When making the layer of pastry in the middle, top it with cinnamon and sugar - be generous.  Top the last pastry layer in the same way.  Serve it with icing sugar dusted over the top.  Or, if you're me, coat the entire slice with icing sugar and add more as you eat.

Sdrawkcab

Ok, so I've talked about strange things I do, like going through the alphabet in street signs.  Well, here's another fave passtime (read OCD tendency) that drives Kathryn absolutely bonkers.

I love to spell things out backwards in my head and then say them out loud.  And by love, I mean LOVE.  But really, I should say evol.  This really helps pass the time when you're watching live TV and have to wait for commercials.  I like to see ads for Atoyot and Drof, Elppa and Yrrebkcalb.

The real fun comes from trying to pronounce the words properly the first time.  I get endless hours of fun out of this.  Of course, as with all my strange tendencies, I wonder if anyone else does this?  Does anyone else know their name backwards like I do?  (P.S., Lawobab Divad and in case you're curious, Lawobab Nyrhtak)

The other day, I was texting with Kathryn, and she wooted me.  So in reply, I sent her a toow.  Which made me decide that from now on, my standard response to woot will be toow, as in "Toow, I acknowledge your woot".

Then she loled me, to which I replied lol (but a backwards lol).  And then I spend the rest of the night thinking about palindromes.  An evening well spent.

Obsolescence

I was searching online for books at the library the other day, and it struck me that kids these days have no idea what a card catalogue is.  Do you remember going to the library when you were a kid, probably do do a research project on Bigfoot, and having to go through the catalogue to find the books you needed?

I remember how awesome it was to learn that such a categorized fount of knowledge worked.  I also remember how it smelled - dusty paper mixed with wood finish.  Delightful.  But nowadays, you just find it all on the computer - infinitely more efficient, but lacking in that certain cachet that the old paper cards held.

Librarians must love it - no more sitting down at a typewriter (another obsolescence) to type out the various cards.  Also - remember those strange white-out strips for typewriters where you could erase what was typed?  Also, remember White Out, Liquid Paper and its more-funny counterpart, Liquid ape?

Somehow, the scene in Ghostbusters when they're in the library wouldn't be as good without the cards flying all over the place (I'm sure that scared librarians more than the ghost!).  Flickering computer screens just don't hold a candle to that.

But what else is this generation missing out on?  Videocassettes.

Actually, I don't miss them all that much (truth be told, we still have TWO working VCRs in our house).  But remember when you rented a video from the video store (hi, there's another thing that's on its way out) and someone wasn't kind before you and didn't rewind?  Do you remember being charged a fine if you weren't kind?  Did your family own a tape rewinder?

Speaking of tapes - remember when you were about to play the latest mix tape that someone gave you, and you had to look at the tape and flip a switch on the boom box (gone as well) if the tape was "metal" or "normal"?

I even have a faint memory of having to fill out this giant booklet of questions for homework - things like who was the first Lieutenant Governor of Alberta - and there was a special number you could call and some mysterious lady (probably a librarian on leave from card-catalogue typing) would look things up and answer some of them.  Or, you would have to look in the Encyclopedia your family devoted a whole shelf to (if you were rich) - or three volumes to if your sister won them on Hi-Q.

Anyway, I had fun thinking about these old technological relics.  I think I'll go Google some more obsolete technologies (and try not to ponder the oxymoronic nature of my search).