smokerblog

Layers of Goodness

To commemorate the 225th anniversary of the First Continental Congress, Kari thought it would be fun to have a colonial-style dinner as kind of a warm-up for Thanksgiving. We invited history-buff Seth and buff-ette Chistine over to help fulfill Kari's dream. Acting as Ernesto to Seth's Fluvio, I prepared a squash soup along with a crypto-colonial spinach salad tossed with olive oil (not very colonial, I know), balsamic vinegar (I couldn't find the cider vinegar), feta cheese (no excuse), sourdough croutons, dried berries, and nuts. Of course, Seth went all out, putting together the more authentic sweet potato pone and a cod fish pie.

That's right, fish and pie. Two of my favorite foods combined in one dish. The recipe can be found online, or the enterprising chef may achieve similar success by basically winging it from the description below.

"Master Chef" Seth poses with
his master creation

Grease down a lasagne-style pan or casserole dish with butter and line with a biscuit-like crust. Place a layer of cod (or other white fish) fillets in the bottom and season with salt and pepper. Then add a layer of bread crumbs, two eggs,* a couple of dabs of butter, and some white sauce. Repeat with two additional layers of fish, crumbs, sauce, etc. and seal the whole thing with a top layer of biscuit crust. Bake in the oven until light brown (we used 375 degrees for a half-hour with good results). Allow to cool, then consume with gusto.

After making our way through the first three courses, we took a small break before consummating our gustatory pleasure with some cranberry-nut bars Kari made. This could very well have resembled a colonial-era dessert, if it weren't for the Giardelli double-chocolate chocolate chips that were added.

It was all very delicious, even when reheated on day 2.