A pie for a wet April day

News flash: I have not been having a fun time recently. Well I have: there was Easter for one thing, and a singing competition for another. But there was also one conference before Easter and another one on Wednesday (I just finished my talk: now I’m totally allowed to blog in the middle of the day – right?) and an undergraduate lab course to help run (yes, I know we’re in the middle of vacation: that doesn’t stop 47 unruly undergrads turning up and needing help holding their Gilson the right way up) and somewhere in the middle of it, I got lost. A week of doing some actual exercise (hurrah!), vaguely achieving something at work (double hurrah!) and eating well (whoop!) and I’ve been feeling a bit better.

This weekend was a very rare and special thing: it was a weekend when I had nothing to do. By my standards anyway. I mean, I still had a double gym class, church, a rehearsal and a conference talk to finish, but that’s nothing by my standards. And so I did what any sane person would do on a cold wet April day: I baked a pie.

The great and glorious squash, spinach and goats cheese pie

I may be sweet and nutty… but so is my baklava!

Last night wasn’t just a night for sausage rolls and single malt. It was a night for sugary nutty goodness as well. I can’t remember whether it was actually the housemate with the Turkish grandparents who introduced me to baklava, but I like to think it was. I certainly hadn’t encountered it prior to starting my undergraduate degree. Crisp filo pastry. Tooth-achingly sweet honey. Chewy nuts….

Ahem. Pardon me while I daydream.

A cure for heavy rain and an empty house: Whisky Sausage Rolls

Or  rather Whisky-Caramelised-Onion sausage rolls.

We moved into the new place just shy of a month ago, and it’s still a bit of a tip with unpacked boxes and stuff on every surface. I haven’t been doing much cooking, much less baking. And by the time I made it home (faffing in the lab, finishing blog posts, answering phone calls, sheltering from the rain) it was nearer to 8 than half 7. But I have the house to myself, and not much to do this evening (besides cleaning out the guinea pigs and laundry and tidying and … oh…) I wanted carbs. I wanted comfort food. I wanted to open nice whisky.

This is an adaptation of an adaptation by Helen Graves. It is not quick. It isn’t cheap. It is not fool proof. But it is worth every minute and every penny (even when I got distracted by the Olympic swimming and it all went a bit pear-shaped…)