Tag Archives: Family

Movie Night: Flubber

Year: 1997

Director: Les Mayfield

Production Company: Walt Disney Pictures

Leads: Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher McDonald

Little Satis was in a bad mood the other night, so I went on Netflix in search of Robin Williams. Nothing cheers me up like Williams, but unfortunately Netflix is a bit devoid of decent films these days. They do have Good Morning, Vietnam and Good Will Hunting, but I think Little Satis is just a touch too young for those movies. This left us with Jumanji, which we’ve already seen, Hook, and Flubber. We should have gone with Hook, but I recalled the slapstick of Flubber and thought it would please an eleven-year-old.

The gags come off feeling a little tired and recycled.

I wasn’t wrong, but we were both left feeling slightly empty at the end of it all, despite the chuckles and giggles. Flubber is a remake of the 1961 The Absent-Minded Professor, also by Disney, and whilst I’m usually a stickler for watching the originals first, Netflix didn’t have it, and as I mentioned above, I really just wanted Robin Williams. It follows the story of a … well … absent-minded professor who invents a substance that gains kinetic energy from kinetic energy (i.e. the more you bounce it, the more it bounces). It’s hardly a ground-breaking plot, but I can’t help feeling that more could have been done with it. After all, such an invention in real life would change the world.

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Thought of the Week: Cottage (Not Shepherd’s) Pie

Don’t forget – you can claim your free copy of The Redemption of Erâth: Consolation just by emailing satiswrites@icloud.com and telling me which digital format you’d prefer (ePub, Kindle, PDF, etc.)!

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Russett-PotatoesCI had the day off today, and spent most of that time writing. I’m quite proud of myself: 6,385 words on chapter 6 of book 3. Despite that, I couldn’t think of a single thing to write for Thought of the Week tonight, so I thought instead I’d share dinner with you instead. Currently cooking away on the stove is the mixture that will end up being cottage pie.

For those uncultured Americans out there, cottage pie is not the same thing as shepherd’s pie, which is invariably made with lamb. Cottage pie, on the other hand, is usually made with beef, sometimes pieces but more often mince. Our recipe modifies this slightly as we tend to eat turkey mince instead of beef mince, but the principle is the same. Don’t let me catch you calling it shepherd’s pie again!

Anyway, this is how I make our slap-dash knock-off cottage pie.

  • sb10068684ad-001.jpg1 lb turkey mince
  • ½ onion
  • 4-5 large carrots
  • 1 cup peas
  • 1 small can diced tomatoes
  • tomato paste
  • 1 beef and 1 vegetable stock cube
  • potatoes
  • lots of sharp cheddar cheese (the more the better)

Preheat your oven to something like 400°F. Then start by sweating the onions in olive oil (I feel smart – I know what sweating onions means!). Wait until they are translucent. Then add the turkey mince and cook it, mixing it every once in a while, until it’s starting to brown. While the turkey is cooking chop the carrots into pea-sized pieces (it makes them go well with the peas, funnily enough). Sometimes at this point I add soy sauce, just to darken the turkey. Not necessary with beef. Add the carrots and the diced tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Then add the tomato paste and the stock cubes dissolved in ½ cup boiling water. Add the peas, bring to a simmer again, and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

Ah…the pie is in the oven now!

cooking-ground-turkeyAt this point, the main mixture is done. Pour it into a casserole dish. Now at this point, purists would point out that I should have mashed the potatoes. To hell with them. I’m way too lazy to mash potatoes, so just slide them directly onto the pie mixture in the casserole dish. The thinner the better – that way they take less time to cook. Yes, that’s right – slice the potatoes raw onto the pie!

Cover with aluminum (or aluminium) foil and place in the oven. The foil will help preserve the moisture and cooks the potatoes surprisingly well. Cook for at least 20-30 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft. Finally, take the whole thing out of the oven, set the grill (broiler) to high, and cover it all with as much cheese as you have, the sharper the better. Put it back in under the grill until everything is nice and toasty brown.

Eat.

light-cottage-pie1

Satis Logo 2014

Thought of the Week: Progress

Something is happening today that I’ve been dreading for months. To be fair, I haven’t been dreading it so much as simply not thinking about it, but it’s one of those things that ultimately can’t be avoided once the plan is set in motion. I really didn’t see how I was going to cope with it, yet here I am in the middle of it, not only not cowering in a corner but actually making time to write about it.

Can’t guess? That’s okay: we’re moving house.

Mrs. Satis got a new job, and we’re moving half an hour further south to accommodate (I’ll still be keeping my existing job (that is to say, the job that isn’t writing)). For someone who finds it difficult to get out of bed on most days, this is kind of a big deal. I knew it was coming, of course, ever since she accepted her new position, but nonetheless I did my utmost to put it out of my mind, because frankly moving house is way too big of a thing for me to contemplate.

It’s a question of being overwhelmed, ultimately. Social interactions are taxing for me at best, so having to deal with four strange men in my house all day long, making pleasantries and offering them coffee and lunch and all that, is enough to make me want to run screaming. (Hence why I’m hiding upstairs writing about it, rather than actually doing anything.) The packers/movers are nice enough, of course, but just the thought of having to go downstairs and say, “This goes, this stays, this we should never have had in the first place,” fills me with dread.

Then there’s the stress of knowing that every single item in the house has to go into a box. What if they pack something we need? What if they forget something? What if they try to pack my computer while I’m typing on it (yes, these things cross my mind)? All I really want to do is crawl into bed and hide under the covers.

What if they pack me?

Yet here I am, sitting up and awake, sweating (because it’s hot), drinking coffee (because I don’t care that it’s hot) and managing, internally at least, to not completely freak out. This is disastrous; it’s upheaval, it’s everything I know torn to pieces and shoved into boxes. My home is no more! I don’t deal well with change, in case you couldn’t tell. Yet somehow I’m coping.

Is this progress? I’m still taking most of my medications, though I need to visit the psychiatrist to get a refill on some of them. I’m still seeing my therapist once/twice a week. But everything leading up to this point suggested I ought to be a blubbering mess on the floor right now. Somehow I’m not.

It isn’t strength – I certainly don’t have any of that. I think perhaps it’s just that this is an unavoidable event; the movers were going to show up today whether I stayed in bed or not. They were going to pack around me, regardless of where I was in the house. It was preordained. And like anything unavoidable (going to work, shots, itches where you can’t scratch), you pretty much just have to deal with it when it happens.

I wonder if there’s a lesson here. For all the things I just can’t do, what if there was a way to just make them happen? What if I could convince myself that the dishes every night were unavoidable? That the laundry just had to get done? That my book simply must be written?

It’s a thought to consider, and consider it I will. For now I’d better go – they’re taking away my internet!