blue artichoke

1. I'm not Greek
2. I don't know anything about Greek Orthodoxy, except that Red Momo said that their Easter was last weekend.
3. I can't make pastisio

I rarely get to cook for the big holidays, because I'm usually traveling to my mom's or Gentleman Caller's parents'. So, I make due with celebrating the holidays of other countries, such as Cinco de Mayo and, now, Greek Orthodox Easter. So, yesterday I made Red Momo's recipe for pastisio, which is a glorified beef-a-roni: layers of macaroni, Greek cheeses, ground beef in tomato sauce, topped with a cream sauce and cinnamon. It was glorious, but not without many disasters. It makes a lot. A lot. I used two 13x9" pans and should probably have used a third pan, in hindsight. I filled the two pans all the way up, put them in the oven and went out to the front porch to watch a thunderstorm roll in. I went in to check on the pastisio about 20 minutes later and found my oven on fire. Whoops! The filling had bubbled over the top, dripped down to the steel pan I keep in the oven and off to the oven floor. The pan was so hot that it was smoking and the fire on the bottom of the oven added even more smoke. It poured out of the oven and filled the house. I set Gentleman Caller up in the hallway, fanning the smoke alarm, while I opened all the windows and set up fans to blow the smoke outside. I put out the fire in the oven, turned it off and left the pastisio inside to finish cooking, then I went outside to get some fresh air. It was unbelievably smoky inside. My eyes burned and I kept coughing. It gave GC an awful headache. Once the smoke cleared out and the pastisio had finished cooking and firmed up, we ate it and watched The Sopranos. The pastisio was great, even with the slight smoky flavor, but when I next make it, I'll either halve the recipe or use a third pan. As is, we have enough leftover to last until next Greek Easter.