Tomato Pie. 8.31.21

 I made a tomato pie.  The original recipe was from a "Cast Iron Skillet Classics" recipe magazine, but I made a lot of changes.  Recipe is below, how I made it.

Prepare  a crust for 1 crust pie.  I like to blind bake the pie crust.  I use the butter flavor crisco recipe on package.  For one crust pie, I do half- recipe but increase everything by 25% so I can use larger pie plate.  Also, I put 1/4 cup pastry flour into the measuring cup before adding the all purpose flour.  That makes it more flaky.  The original recipe did not blind bake, so either way should work.

I blind baked the crust at 375 F while the tomatoes are resting on the paper towels. (this takes some planning and is a separate recipe).  I don't let the crust cool, rather I start assembling the pie while the crust is still hot out of the oven.  To blind bake, I first refrigerated the crust 30 min, poked lots of holes using a fork, lined with foil and placed pie weights on the foil.  After baking 20 min, I removed the foil and pie weights and baked 5 more minutes.

I used a mixture of slicing tomatoes and sauce tomatoes, which are meatier.

2 1/2 pounds tomatoes sliced 1/4 inch thick

2 teaspoons salt

1 cup grated gruyere cheese (what I found this time at store was a blend with cheddar).

1 cup grated Pepper Jack cheese

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 cup chopped onion.

Place tomato slices on paper towels.  Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the salt.  Let them sit 30 min.  The salt draws out a lot of the water.  I also lightly pressed some paper towel on top of the tomatoes to wick out more water.

In a bowl, stir together the egg, mayo, cheeses, Italian herbs, the other tsp of salt, pepper.

Sprinkle the onions across the bottom.  Add 1/3 of cheese mixture.  Layer with 1/2 of the tomatoes.  Spread on second 1/3 of cheese mixture.  Layer with remainder of tomatoes, then spread on the rest of the cheese.  "Spread" is a hopeful term - more like gently mush it around but don't worry about spreading evenly.

Cover the crust edges with aluminum foil so they don't burn.  Bake the pie at 375 for 50 min.  I actually check at 45 min and then every 5 min until it looks set.

I like to blend ceasar or garlic butter croutons to make bread crumbs, mix about 2 tbsp of those with 2 tbsp parmesan cheese, sprinkle on top of the pie and bake 5 more minutes.

I think this pie is even better the next day, cold.   

Cherry Pie. 8.31.21

I made a pie, using a batch of tart cherries from June. It was worth the effort. By freezing the filling with all of the ingredients already, assembling the pie is much easier and faster.

8.31.2021

The second planting ("Ambrosia") is almost gone. I've been harvesting it for about two weeks. Excellent production and flavor,,

I liked these very much. From planting seed, to harvest, was about 90 days. I froze 9 ears, blanched and sliced off the cob. There are still two blocks to ripen fully - "Delectable". I already cut one ear. The kernels weren't fully developed yet, but it was quite good.

Marigolds From Home Saved Seeds. 8.17.2021

Last fall I saved seeds from a marigold plant that grew volunteer in my kitchen garden. I imagine it descended from marigolds that I grew a year or two previously. These grew nicely, look uniform and look like their parent. Very nice plant and flowers. I will save seeds to grow lots more next year.

Climbing Rose From A Dormant Cutting. 8.17.2021

Late winter, I stuck climbing rose prunings into the ends of rows in my onion raised bed, as row markers. Almost all of them took. I was surprised to see this one bloom. This was too easy for words. I didn't do anything special. Just stick the prunings into the ground, then any other care was what the onions got. I'm surprised it bloomed. This rose plant will need a few years to reach much size, but it's off to a good start.