bacon-y carrot potato crusted pie

Sometimes all it takes is a photo, and a recipe will jump the line straight to the top of my "to cook list." A ridiculously rustic pie, with a burnished filling of caramelized carrots and bacon? Why don't you twist my arm a little harder, photographer blogger lady man sir?

tomato pie three ways

So last year I shared with you one of my favorite family recipes for tomato basil tart, and also a corn and tomato pie from the smitten kitchen, which was likewise amazing. I didn't actually make either of those things this year, but I do have for you a trio of new tomato pies to choose from, in case that's your thing (Nathan for instance, is most definitely not a fan, which is strange and misguided, but to each his own I suppose).

strawberry sour cream pie

I made this for the 4th of July, if you couldn't guess based on the patriotic table cloth. For the second year running, I went up to my friend Kristina's house in Winthrop, Massachusetts. Her mother has amazing patriotic decorations, and this table cloth only scratches the surface.

what I cooked for the holidays pt 1

Thanksgiving at Aunt Cathy's

So I know no one wants to talk about holiday feasts in January, but.... I figure that since I've already killed off my limited pool of readers by over a month of silence, I may as well commit Thanksgiving and Christmas to posterity for my own peace of mind. But I promise I'll keep it brief.

I had two Thanksgiving dinners. First Mom and Aunt Cathy and I made the traditional Stetts family dinner the Monday before the big day. This involves mashed potatoes, my gravy, mom's cranberry sauce, green beans, carrots and turkey with Grandma's buttery onion-celery-white-and-wheat-bread stuffing on the side. The one updated dish we make is Mark Bittman's garlicky sweet potatoes, which Aunt Cathy introduced to widespread acclaim in 1999, when Bittman published his three hour Minimalist Thanksgiving. It's a huge improvement on the traditional marshmallow smothered variety, if you ask me!




I concluded the evening with a rather lemony apple pie. I rather overworked the dough, but it wasn't too too tough and I did make some beautiful cut out shapes to decorate the top of the pie with. It was good, but I've since reopened my search for the perfect apple pie.


as american as apple pie

What I would like to talk a little bit more at length about is this pumpkin bread pudding. I made this to bring to Nathan's stepmom's house later in the week, where it was quickly devoured the night before the big day by his step sister's friends.


raisin-studded kabocha squash bread pudding

Upon reflection, I realize that bread pudding is really the same thing as baked French toast, but since baked French toast is awesome, that doesn't seem like a problem to me. Bread pudding is pretty easy, and I used this recipe as a guide.

For my Thanksgiving specific bread pudding, I took the lead from this recipe, only I used roasted kabocha squash puree instead of that of a traditional orange pumpkin. Because kabocha squash is also called pumpkin, I called it a pumpkin bread pudding, otherwise Nathan would have been unfairly prejudiced against it. When he told me how good it was, I crowed triumphantly, having successfully overcome his silly vendetta against squash.


french toast by day, bread pudding by night

But really, if anything could make one a squash lover, it's a squashy bread pudding rich with milk, eggs, vanilla bean infused rum and cinnamon, studded with raisins, sprinkled with crunchy sugar, baked until crisp on top and fluffy on the inside, and drizzled with maple syrup. Mmmm mmmm. I'm looking forward to next Thanksgiving already!

tomato corn pie

This one was a bit of a cheat as far as the soft food diet went. I had an overwhelming corn surplus, beautiful csa tomatoes, and my ongoing inability to resist the allure of anything featured on the smitten kitchen. Thus, tomato corn pie.


tomato corn pie with fresh basil and lemon mayo

Even with my rubber bands and wire armature still in place, I was actually able to eat all this. The trick is to let the fork stand in for your teeth, which frees you up from any painful chewing. Those tines can accomplish a lot of smashing and mashing. I swallowed lots and lots of more less fully intact corn kernels while I was on my soft food diet and suffered no ill effects. Even if I had, it might have been worth it just to enjoy this bright, summery pie.

The corn from our CSA has been spectacularly sweet all summer, and the tomatoes have been just brilliant. This stands in sharp contrast to the share we received last year, which had many things going for it, but fairly awful corn and a pitiful amount of tomatoes. I could never have made a dish like this last year, but this summer, my tomato corn pie was a decadently sweet and savory seasonal treat.

The only trick to the dish is the pie crust. The ratios on the original seemed to be off, because I had to add more flour. I could have just measured wrong, but I definitely had to add extra so I could roll the dough out. Once I did that, the crust came out beautifully. I was shocked by how legit it looked once I baked it.


pie doesn't always mean dessert

Not only did it look like a real pie, it also tasted pretty damn good. Layers of corn, tomato, cheddar, chives and basil stacked up prettily, and the flavors went together beautifully. I especially enjoyed the thin layer of lemony mayo spread underneath the top layer of crust. It was a nice, citrusy touch. Nathan thought it could have used even more cheddar cheese, and I have to agree. I love summer veggies, but cheese makes everything better.


corn tomato pie cross section

If you still have late summer corn and tomatoes, I definitely recommend you make this. I didn't get anymore corn this week, but I am still swimming in tomatoes. I'll miss them when they go, but right now I am up to my elbows and I don't can, so it's a little overwhelming! Still, there are certainly worse things, and I just can't say no to a ripe summer tomato. There's nothing better.