0 Savory Summer Pie

I have been waiting for the tomatoes to be red and juicy, and the basil to be strong and hearty in the garden to post about one of my favorite dishes.  It's the first week of July, I think the time has come! Savory Summer Pie. It's like quiche-meets-tomato pie.  It starts with sauteeing onions, garlic and red bell peppers, adding eggs, cream, Monterey Jack and Parmesan cheese, fresh basil and seasonings, pouring it into a pie crust, topping it with sliced tomatoes and then baking it.  A Savory Summertime Pie.

I found this recipe in a Southern Living Magazine over a decade ago.  I clipped the recipe, because it looked so yummy and had ingredients that I love! And I have been making it every summer since...and hardly altering it because it is so delicious as is.

It's a great dish that becomes a complete meal when you serve it with a green salad or some fresh fruit.

I like to take it as a main dish for a meal to friends who have new babies or are in need of a meal.    My friends, Angela and Ray, had their first child 12 years ago and I brought this to them.  Ray joked that it was worth having the baby to get this Savory Pie.  A couple of years later, when they had their second son, they requested a repeat of this meal.  I was shocked that they remembered what I had brought 2 years before, and was, of course, honored to bring them a repeat meal for baby #2.

Fast forward a decade.  This spring, my friend, Alyson, had a baby and when I asked her what meal she wanted me to bring to her family, she said she just wanted a batch of homemade granola.  I've never had that requested as a meal! While I agree that Granola is one of my favorite foods to come out of my oven, it really isn't dinner!  Then after thinking about it, I decided that I would indeed make her a batch of granola, and take a quart of vanilla yogurt and some fruit for parfaits along with it.  But I would also make this summer pie for a main dish and serve breakfast for dinner.  (I love breakfast for dinner, as breakfast foods are my favorite.  However, in my home, the only way I can woo my family to want breakfast for dinner is to include breakfast meat, especially bacon, on the menu.)  Alyson is not a fan of meat, but her husband is, so I took him a pound of bacon to satisfy his manly-meat desire.

This Savory Pie is a simple recipe, the only catch is the timing of the baking.  I have so thoughtfully created a demonstration of what NOT to do regarding this.  (See exhibit A below)

exhibit A

There is the ever-present challenge with pies:  getting the filling fully baked without burning the crust! So, here's the story.  I made this recipe a couple of months ago and took photos along the way so that when the tomatoes were right, I would have the photos ready for this post.  Then this past week, as I started writing the post, I began craving the Savory Pie and had to make it again!

So on Thursday night, I was making the pie and was concerned that the crust was getting too done and the filling seemed to be almost done!  We were in a rush to get to a meeting and had to hurry.  So, I took it out a few minutes early hoping that during the 5 minutes of "resting time", it would jell and be fine.  When I began to slice the pie, it was obvious that the filling was not done. So we proceeded to eat the done parts and save the rest for when we could re-heat it.

Moral of the story- cook until the filling doesn't giggle when gently shaken, even if the crust is looking overdone.  I tried to "foil tent" 1/2 way through the baking.  I have tried this many times and I have never had good luck with it.  It either falls off as I am attempting to get it covered, or I burn my hands or it falls off as I slide the rack back into the oven and it burns anyway!  I am thinking it might work better if I cover the crust with foil before baking and then remove at the end to brown.  (Easier to remove the foil than add the foil in a hot oven, I'm guessing.)

Do any of you have a good remedy for keeping the pie crust from over-baking?  Any tricks to share with us? Please let us know!

par-baked crust

Savory Summer Pie

1 pie crust- refrigerated bought or homemade

1 red bell pepper, chopped

½ purple onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil

4 large eggs

1 cup half & half

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

2 cups (8 oz) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

3 plum tomatoes, cut into ¼ inch-thick slices

chopped vegetables

Fit piecrust into a deep-dish tart pan; prick bottom and sides of piecrust with a fork.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven; set aside.

Meanwhile, sauté bell pepper, onion, and garlic in hot oil in a large skillet 5 minutes or until tender; then stir in basil.  

Whisk together eggs and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl; stir in sautéed vegetables and cheeses.  Pour into crust; top with sliced tomato. 

Bake at 375 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes or until set.

Let stand 5 minutes before serving. 

the filling

pre-baking 

Thoughts about the Pie Crust - you can make one from scratch for this, but I never do (especially with my aforementioned burning issues...it's not worth the risk).  If you have a Trader Joe's where you are, you need to try their frozen pie crusts. They are fabulous! My friend Amy told me about them recently.  Up until then,  I had used the Pillsbury (red skinny box) refrigerated pie crust which are also a great product.

[Speaking of Pies, the next post is my favorite pie- Key Lime Pie! ]

Detail: Savory Summer Pie

0 Bowl of Goodness: Roasted Veggies Over Rice

Sometimes simple really is best!  No need for a fancy marinade or complex procedures...just some good seasonal vegetables, roasted, with some brown rice and you have a colorful, flavorful, healthy meal!

Roasted Veggies.  They are just so versatile, beautiful, simple, tasty and healthy!  I love to roast a pan of summer vegetables.  I almost always make some kind of exclamation out loud as I am pouring them on the baking sheet to roast.  "Wow! Look at the colors!" or "Yum! It doesn't get any better than this!", or "Mmmm! This looks so good!"  Sometimes we make them with brown rice for a simple one-bowl dinner, or sometimes to go with pasta and tomato sauce.  We sometimes grill chicken to put with it - mostly to appease the males at my table.

The fun part is that you can use whatever vegetables you want.  Whatever you like, whatever you have on hand.  You can serve them as a side dish or with pasta, on rice, on polenta, couscous, as a main dish.  You can spice them up or keep them tame.  We love them topped with shredded parmesan cheese.  

It's a great way to serve a variety of veggies in one dish, where each one keeps its unique flavor but they are prepared together.  (And you can include the veggies that you know your eaters will like and they might even try another along the way.)

Prepare them with salt and pepper as seasoning (and garlic cloves and onions) and have additional seasoning/sauces available on the table.  In our house, the guys adore soy sauce.  I prefer a kick, like some Cholula hot sauce, or crushed red pepper or Sriracha (Thai hot sauce.)  And we all like cheese on top...parmesan, feta, cheddar or whatever you like.

  

Simply select your veggies.  I like to include: onion, garlic, bell peppers (all colors), asparagus, carrots, zucchini, and squash.  You can add fresh basil or other fresh herbs.
Clean and cut the vegetables into large pieces. 

Place in a bowl.  Drizzle with a thin stream of olive oil.  Toss to coat all vegetables.
Season with Kosher Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper (to taste).  (You can add other seasonings of choice at this point if you'd like...but they are yummy just the way they are). Dump onto a large pan lightly sprayed with cooking oil - spread evenly in one layer.  

Dinner is served!

Cook in a HOT oven (400 degrees) and after 15 minutes or so, use a large metal spatula to gently flip the veggies around.   Continue to cook for another 10 minutes or so.

When veggies are tender yet have a golden exterior, remove from oven and they are ready to eat!

I especially like them with brown rice.

Brown rice is prepared just the same as white long grain rice; it just takes much longer to cook (about 45 minutes).  You can put the rice on the stove and while it is cooking, you have time to prep and roast the veggies to go with it! 

My bowl of goodness


Here's to summer and dinner with roasted vegetables as the main attraction!

Detail: Bowl of Goodness: Roasted Veggies Over Rice

0 Kicky Chickpea Salad

Last summer when I started blogging, I wasn't sure what it would be like. I didn't know if I would really enjoy it.  I mean, I love food, taking photos, telling stories, and sharing tips from the kitchen and "philosophies" of life.  However, I was hesitant about this whole blogging thing.  Would it be fun? Would anybody read it?  But I thought it was worth the risk!  Little did I know that it would be a creative outlet that I would CRAVE each week; that during the week I would be thinking about what yummy recipe to post and what tips to share or story to write.  I didn't know until I tried it how very much I would like it; that I would take photos all the time in the kitchen just in case the dish was worthy of writing about.  

Well, Spicy Chickpea Salad is a lot like my relationship with blogging. Chickpeas 

(Garbanzo Beans) have never been my favorite legume, except in Hummus.  They don't have a lot of flavor and they have an interesting texture.  So, I wasn't sure how I would feel about this recipe, though it sounded really tasty with a list of ingredients of flavors that I love.  

And I am so glad I tried it because I really love this salad.  When I first made it last month, I ate it for lunch and dinner until it was gone.  And then I made it again a couple of weeks later for a dinner gathering at our house and people asked for the recipe, (which is always a good sign that I should post it).  This dish is so packed with flavor that I crave it! As I made it twice last month I made a few changes from the original recipe.
I got this recipe from Joy the Baker.  Do you read her blog?  If you haven't already found her, you must check her out.  She is HILARIOUS! In some ways we are alike (mostly in food tastes) but in other ways we are different.  For example: she is much, much funnier than me- she makes me laugh out loud; she loves her cat (who frequently shows up in blog photos); I love my kids (who frequently show up in blog photos); she lives on the west coast- I live in Tennessee; she is single and younger than me, and her life is much zestier than mine.  But we are both very passionate about food and cooking.  When I read her descriptions of food and see photos of her beautiful creations placed on lovely dishes with great linens, we seem more alike than different.  I love that about food.  It is a great unifier, isn't it?

I am so glad I tried this risky salad. It's been an unexpected pleasure. Kind of like blogging.

Here's the recipe:


Kicky Chickpea Salad

Adapted from joy the baker.com
In a large bowl toss together:
2 (15 oz.) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
¼ cup finely diced red onion
½ to 1 whole jalapeno pepper, deseeded and finely diced


½ tsp. lime zest
juice of one lime
1/3 cup salted, roasted almonds, finely chopped
1 ripe avocado, diced into chunks
small handful flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped (optional)

4 cups baby spinach leaves (save until end)

In another bowl make dressing:
2 cloves garlic, smashed and coarsely chopped
½ tsp. kosher salt
heaping 1 tsp. mustard (yellow or whole grain)
1 tsp. honey
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
¼ cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste


Mash garlic and salt with a fork until it forms a paste.  Blend in the other ingredients ending with the olive oil.  Drizzle the olive oil in slowly until mixture is thick and emulsified.  Add salt and pepper to taste…if any is needed at all.


Toss the dressing into the chickpea mixture and blend well.  Add the spinach leaves. Combine well to coat.

lunch: leftovers+ extra spinach & sliced tomatoes

For lunch I added some sliced grape tomatoes to my leftovers and scooped them on top of additional spinach leaves.  It was a great, hearty, one-dish lunch!

Detail: Kicky Chickpea Salad

0 Fruit Tea (From the Herb Garden)

A couple of days ago I wrote about planting an herb garden.  This is a follow-up post with a yummy treat you can make with Mint leaves.  My mint has been sprouting up in the bed after a snowy, cold winter.  I have welcomed its return by making some Fruit Tea.

I realize that Fruit Tea is a southern thing, an American southern thing (I should clarify the country since I have some International readers ((which, by the way, blows my mind))  Hello Africa, India, Brazil, Argentina, Russia...! )

So back to fruit tea.

I didn’t know!

I didn't know it was regional. 

I grew up thinking everybody drank Fruit Tea.

I grew up in Tennessee. (Born in Georgia, lived in Texas for a couple of years before landing in TN when I was 5 years old).  I have been southern all my life. It wasn’t until I went to college and became friends with people from Colorado, California, Ohio, New York, and everywhere in between that I realized that there are some foods/beverages that I grew up with that are local.  Like Grits. And Fried Green Tomatoes. And Sweet Tea. And Fruit Tea.  And there are some foods that I didn't grow up with that my friends did and I was thrilled to learn of their regional foods. So I realize that fruit tea is regional.  But I think it transcends location- it's so tasty!

I drink water all day long everyday.  I love water. I crave water.  My body feels wonky when I go without enough water.  I also love coffee.  I drink it everyday.   Coffee is my friend.  But Fruit Tea is my favorite special beverage!   In case you are confused at this point because this "fruit tea" is a foreign concept to you, let me define:  Fruit tea is an iced tea made with a blend of fruit juices and sometimes mint or cinnamon and other spices.  It is sweet and tart and refreshing.  Some people call it Tea Punch.  You might call it liquid dessert.

We always had it when we had a luncheon or fancy party growing up.  It’s served at some fru fru lunchy places around the south.  My favorite fruit tea is from Bread and Company, which is also one of my favorite places to eat.  I love their tea because it has mint in it as well as the sweetness and fruitiness of juices.  (And they have the good pellet ice at their cafes.  Don’t you love that ice?)  But the tea is expensive, for my frugal self, and it is hard for me to justify buying, though I do on a rare occasion.  It is really so easy to put together, and inexpensive and it makes a gob.  But, I have to make it when I can share it, because if I don't, my daughter and I will drink the entire gallon.  I especially like to make it in the summer when my mint is growing in the herb bed.  And to my surprise after having bad luck with growing mint for a couple of summers, it finally "took" last summer and now, this spring, it has come back and it is popping up in several spots!

this + tea = fruit tea

The recipe is one that is not very exact.  It is able to be customized based on what you like and what you have on hand.  Some people add cinnamon sticks and cloves to the tea bags when brewing the tea.  You can use whatever juices you like.  Pineapple, orange juice and lemonade are my favorite combination.
Some recipes add more sugar to the tea while the tea is warm, but I feel like with 3 containers of sugar-filled juice it is plenty-sweet!

Let us know if you discover a winning juice combination that you think we should try!

Fruit Tea

2 quart size tea bags
1 frozen lemonade
1 frozen orange juice
1 frozen pineapple juice
a hand full of mint

Prepare 2 quarts of tea, the way you usually do it (stove top, kettle, Iced Tea Pot, sun) with mint brewed with the tea bags, add the 3 containers of frozen juice concentrate and a couple of stalks of mint, crushed.  Stir until juice is melted.  Dilute the fruit tea to your liking.  It should make a gallon or so.

Detail: Fruit Tea (From the Herb Garden)

0 How Does Your Garden Grow?

I must warn you: I am not a gardener!  I want to be.  I really do.  I want to be a gardener and a seamstress.  Those are my domestic voids.   We'll get to the topic of sewing some other day, but today, this spring day in Tennessee, despite my inadequacies as a gardener, I planted our cutting garden.  We have done this for over a dozen years, and have yielded enough herbs to use in the kitchen for the season and enough flowers to enjoy!

It's really amazing to think that those tiny shards could become daisies!

It is now planting time and I'm excited about sowing the seeds and seeing what they yield.

It really is such a spiritual process.  The weeding, the digging, the connection to the earth and the soil.  The waiting, and watching, and tending, and protecting, and relinquishing control, and receiving the fruit.  It is work and requires commitment but it is worth it.

My friend Connie taught me about planting zinnias and my friend Melinda taught me about growing herbs.  They each believed in me (despite my lack of skills) and provided simple tips that gave me the know-how and courage to pursue it years ago.  I am grateful for this.

Here are some tips for those of you who need some encouragement:

• I have tried different plants and have had varied success.  I realized that I need to plant the herbs that I really use.  For me they are: basil, cilantro, green onion, rosemary and mint.

• I also have learned that waiting until the predicted "last frost" in your area is a wise thing. (In Tennessee they say "tax day"- April 15th).

a handy regional guide on the back of the zinnia seeds

• Readying the soil is important.  Weeding and adding some rich potting soil, tilling it, "amending it", is important for setting the stage.

• Plant more seeds than you think you want, since the wind and birds might carry some away before the sprouting occurs.

• Plant from seeds.  It is exciting and brings about a bountiful harvest (hopefully).  (Though sometimes I like to plant a couple of basil plants for "insurance" and to get things moving along in addition to my basil seeds.  Interestingly, though, I have found that the plants from seeds most often out-produce the transplants!)

• When planting seeds, think about the predicted growth when determining where and how much room to place between types of herbs.

we've planted, now we wait!

• Cover seeds with a light layer of soil after scattering them in the bed.

• Water, Weed and Watch!

This Spring and Summer I'm planning on sharing with you some recipes "from the Herb Garden"- recipes that will make you thankful  that you have fresh herbs at your doorstep.

Oh and zinnias.  They are just the happiest things!
I love that they are "cutting flowers".  While flowers like tulips are elegant and lovely, they are just not very giving or practical- two qualities that are of utmost importance to me!  So, zinnias, are for me.  They are flowers that are meant to be cut. In so doing, they actually produce more blooms! How wonderful and generous- not to mention the brightest, happiest thing to have in your home or to share with a friend.

a gift from last year's  garden

I do love an cutting perennial, though.  I have daisies and black eyed susans that are from my mother-in-law's garden that she brought from Kentucky and transplanted into my yard a few years before she died.  They are a cherished gift.  They keep multiplying and growing.  I can't wait to show them to you when they bloom in the summer!

To get you inspired- just think about the Bruschetta and Salsa that can come from your little stash of Herbs!
Happy Planting!  Let us know if you have any other tips or inspiration to share!

P.S.  Fruit Tea with Mint is coming!

Detail: How Does Your Garden Grow?