07-09-2012

Tomato, Caramelized Onions, and Gorgonzola Pie

Happy (late!) 4th of July!! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and indulged in lots of food, laughter, and relaxation. Fisherman was on vacation and we had a wonderful Staycation. I feel like it was Christmas in July considering the copious amounts of food I ate over the last week.

So what have I been eating??? I’m so glad you asked! Fresh mahi mahi, roasted corn salad, pasta salad, BBQ, hmmmm….there isn’t a lot I haven’t consumed this past week. But my favorite dish was a Tomato Gorgonzola Pie that I adapted from a Gourmet Magazine Cookbook.

I probably shouldn’t admit this, since I am so proud to be Southern, but up until I made this tomato pie, I had never eaten one in my life. Crazy, isn’t it! And there’s no holding me back now.

The best part was that it took me no more than 45 minutes, start to finish. That includes the lets find where I hid the gorogonzola in the fridge and let me go pick some tomatoes and get side tracked into watering the garden. Sorry, this may be a long blog post….its just been a while since I’ve posted and I have all these thoughts I want to share with ya’ll, but I get distracted with kids and life and blah blah, okay back to the pie…

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So to start, you’ll need a pie crust, Gorgonzola cheese, onions, and tomatoes….pretty simple, right!

After placing crust into your pie pan, place pie weights…or dry beans…onto the pie with aluminum foil to keep the middle of the pie from rising while you pre-bake the crust. You need to bake the crust beforehand since you only put it under a broiler once the ingredients are added.

Add some olive oil and your onions into a heavy pan and start the caramelizing process. I just LOOOVE caramelized onions! Even Fisherman loves & appreciates them and he isn’t the biggest foodie on the block.

Also, don’t be afraid to try caramelizing red onions. I did half white & half red the second time I made this and they tasted great. (And yes, I did make & eat this pie TWICE in the past week! Shows you how good it is!)

Good advice for caramelizing onions is to turn your back to them. Find something else to do, you don’t need to stir constantly, just every few minutes.

Now see all those brown bits of good onion residue? Scrape those bad boys up and stir in with the onions. They have all sorts of good flavor! And yep, this picture was from Pie #1 when I only used white onions.

Your piecrust should now be finished baking, so place caramelized onions in first…

…then your cheese, tomato, cheese layers…

…broil for a few minutes until cheese slightly browns, garnish with fresh basil and…

…Voila…Eat that pie up!!!

I hope you like as much as I did!!!

Jessica

Tomato, Caramelized Onions, and Gorgonzola Pie

Ingredients
1 9″ prepared pie crust
2 large onions (yellow or red), very thinly sliced
1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
5 medium sized ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced
Handful of fresh basil for garnishing

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Place pie crust into a glass pie pan. Line pie pan with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights/dried beans/or raw rice. Bake approximately 20 minutes until pasty is pale golden brown around rim. Remove weights and bake another 8 minutes until golden brown all over. If edge of crust looks to dark, place tin foil around the edges for remaining bake time.

While crust is baking, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat and cook onions for approximately 20-25 minutes until they are caramelized in color. Sprinkle the onions with kosher salt a few times while cooking and stir every few minutes. As the onions begin to soften and brown, there will be residue at the bottom of the pan; stir these brown goodie bits into the onions.

Preheat oven broiler.

Spread caramelized onions over bottom of pie shell and top with 3/4 cup of the cheese. Arrange tomatoes, slightly overlapping, in circles over the cheese. Sprinkle tomatoes with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of cheese over the tomatoes and drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil over the top.

Broil the pie until the cheese slightly browns, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. Garnish with fresh basil if desired.

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04-19-2012

Do you CSA?

Hello Father,

I have a confession. I love gardening, I love farmers, I love dirt. But I just can’t imagine joining a CSA. I want freedom of choice, to pick my veggies just the way I want, when I want. You see, God, signing up for a CSA requires commitment. And, I have come to realize that I don’t necessarily enjoy commitments. (I can’t even keep up with once a week pilates.) I do go to the Farmer’s Market faithfully and I shop at the local grocer each week. But I still feel unfaithful to the farmer by not participating in a CSA. Does my selfishness of wanting to choose my veggies each week mean I’m not really supporting the farmer? That rain or shine, drought or flood, he’ll have money to keep his farm afloat no matter how the produce turns out?

Help me out,

Jessica

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I really am serious. Even though I encourage all my friends to participate in one, I have a huge commitment issue with CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture). And until this past Tuesday I kept telling myself that if there was a farm that had a pick-your-own veggie CSA that I would participate. But then you find that ‘answer’ and realize, you’re still hesitant.

You see, I love going to the different vendors at the market and choosing a tomato here, a carrot bunch there, and a pile of lettuce greens at the next one. And my worry is this, if I commit to spending my $20/week with only one vendor – will I regret it? I definitely won’t regret the quality – its the best there is, but will I regret not getting to spend my $ with lots of vendors in lieu of spending it with one?

What do you think? Do you like your CSA? Do you have one where you choose your veggies or do you get an exciting surprise bag each week? Should I just go for it and try it out? And if you are a farmer…I’d love to know your thoughts on CSA participants versus farmer’s market buyers? Do you get as much $ from going to the Farmer’s Market or would you rather have it all in CSA participants?

Thanks for helping me with my dilemma! Jessica

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10-19-2011

Last Farmer’s Market of the Year

Yesterday marked a sad day in the life of my kiddos and I….the last Farmer’s Market of the Year…and most importantly our access to fresh kettle popcorn! The kids & I LOVE going to the farmer’s market on Tuesday’s with the top priority of that sweet and salty goodness. So yesterday we of course ate as much popcorn as our bellies could hold and then managed to get some great greens and fruit to use in dishes this week.

When going to a Farmer’s Market I think it very important to have a limit on how much you will spend there. With all the great looking produce you can easily walk away with a ton of produce and a ding in your wallet. Which isn’t bad if you plan on preserving some of the produce. But if not, then it is important to have a limit and stick to it! Here is where my $20 went to and how I plan to use these ingredients.

NC Apples

8 apples from a NC orchard

  • Apple Crumb Pie (Will include link when I can find this recipe)
  • Snacking
  • Collard Greens (Click here to view the recipe I use. I add 1 apple, chopped, at the same time as the garlic.)

Farmer's Market Goodies

6 pickling cucumbers

  • Snacking
  • Pasta Salad

2 heads of Boston lettuce

  • Salads

1 bunch of swiss chard

  • Salad
  • Collard Greens (Click here to view the recipe I use. I add 1 to 2 cups chopped swiss chard with the collard greens.)

2 red bell peppers

  • Collard Greens (Click here to view the recipe I use.)
  • Pasta Salad
  • Shrimp Quesadillas (Click here to view the recipe I use. I substitute 1/2 cup chopped bell pepper in place of jalapeno.)

And of course, our $3 bag of kettle popcorn!

Let me know what you are finding at your area Farmer’s Market (or perhaps in your very own garden)!

PS…The Mt. Pleasant Farmer’s Market has ended but the downtown Charleston Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings will run into December. If you haven’t been, check it out and take your kids. It’s a lot of fun!

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