Rosie Cooks For Maxine And Carmen. Squash Pie And Baked Grouper On A Bed Of Linguini With A Flavorful Tomato Cream Mustard Sauce.

It is Saturday night, November 15, 2009. I am in Danville, visiting my mother, staying at Maxine's, and cooking dinner for Maxine and Carmen. Our menu for tonight: Squash and Zucchini Pie Baked Grouper on a bed of Linguini with a Mushroom and Tomato Cream Sauce. I'm starting off with the Squash and Zucchini Pie. For some reason, my recipe card thingie isn't working, so here are the ingredients and directions. I kept getting an error message: Error 413 Request Entity Too Large. Squash and Zucchini Pie 1 pie dough (If you don't make your own, use the roll-up kind, not the kind that's already in the tin pie plate.) 1 TB coarse grain mustard 2 small squash, peeled and sliced 2 small zucchini, peeled and sliced 1 medium onion, sliced 2 tsp sugar salt and pepper to taste 4 eggs 1 cup 1/2 and 1/2 1/3 cup heavy cream salt and pepper glops of sour cream glops of cream cheese diced Mozzarella tomato slices sage leaves grated cheddar cheese grated Parmesan cheese Roll out pie dough in large deep pie dish. Brush mustard over dough. Heat skillet and 1 TB LOLUB and ELBOO. (That's Land o' Lakes Unsalted Butter and Extra Light Bertolli Olive Oil. I can do stupid acronyms. Can I have my own cooking show now?) Saute squash, zucchini, and onion for about 2 minutes over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside. Whisk eggs. Add in creams, whisking. Season with salt and pepper. Put several glops of sour cream, cream cheese, and diced mozzarella on pie crust. Evenly layer squash, zucchini, and onion slices. Pour egg/cream mixture over top. Place tomato slices on top and add sage leaves. Sprinkle grated cheddar cheese and Parmesan over top. Bake in a 350-degree preheated oven for 60 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Saute the sliced squash, zucchini, and onion in ELBOO and LOLUB. Sprinkle sugar over top and cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. And set aside.

Brush pie crust with coarse grain mustard.

Whisk eggs.

Whisk in creams. Add salt and pepper.

Here are my glops of cream cheese and sour cream and my diced mozzarella.

Glop as little or as much as you like.

Evenly layer the squash, zucchini, and onion slices and pour the egg/cream mixture over top.

Place tomato slices over top and add sage leaves.

Sprinkle grated cheddar and Parmesan over top.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Let sit for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

Next, the sauce. Ingredients: mushrooms, sliced small onion, chopped red, yellow, and orange peppers, chopped (Just a small amount, not the whole pepper.) 1 can chopped tomatoes cream wine Gray Poupon coarse grain mustard nutmeg salt and pepper

I sliced the mushrooms and sauteed in a combo of ELBOO and LOLUB. Do not add salt to mushrooms. Salting the shrooms brings out the moisture and they would end up steaming, not sauteing.

Add in the chopped onions and peppers and saute for about 30 seconds.

Add in the can of chopped tomatoes and some cream until you get a nice shrimpy color. Heat through.

Grate a little nutmeg. Add 1 tsp coarse grain mustard.

Add a little white wine.

Taste and adjust flavorings. You may want a little more mustard. Maybe some more cream. Perhaps some more wine. Make it suit your tastes. Add a little salt and pepper - to taste. Set aside and keep warm.

The grouper came with the skin on and I could have cooked it skin side down on an unbuttered pan, letting the skin stick, then easily freeing the meat. Only problem here was the thickness of the fillet - it went from 1 1/2 inches thick, tapering off to about 1/4 inch thick, so obviously it wouldn't cook evenly. I ended up removing the skin, then folding the thin parts of the fillet over so it was all the same thickness. I added freshly ground salt and pepper, some olive oil and pats of butter, sliced onions, and poured in some white wine. Bake in a 350 degree oven, until the fish flakes easily. This took about 30 minutes. (I started checking the fish at 20 minutes and it needed some extra time. Do not overcook. Just keep testing for flakiness.)

Whole wheat linguini went into a pot of salted, boiling water until al dente.

Fish is ready.

Here's Maxine's lovely table.

And here's our dinner. Good food and excellent company. Thanks, Maxine.