Rosie Makes A Squash Pie.

Garden Squash Pie for lunch.

Ingredients for Squash Pie

2 young squash, peeled and sliced

1 onion, sliced

2 tomatoes, peeled, juiced, seeded, and chopped

3 eggs

3/4 cup skim milk

3/4 cup heavy cream

freshly ground salt and pepper

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated

1/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated

basil leaves

Brush the pie crust with Dijon mustard.

Gives a nice tang to it.

And here's what I would have done differently:

Heat oven to 450°,

weight the pie down with beans,

and bake for about 10-12 minutes,

or until lightly browned.

Then fill the pie.

Sorry, I wasn't thinking and went straight 

to filling the pie.

Made for a very soggy crust.

Learn by Rosie's mistakes.

Place a layer of squash in the partially baked shell.

Add freshly ground salt and pepper

and some basil leaves.

Layer with 1/4 cup grated mozzarella.

Peel, seed, juice, and chop your tomatoes.

Add another layer of squash, the tomatoes, onions,

and the rest of the mozzarella cheese.

Mix three eggs with the cream and skim milk.

You could use whole milk,

but I never have it on hand.

I do always have heavy cream and skim in the fridge.

Pour in egg mixture.

Top with cheddar.

Sister Hawthorne told me I forgot to add the onions.
Add onions.

Bake in a 350° oven

for about an hour,

or until custard is only slightly jiggly.

Let cool before slicing.

Remember to pre-bake that crust.

Good eats!

Mr. Hawthorne Fries Shrimp.

What a lovely dinner we're having tonight - Mr. Hawthorne's fried shrimp with a lemon sriracha aioli and my squash pie.

The shrimp were expertly fried. Light, crisp breading on the outside, succulent sweet shrimp on the inside. I love the lemon sriracha aioli. It's the perfect accompaniment to fried shrimp - a lemony hot sweet chili pop. The squash pie was summery goodness - squash, sweet peppers, tomatoes, basil. And ooooh ... the cheese.

First, Mr. Hawthorne soaked his peeled and deveined shrimp in buttermilk.

2 parts flour 1 part cornmeal Old Bay seasoning

Fry at 350 degrees about 1 minute.

Drain.

This is some beautiful shrimp.

There's no cookin' like home cookin'.

Rosie Makes A Squash Pie.

I love summer.
 I love being able to walk in my yard 
and pick fresh vegetables and prepare them.
 My first squash are coming in now 
and Rosie is coming up with lots of ways to use this versatile vegetable. 

Today, I'm making a squash pie.

Rosie is Semi-Ho'ing it today.
 She's using a Pillsbury frozen pie crust.
 If you're going to use a pie crust from the store, 
get the kind that rolls out, 
not the kind that's already in an aluminum pan. 
The ones in the pan will harden and crack in the freezer. 
Plus they're smaller than the Pillsbury rolled dough.
 Use the rolled dough.
 It's better. 

Instant pie crust.
 

Press the crust into a deep dish pan. 
Spread liberally with Dijon mustard.
 Feel free to use a coarse grained mustard. 
 

Grated Mozzarella cheese. 
You want enough grated cheese to cover three layers in the pie. 
That's enough above for one layer. 

Two young squash. I half-way peeled them.
 

My mise en place: 
2 squash, sliced
 1 small onion, sliced
 1 tomato, peeled, juiced, and sliced
 1 small green pepper from the garden
 (It looks like a jalapeno, but it's not. It's sweet.)
 grated Mozzarella (enough to cover three layers in the pie)
 3/4 cup skim milk 
3/4 cup whipping cream 
1/3 cup sour cream
 2 eggs
 grated cheddar cheese to top
 bunch of basil from the garden 
 

I nuked the milk and cream for about 2 minutes,
 then added the sour cream.
 I think having the milk mixture warm helps the pie cook a bit quicker.   

Whup the eggs. 

Slowly whisk in the milk/cream ... 

... and sour cream mixture. 

Everything is ready to assemble. 

First I layered Mozzarella cheese and squash. 

Add a layer of pepper, onion, tomato, freshly ground salt and pepper, and basil.

 

Add a layer of the Mozzarella.
 

Another layer of squash, tomato, onion, pepper, basil, and salt and pepper.  

Top with Mozzarella and cheddar.
 Wait. 
Rosie is forgetting something. 

Oh yeah, the custard. 

Ready for a 375 degree oven.
 I baked this for one hour. 

Let it sit for at least 10 minutes before cutting.
This is so the custard can set.

This is quite a tasty dish.
 I love the summer flavors here.
 And what says summer more than fresh tomatoes, squash, and basil? 
 Here's a Rosie Gardener's Tip: I germinate my squash seeds in cups on my deck, so I can walk out several times a day to water. This way, they germinate in just a few days. After the plants get their first true leaves, I transplant them in the garden. Then I start another set of squash seedlings on the deck. I'm eating off the first batch while I'm transplanting the second batch. Which reminds me - I need to start another set of seeds today. Try successive plantings and extend your season of summer's bounty.

What's Rosie Been Up To?

Rosie's back!
I know you all have been wondering where I've been and what I've been up to since I haven't posted for a few days.
So I will offer up poignant vignettes of my life and excruciatingly agonizing minutiae of my day for your viewing pleasure.


Sunday, I made a lovely breakfast:
Eggs Benedict.


From Wikipedia:

1942 — In an interview in The New Yorker, Lemuel Benedict claims to have originated the dish with an order at the Waldorf Hotel,
hoping for a hangover cure.

Thankfully, no hangovers were involved in the preparation of this dish.

I lightly toasted English Muffins, then added a sauteed slice of Canadian Bacon
(You could use a country ham if you like.), then steamed spinach, a poached egg,
and Hollandaise Sauce.

I poach my eggs in boiling water with a tablespoon or so of white vinegar in it.
When the water is boiling, I give it several determined stirs to create a vortex, into which I crack the egg. The spinning vortex keeps the white around the egg, holds the egg together, and makes a nice plump egg sac. Cook for about 2-3 minutes, then drain and place on top of the spinach.
As a matter of fact, Mr. Hawthorne poached the egg in the photograph above all by his lonesome and it is quite a fine egg.
Go back, double click, and check out how plump it is.
Lovely, isn't it?


For my Hollandaise Sauce, I take 2 egg yolks and the juice of 1/2 lemon and whisk constantly over low heat. When the color of the yolk changes to light lemon, start adding and whisking in a pat of butter at a time. Do not let yolks overcook. You may need to occasionally remove from heat. The key is to constantly whisk.
Add about 6 - 8 pats of butter, one at a time, whisking until incorporated.
Salt and pepper.

This is my favorite moment - when you fork through your perfectly poached egg and the beautiful yolk rivers down over the ham and into the toasted muffin slice.
This is a thing of beauty.

And it was my highlight of Sunday.

On to today.

Today, I decided to make some squash pie.
Back at Thanksgiving time, I was making pies for the holiday and doubled my dough recipe.
I froze the extra pies so I had the pastry already prepared.
I thawed out one of my pies, then coated it with Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard.

Next, I sauteed some small squash and onions, sliced.
I usually use a mixture of butter and olive oil.
That would be Land o' Lakes Unsalted butter and Bertolli's Extra Light Olive Oil.

Then I cracked three jumbo eggs.
Whoot!
Lookee!
I got two regulars and a DOUBLE YOLK.
I just love getting double yolks.

Into the eggs, I whisked 1/2 cup 1% milk and 1/2 cup heavy cream and poured the egg mixture over the onion/squash mixture with some grated Swiss cheese thrown into the mix.

I sliced a Roma tomato, then added some fresh thyme from my garden and a leaf of sage on top of each tomato slice.
Golly, that's a purty pie.

I added some grated Mozzarella cheese on top.

Baked it at 350 degrees for about 35-40 minutes.

Oooh. This was good.
I love the kick of the mustard.

Well, there's today's lunch for me.
Let's see.
What did I do next?

Oh yes, I checked on and tended my orchids.
My sister gave me this particular orchid for my birthday.
Thank you, Sister Dear. As you can see, it's still blooming.

I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille.

Now this is the first orchid I bought myself for my birthday last January.
It finished blooming a few weeks ago, and I cut the stem back to the first node as explained by Orchidgirl. After a few weeks, a new shoot hadn't come out, unfortunately. So I cut it back to the next node. Still waiting on that.
However, when I was examining the orchid before cutting back the first time, I noticed a 3-4 inch shoot coming up from the base.
I started training the shoot, and look at it now.
It should have buds on it soon.

Now, yesterday, I had a very exciting day.
Mr. Hawthorne took me to both the WalMart and the Home Depot.
At Home Depot, I bought me this beautiful orchid, my third.

Here it is in front of my waterfall.

Now, let's fast forward to this afternoon.

I just had to shoot this picture.
Whenever I catch Mr. Hawthorne actually doing something around the house to help out, I simply must document it.
He decided to clean the oven today.
He pulled out the shelves and the convection filter, paper-toweled the interior (OK, I give him props for that.), then pushed the button for SELF CLEAN and went to his comfy chair and happy place to watch a movie.
Three hours later, the oven is cleaned.
So, technically, Mr. Hawthorne cleaned the oven.

Gosh, what did I do while Mr. Hawthorne cleaned the oven?

Oh yes, I took a stroll through the garden.

Here's my purple verbena in the foreground.
In the background is my just-starting-to-bloom Digitalis or Foxglove.

Here's a close up of the Foxglove.

And now, some roses.

My Larkspur.

Queen Anne's Lace getting ready to bloom.

Bachelor's Buttons.


And more roses.

And another Larkspur.

And more roses.

Last of the roses.

Here's my field of Larkspur.
OK, it's not an actual field.

But, it could be a field.

And that's my last few days.
Hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.