Deanna's Daughter

It was a tough day over here and Brock had to miss dinner at the last minute so the girls and I had fried egg sandwiches and green beans from the garden.  I just love it when dinner takes 4 minutes to make and the girls are so excited about it that Waverly can’t even finish chewing before she’s saying, ‘Mom, do you have more?, I know I’m going to want more!‘.

Back to the rough day, I thought Brock deserved a pie…this recipe is from Mom which is apparently a Betty Crocker classic.

Peach Pie

1/2 recipe of Brown Sugar Pastry – or enough pastry for 2 crusts

5 cups of peeled and sliced fresh peaches – 7 to 9 usually

1 t. lemon juice

2/3 c. sugar

1/4 c. flour

1/8 t. cinnamon

2 T. butter

To peel peaches, slice a small, shallow ‘X’ into the bottom of each one and then plunge the peaches into a bowl of boiling water for several seconds before quickly submerging them in a bowl of iced water.  I found that with a sharp knife, they peeled very easily.

In a large bowl, mix together the peach slices and lemon juice and then add the sugar, flour and cinnamon and mix well.  Roll out your pastry as you would and fit it into the pie plate with a bit extra hanging over the edges, fill the prepared crust with the peach mixture then dot the 2 tablespoons of butter over the peach filling.  Cover with the second sheet of pastry, dampen, trim and flute the edges and cut a couple of air vents into the top.

I baked this at 450 for 10 minutes and then covered the edges with foil, or an ‘edge protector’, and turned the heat down to 350 and baked it for another 35 minutes.

It was one of those mornings where the girls just couldn’t seem to get along.  The final ‘battle’ ended up being over their drawing boards with Marlow accusing Waverly of trying to erase her picture.  Brock intervened and several minutes of ,’ She did!’, ‘I did not!’, Yes, you did!’, ensued.  Finally Brock sorted it out, it turned out that Waver did do some clandestine erasing and she had to have a time-out.  Marlow then gazed at her picture, apparently satisfied with the verdict and sighed to herself, ‘At least it’s still beautiful’.  Why, why, why did we have this argument if it was still beautiful? What goes on in a 4-year-old’s head anyway?

This is another recipe borrowed from Mom that I altered to fit my size of pies…and this pie by itself could be why we planted rhubarb this year.

Rhubarb Custard Pie

1/2 recipe of Brown Sugar Pastry – or enough pastry for 2 crusts

5 c. rhubarb, small dice

1 c. sugar

2 1/2 T. flour

3 egg yolks

2 T. melted butter

In a large bowl, combine the rhubarb, sugar and flour and allow it to sit for 10- 15 minutes.  I just mix this up first and get both crusts rolled and prepped.

Roll out your pastry as you would and fit it into the pie plate with a bit extra hanging over the edges.  In a small bowl, beat the yolks with a fork until they’re frothy, mix the butter into the yolks and then add the yolk mixture into the rhubarb mixture, stirring until it’s all well-combined before pouring it all into the prepared pie crust.

Cover with the second sheet of pastry, dampen, trim and flute the edges and then cut a couple of air vents into the top.  Just to make this pie a little bit different, I brushed the whole top crust with a bit of cream and then lightly sprinkled it all with sugar.  Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, then cover the edges with foil, or an ‘edge protector’, and turn the heat down to 350 and bake for another 45 minutes.

We were out walking with the girls and Brock was holding Marlow’s hand when he asked her, ‘Are you going to hold my hand when you’re older?’.  ‘You’ll just have to wait and see, Dad’, Marlow replied.

This is another dish that Cindy had made us and it’s from Whitewater Cooks by Shelley Adams.  We thought it should be called ‘Torta Magnifico’, it’s that’s good! but admittedly, it does take a fair amount of time to prepare.  I made all 3 ‘parts’ the day before so the day of the dinner there wasn’t much to do…as for the torta itself, the easiest way to think of it is, 7 tortillas and 6 layers of 6 different evenly sliced roasted vegetables – voila!  I started with the tomato sauce, sliced the other vegetables while the tomatoes were roasting and started assembling layers and mixed up the aioli while the rest of the vegetable slices were roasting.  You can do it!  It’s so worth it!

Torta Rustica

Tomato-Chipotle Sauce

10 tomatoes, quartered

1 large red onion, sliced and separated

6 whole cloves of garlic

1/4 c. olive oil

2 T. brown sugar

1 good-sized chipotle pepper in adobo sauce

1/4 c. fresh cilantro, chopped

Line a large cookie sheet with parchment and fill it with the tomatoes, onion and garlic and then drizzle it all with the olive oil and sprinkle the brown sugar over all.  Roast for about an hour at 350, stirring every 20 minutes or so until it’s starting to caramelize and it’s well cooked and juicy.  Allow it to cool for a while before pureeing in a food processor.  Once the tomato mixture is well blended, add in the chipotle pepper and cilantro and give it another pulse or two.  Set aside until you need it or refrigerate it in a container until you need it and then warm it up slightly before you use it.

Lemon-Basil Aioli

1 c. mayonnaise

2 T. fresh lemon juice

1/2 c. chopped fresh basil

2 + T. milk or cream

Combine the mayonnaise, lemon juice and basil and mix well.  If you’re not using it right away then put it into a container and refrigerate it straight away.  Before you use it, you’ll probably have to thin it a bit with milk – you can decide.

Torta

7, 10-inch tortillas – a mix of red and green is nice

1 c. pesto – I used pesto from a jar

12 oz. goat cheese

3 cups grated mozzarella

olive oil

2 T. fresh rosemary, chopped

6 different layers of vegetables – I recommend the following;

yam (about 1 lb.)

red onion (1 large)

red pepper (2 large)

yellow pepper (2 large)

zucchini (about 1 lb.)

eggplant (about 1 lb.)

plain potato is fine too or just substitute in your favorite vegetable into any layer

Prepare all of the vegetables and slice to the same thickness so that your layers will be even.  Toss with some olive oil and the fresh rosemary and roast at 350 on parchment covered cookie sheets for about 20 minutes.

To assemble, spray a 10-inch spring form pan and lay down a tortilla.  I found that the easiest way to layer it up was to spread some goat cheese on the tortilla, layer on one kind of roasted vegetable, drizzle a tablespoon or two of pesto over top and then sprinkle with a bit of the mozzarella.  Cover with a tortilla (of a different color if you’re using 2 colors) and repeat so that you have six layers of vegetables and a plain tortilla on top.  This should just fill your spring form pan.

Rub the entire top tortilla with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and then sprinkle liberally with mozzarella.  Cover tightly with foil and then you can refrigerate it until the next day at this point.

When you want to bake it, make sure it’s been out of the fridge for a couple of hours so that it’s at room temperature, leave the foil on and place the whole pan on a parchment covered baking sheet – it will most likely leak some juice while cooking.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour and then remove from the oven and allow it to rest for 10 to 15 minutes with the foil still in place.

I found that removing the side of the spring form and then cutting the whole torta into slices (carefully), before removing any of them, was the easiest way to get it out.

To serve, spread a spoonful of warm tomato sauce on each plate, then a slice of torta and then drizzle a bit of aioli over all.  Enjoy – and again, it’s SO worth it!  We enjoyed this with a Brock barbecued steak and asparagus, but it would be just as grand on it’s own.