Our son presented us with a bag of Roma tomatoes the other
day. I had just been thinking about
making a tomato pie, so when I saw these beauties grown at a friend's farm I
was quite pleased. Unfortunately it was
a busy week and I didn't get around to making the pie. Every day, I would practically hear the
tomatoes ripening and calling to me.
Finally I found two free minutes and thought that I would begin
preparing the pie. Oh wait...first I
would go feed my friends' cats. (My friends were out of town for a few days.)
I ran over to their home, opened the door and was greeted by
two hungry cats. One of them decided to
curl around my feet as I was walking and
caused me to trip. I caught myself
before toppling, but not without twisting my ankle on the same foot that was
trying to heal from an old break and some painful tendinitis. Once back at home I pulled out an ice pack
and treated the swelling. Oh! But the tomatoes were now shouting at
me. I had to make the pie. I limped my way into the kitchen and began
putting together ingredients. I was halfway
into the recipe when I discovered that I was out of a key ingredient. Being a resourceful cook I found a substitute
without losing any time whatsoever.
Putting together the special crust I felt reasonably assured that it
would still be tasty. I put it in the
oven to brown while I began slicing the tomatoes. I was rushing and didn't take adequate
precautions. Before I knew it I had
sliced more than the tomatoes. Looking
at my poor finger I realized that I needed a bandage. I ran to the bathroom cabinet and began
administering first aid. By the time I
returned to the kitchen I had burned my crust -- not all of it, but the edges
were definitely toasted! With most of the tomatoes sliced I couldn't scrap the
project. I had to make a new crust. Once again, I had to use a substitute for the
key ingredient and once again I assembled the crust and put it in the oven for
browning. This time I watched it very
carefully. I looked over at the previous
crust and took a little nibble of the part that wasn't burnt. Mmmm...it was delicious! I cut away the burned edges and regarded the
remaining crust. It was made with 1 1/2
sticks of butter and I hated to throw it out.
All night long I thought about what I could do with the good part of the
crust. When I awakened this morning I
had a solution. I would crumble the
crust , add sugar and coconut oil and make a crumb crust. Then I would make a French cream coconut
pie. I forms the crumb crust and baked
it until it was firm. Meanwhile I found
my recipe for a French Pastry cream. It
called for four egg yolks. What was I
going to do with the egg whites? I
finished preparing the pie and then decided that I would make chocolate meringue
cookies. I was halfway finished beating
the egg whites when I discovered that I didn't have enough chocolate. Once again, I improvised adding different
ingredients to substitute for the chocolate shortage.
Currently I am staring at a sink full of dirty dishes, a
stove covered in spills and splashes, an oven covered in fingerprints, a rack
of cookies cooling, a mixing bowl, spatula and beater being licked clean by my
mother, dish towels strewn on the counters and a kitchen that is about 100
degrees! I am sitting under the fan in
the family room, feet up, icing my ankle and thinking that I never want to look
at a bag of Roma tomatoes again!
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