THINGS I LIKE: Tomato Cheese Pie

 When it's  tomato time in New Jersey, there are no amount of ways in which to enjoy them: sliced, with just a sprinkle of salt, in a salad, made into a fresh tomato sauce, etc. One additional way that I take advantage of their sweet flavor is baking them into  a pie with cheese. This has become one of the ways I like them best and everyone who has eaten  the pies has enjoyed them, as well.  The recipe follows:

TOMATO CHEESE PIE   

  INGREDIENTS

        1)    Ripe tomato cut into uniform slices and blotted on paper towels to remove some of the tomato water.

3)    Cheese ( Swiss, Fontina, Gruyere, Jarlsburg or any other cheese you prefer) in slices or grated.

4)    Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese.

5)    Salt and pepper.

 PROCEDURE

Heat oven to 375F.

Put pie dough (homemade or store bought) into pie plate. Punch several holes in bottom of pie dough using a fork. Place in oven until lightly browned: 10 -15 min.

Remove and let cool.

Add a layer of cheese and top with a layer of tomato slices. Lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat one more time. Top with Parmesan or Romano cheese spread evenly over the top tomato layer.

Bake until cheese is melted and pie is hot: 15-30 min depending on your oven.

Remove and allow pie to cool for several minutes for the cheese to firm up, then eat and enjoy!

FOOD TRIVIA: The Orange Fruit and the Color Orange.

The color orange was introduced into English through the Spanish word "naranja", which is the Spanish used for the fruit we know as the orange. The word "naranja" was derived from the Sanskrit word, "naranga" meaning "orange tree". The English dropped the leading "n" and from the word "naranja" and, eventually, the word "orange" evolved as the English name for this fruit. Around the 16th century, the word orange started being used not only to describe the fruit but, also, to what we know now as the COLOR orange. Before this, orange as a color, was not in the English vocabulary. Prior to this change, the English referred to what had become the color orange, as "geoluhread"  which translates to "yellow - red"."

COOKING TIP: How to Keep a Lemon After Zesting

If, after the zest from a lemon has been taken off and you are not using the zested lemon for its  juice immediately, it can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for, at least, three weeks with little loss of juice.

FOOD HISTORY: Sliced Bread

Before sliced bread was invented, people baked their own bread or bought loaves of bread that they had to slice. Each time you sliced, you got a ragged and non-uniform slice. However, Otto Rohwedder from Davenport, Iowa had an idea for a slicer that would automatically cut bread into uniform slices for the consumer. He started working on his idea in 1912 and, over the next few years, had several working models. Many bakers rejected Rohwedder's invention, saying that the bread would fall apart and would get stale more rapidly than the whole loaf (which was true) and that the consumer didn't care to have pre-sliced bread. However, when the Chillicothe Baking Company( Chillicothe, Mo)  put one of the machines to work in 1928, these bakers found they were wrong. The local newspaper wrote, "So neat and precise are the slices and so definitely better than anyone could cut by hand with a bread knife, that one realizes instantly that here is a refinement that will receive a hearty and permanent welcome." In 1927, Rohwedder found a solution to the sliced bread becoming stale more rapidly, by devising a machine that not only sliced the bread but wrapped it as well. Rohwedder, in 1929, sold his machines to the Micro-Westco Company of Bettendorf, Iowa and served as Vice-President and sales manager of the Rohwedder Bakery Machine Company, a new division of  Micro-Westco. By the 1930's, sliced bread was fully commercialized, helped by the invention of the pop-up toaster, introduced in 1926, which required uniform slices for best results. In 1930, The Wonder Bread Company, using their own specialized slicing machines, was the first commercial manufacturer of wrapped, pre-sliced bread. By 1933, more bakers were selling pre-sliced bread than whole loaves and the sales of Rohwedders machines soared. In 1943, in the midst of World War II, the U.S. government actually banned sliced bread on the theory that the country needed the metal used in making bread slicing blades more for the manufacture of airplanes than for bread slicers. A public uproar over this edict was so great that it was rescinded within a few months. THEREFORE, PRE- SLICED BREAD WAS RETAINED AND WE ARE STILL EATING PRE-SLICED 60 YEARS LATER.

THINGS I LIKE: Elote (Mexican Corn on the Cob)

Now that we are in fresh corn season, I would like to tell you about to a way that Mexicans, who know a thing or two about corn, eat their corn on the cob. I was introduced to this method preparing corn for eating on the cob by Davey, a friend of mine from Mexico.

Elote

Husk fresh corn and cook, either by boiling, steaming or grilling. My personal preference is grilling but any way of cooking works. Coat the cooked corn with a layer of mayonnaise and roll in grated Cotija* cheese. Eat as is or sprinkle, to taste, with lime juice and/or chile pepper, and ENJOY.

*Cotija is a semi- hard Mexican cheese that is used for grating in the same way as the Italian Parmesan or Romano cheeses. I find that Cotija gives the best flavor with the corn because it has a stronger taste than Parmesan or Romano but these are acceptable substitutes if you cannot find Cotija cheese. However, I have found Cotija in several large supermarkets in my area. It was in the Dairy aisle cheese section rather than the Specialty Cheese counter.

COOKING TIP: Keeping Pesto Color Vibrant

When Basil is plentiful in the summer and lots of Pesto is going to be made, the following will prevent the Pesto from oxidizing and losing it's bright green color.

Blanch (plunge leaves into boiling water for 20 - 30 seconds), drain immediately and place blanched leaves in ice water to stop the cooking process. This process inactivates the Basil enzymes which cause the color dulling oxidation that comes with cutting, chopping, etc., the leaves. Remove from the ice water, dry leaves with toweling and prepare Pesto which, now, will retain its vibrant green color.

FOOD TRIVIA: Sardines

The small fish we get in cans, that are "packed in like" and called Sardines are, in fact, Herring. They are called Sardines because the process for canning them was developed  on the island of Sardinia.