nom nom nom

      Hokay. So. Thus begins the entry chronicling two kitchen messes: an heirloom tomato, corn and cheddar cheese pie I made for a dinner party on Tuesday, and impulse chocolate cupcakes with cinnamon vanilla brown sugar frosting. I shall start with the pie.

      So the recipe is originally from smitten kitchen (if it's not yet clear that I adore this site, let me just tell you: I adore this site. Absolutely. Adore. This site.). I saw pie and thought, "I like pie. and cheese. And cheese in pie could be crazysauce fun." I wanted to try heirloom tomatoes instead of beefsteak, and three ears of corn was... a lot. So I cut it down the two, and it served us just fine. Plus I didn't have whole milk, only soy. And forgot to brush the top with butter. Whoops. But back to the whole milk. I've been substituting soy milk (in the case of the cornbread muffins and pie), which is... fine. But produces a bit drier pastry. Not inedibly dry, just not as moist. Just know that.

      I enlisted the culinary and photographic expertise of Nichole and Blair. Blair grated cheddar (best quote: Blair: "Oh... I made cheese all over your floor." Nichole: "That sounds dirty!") while Nichole steamed corn and I sliced tomatoes, and we all blanched and peeled the heirlooms beforehand. Normally, I like to work on my own. For the sake of being selfish and stubborn and wanting things a certain way, and honestly, if you've seen our kitchen, there's not much room for more than one person. But this time, we fit three people in the kitchen! Three! Kriss Angel has nothing on the magic that made that possible.

      It's a really simple reciple: you make a double crust dough, put one down in a pie tin, throw in the grated cheese, various seasoning situations, corn kernels and sliced tomatoes in layers, pour in a mix of mayonnaise and lemon juice, cover it with the other rolled out pie dough, brush the crust with butter (if you're not me and you know what's good for you) prettify the crust and cut ventilation holes. Then you stick it in the oven for 40ish minutes, then nosh, nosh, nosh.

      I'm going to write down the directions I followed, but I strongly recommend looking at Deb's recipe as well. If you do use whole milk and remember to brush the crust with butter, please let me know how that turns out!

Heirloom Tomato, Corn and Cheddar Pie

• Ingredients for the crust
  
  • 2 cups all purpose flour (I used Trader Joe's whole wheat variety)
    
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
    
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
    
  • 6 tablespoons (or 3/4 stick) butter (I'm lazy, so I melted it and I don't think it made much of a difference)
    
  • 3/4 cup soy milk
    
• Ingredients for the filling
  
  • 1/3 cup mayonnaise
    
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
    
  • 1 3/4 pounds heirloom tomatoes
    
  • 2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
    
  • 1 cup corn kernels (I used 2 ears, then shaved off the kernels by hand. Like my mama used to do! But then she would put them in milk and sprinkle the concoction with sugar. I don't know, either.)
    
  • 2 tablespoons basil (the original recipe says to use fresh basil, but I just used dried basil flakes and that was fine)
    
  • salt, to taste
    
  • pepper, to taste
    
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted, for crust
    
• Directions
  
  1. Blend flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add butter, mix a little, then add milk and mix by hand until the dough is smooth.
     
  2. Divide dough in half. You can put the half you're not going to use for now in a covered bowl, and the other half on a well-floured surface.
     
  3. Roll out the dough you're using so that it'll fit in a 9-inch pie tin. Place in tin and trim the edges.
     
  4. Place rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
     
  5. Whisk the lemon juice and mayonnaise, then set aside.
     
  6. Cut an X at the bottom of each tomato and blanch for 15 - 20 seconds (I found that 10 was too short and the skins didn't come off easily). Immediately place in an ice bath after blanching. Once all the tomatoes are blanched and have spent some time in the bath (3 - 5 minutes should be more than sufficient), peel them and slice into 1/4" pieces.
     
  7. Arrange the filling ingredients in layers; I followed this pattern: half of the tomatoes, seasoning, corn, and cheese. Repeat. Pour mayonnaise and lemon juice situation over the filling.
     
  8. Roll out remaining half of dough to a 12 inch round. Put over pie and trim edges. You can make whatever crust pattern you'd like (I'm a fan of pretty, simple things, so I chose scalloped edges and simple slits at the top), but make sure to cut vents in the top.
     
  9. Brush melted butter on the crust and place in the oven. Let bake for 35 - 40 minutes.
     
  10. Let cool for 10 - 15 minutes, then serve.
      

      Last night I got back from work and was craving chocolate. We had Krusteaz pudding cake (you know, the just-add-water variety) but I wanted something richer. So I played around with a cupcake recipe. It was amazing: rich rich rich and moist. I topped it with a vanilla cinnamon brown sugar frosting and it was good to go. The only problem was that I grossly miscalculated how full to fill the muffin tins (stick to half of the cup. Not a bit of batter more!), so they sort of... exploded... in my oven. But no matter. It's the taste that counts!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Cinnamon Brown Sugar Frosting

• Ingredients for cupcakes
  
  • 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
    
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
    
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
    
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I bought Green and Black's and alas, ran out after 1/4 cup! I used Ghirardelli's hot cocoa for the rest of it, and it turned out just fine)
    
  • 3 tablespoons butter, softened. Or melted, Leilani style.
    
  • 1 cup brown sugar
    
  • 1/2 cup cane sugar
    
  • 2 eggs
    
  • 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
    
  • 1 cup milk (I used soy)
    

• Ingredients for frosting
  
  • 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
    
  • 2 egg whites
    
  • 5 tablespoons water
    
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
    
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (to taste, really. It depends on how much you like cinnamon)
    
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch, to thicken
    

• Directions
  
  1. Place rack in the middle of oven and preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease muffin tin, or line with baking cups.
     
  2. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and cocoa powder.
     
  3. Whisk sugars and eggs together until smooth. Add to dry mixture.
     
  4. Add milk, melted butter and vanilla. I used an electric hand mixer for this last step just to smooth out the batter.
     
  5. Fill each muffin cup only halfway. Trust me on this one.
     
  6. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes.
     
  7. While the cupcakes are in the oven, mix the brown sugar, egg whites, vanilla, and cinnamon together. Beat on high for about 4 minutes. Add cornstarch. Beat for an additional 2 - 3 minutes.
     
  8. Once the cupcakes are done (you can test it by sticking a toothpick, or in my case, a chopstick, in the center of one of the cupcakes. If it comes out clean, the cupcakes are ready), let them cool for about 10 minutes before taking them out of the pan and frosting them.