Thursday August 15th

Last year we discovered a recipe for Cheddar Tomato Pie and tried it out with our homegrown tomatoes. The original recipe was simple - tomatoes, cheese and a concoction of mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar and a little sugar. We didn't really like the consistency so we added a few eggs and made it more like a quiche and in doing so, achieved culinary perfection. Making heavy use of our late crop - baking and freezing a half-dozen pies as the growing season ran down - we enjoyed them throughout the winter, even taking them with us on our trips to Mexico.

This year we've started earlier with a nod to the tradition of "putting vegetables up for the winter." This week we baked 5 and only ate 1, a testament to our willpower because trust me, nothing smells better than Cheddar Tomato Pie coming out of the oven.

It's simple to make -

1 frozen pie crust
Enough tomatoes (2 or three big ones)
1 cup mayonnaise whisked with 1 tsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar
Enough grated sharp cheddar cheese (when I say enough, you put it in until the pie crust is full)
1 cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano or a mix of both
4 eggs whisked

Start with a layer of cheese, then a layer of tomatoes
Add a bit of the eggs
Add a bit of the mayonnaise mixture
Repeat with the cheese/tomatoes/eggs/mayo until everything is gone. We add the Parmesan in the last layer. Top with a handful of cheddar

Bake at  390°F for about one hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Tent the crust at 20 minutes to prevent excess browning.

We've double-bag frozen them and kept them up to 8 months.

Trust me, it's worth the small amount of work.