Corn and Tomato Pie

So, for Nate's birthday, he asked that we do P90X together. Between the high protein diet (and by high protein, P90X creators apparently mean, "Eat lots and lots of meat--until you feel it coming out of your pores.") and the daily workouts, I haven't felt like cooking.

Now that we're heading into week 3, we've decided to go back to our old eating habits and just watch our portions. To celebrate, I made this corn and tomato pie from Smitten Kitchen (I'm loving this website--this woman seems to know just what I love to eat and her pictures are WAY more appetizing than mine) that my talented friend, mraynes introduced me to.

I don't have much to add to this pie (except I had to use 2 T pesto instead of the fresh basil and 1 green onion instead of chives because I was so caught up in making sure I had farmer's market corn and tomatoes that I forgot about the rest of the ingredients). It took a while to make the first pie, but I suspect that's because I have never made pie dough before. In fact, I never really liked pie crust so whenever someone talked about making pie dough, I never listened.

Fortunately, it's remarkably easy. I watched this tutorial first, and it was SO helpful.

Oh, and though this recipe does require the use of an oven, I'm still categorizing it as a "summer" meal because I think with a recipe that uses so few ingredients, it's important that the corn and tomatoes be in season.

Grilled Portabello Mushroom Caps

I've been doing research for about a year now to figure out how to grill portabellos. I had some AMAZING ones at a barbeque a few years ago, but the event was catered, and I was too shy to ask the caterer how they made them. The feat of making amazing portabellos is doublely impressive in light of the fact that there has only been one food item that I have consistently detested and gagged on my entire life...mushrooms. After eating those, I thought that I had clearly misjudged this fungi and needed to learn more. So, after consulting allrecipes.com, foodnetwork.com, epicurious.com and several of my home cookbooks, I think I have the technique down.

Teriyaki Grilled Portabellos

4 Portabello mushrooms
1/2 cup Teriyaki sauce (I like Trader Joe's)

1. Remove the mushroom stems. They pop right out. Save them if you're ambitious and use them in homemade stock (I've only been that ambitious once).

2. Take a damp kitchen towel and wipe off the mushroom caps (don't worry about clearning the gills). If you wash mushrooms, they'll absorb the water, not the marinade.

3. Place the mushroom caps in a bowl or Ziplock bag and pour the teriyaki sauce over. Swish around to make sure the caps are completely covered. Leave at room temperature (this takes some getting used to for someone who only usually marinates meat) for about an hour.

4. Preheat grill to around 350-400 degrees or medium high if your grill doesn't have a thermometer.

5. When the temperature is right, place the mushrooms, cap side down, on the grill for 5-8 minutes. They should have some nice grill marks. Flip and continue to grill for another 5 minutes.

Honestly, I feel like the portabellos' cook time is very similar to a chicken breast's cook time. If you cook both at the same time (like I often do because most of my family still prefers chicken), they should all be done at the same time.

The portabellos are done when there's some (but not much) spongy give--like chicken breasts.

I kept hoping to be super ambitious and do a youtube video about this, but I got shy. Maybe I'll work up my courage and get a demonstration up soon.

In the meantime, I think these are a nice meat replacement. I love them in the mango summer rolls instead of chicken, or on a sandwich with other grilled vegetables and mayo.