Cold Turkey On Tomato Pie

It is a sad day for me. For breakfast I polished off the last piece of tomato pie which is likely to be the last tomato pie of my tomato pie eating season. You see, from mid summer until right about now I’m pretty much obsessed with tomato pie. I eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
     You can ask The Daughters…they call me up and say, “what are you doing, Mom?” and I say, “eating tomato pie.”

It’s no secret that I am not a baker and that I hate to make dough, mostly because I suck at it, so at first I was a little intimidated by the thought of making a pie crust. When I read the recipe and saw that there were two sticks of butter in it, with my name written all over them, I had no choice but to face my fears and fire up the ole' Cuisinart. I dumped the ingredients in the machine, closed my eyes, prayed to the pastry gods, pushed the button and counted to ten. What resulted was a blob of dough that yielded enough buttery goodness for two crusts. Turns out I can make pie crusts! Not only that, but I can make crusts that are so flaky and buttery and light that you won’t even notice them sneaking up on your butt. 
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I start making the tomato pies in mid summer, when tomatoes are at their peak and believe me when I tell you that you have to use real garden tomatoes, not the store bought ones that have no taste. By the beginning of fall I’m pretty well strung out on pie and could even be considered a tomato pie junkie. Come October I’m prepared to mainline if necessary and I’m getting all nervous and twitchy because I know that my dealer is closing the Farmers Market door in my face and there is not a damn thing I can do about it. I come off that tomato pie high and have hallucinations about knocking off a Hutterite with a pressure cooker, just to get one more fix before she turns fresh into stewed tomatoes.

The Farmers Market closed about a week ago and now I have one..only one garden tomato and three store bought ones left. Can you spot the difference above? That’s just not an adequate ratio to fake a real tomato pie, so as of today I am officially going cold turkey. 
     Yes indeed it is a sad day for me, so if anyone knows of a Tomato Pie Over-Eaters Anonymous Support Group, call me ASAP...I feel the shakes comin' on. 

  

My sister gave me this recipe about 8 years ago and for that she has a solid place in my will. I make it about 10 times during the tomato season, yielding 20 pies, which is almost enough to get my fix on. Go to the "Misc. Recipes" tab at the top of this page to view it.