Today has been one of the best rainy days in a while. My kids are on spring break, and since my paying  job is in education, I am too. My mom is here visiting from Virginia for a few days, so she was here to enjoy this day with us. The temperature only reached about 45 degrees today, and it rained ALL day, so it was perfect for staying indoors.

The day started with a fire in the fireplace and lots of peace and quiet. My children stayed up way too late last night, so they slept in for a long time, and it was nice to sit with mom and enjoy some coffee in the quiet. Hours later–as we sat happily in the same chairs–we were flipping through magazines and cookbooks and talking about recipes. Mom happened upon a recipe in Where Women Cook, a gorgeous publication to which I subscribe, for Vicky’s Tomato Pie.

Look here to see their beautiful website:   http://wherewomencook.com/

I took a quick inventory and realized we had all the ingredients. It’s a delicious combination of tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes cut in thirds because I didn’t have any big ones), onions, basil, and cheeses cooked up in a pie shell.

I started out with a regular store-bought crust, but in my excitement, I forgot all the rules about pre-baking pie crust. If you stick a “naked” crust in the oven without any pie beans or pie weights, you’re not gonna get a fillable pie crust. See photos below. 🙂

I laughed for a moment and hatched another plan. I took another crust out of the fridge, found another pie plate, and set the “faulty” crust aside to cool. The second time around, I remembered to add foil and pie beans, and the crust baked beautifully for 12 minutes. Then I added all the yummy stuff.

First were tomatoes. Like I said above, I didn’t have any big ones, so I used little grape tomatoes, which worked just fine. After that, a layer of chopped onions. I’m not a very good chopper, but I really like onions, so I didn’t care how big they were.

After the onions, I added this incredible mixture of shredded cheddar, mozzarella, and mayonnaise with some dried basil (Vicky uses real basil leaves, which is probably better, but I didn’t have any). That yummy, cheesy stuff goes on top of the veggies. On top of that (as if there wasn’t already enough awesomeness) goes parmesan cheese. Then into the oven to bake for about 50 minutes.Out came this fantastic, brown-topped Tomato Pie. It sliced beautifully, and we each had TWO slices. So delicious! Hats off to Vicky. Your pie rocks! 
While we were eating the Tomato Pie, I  popped my backup plan into the oven. I had some fresh blackberries in the fridge. I added a little sugar, heaped them on top of that faulty crust, and put it back into the oven for 20 minutes. The result was Crust-fallen Blackberry Tart, one of the most delicious accidents to come out of my kitchen in a while. 
All in all, this lazy, rainy day was a success. 2 pies later, I’m hoping for more rain soon!