**pre-blog-warning - this blog includes a recipe so it's not as long as it looks (TWSS)** (TWSS = that's what she said from now on for you regulars keeping score)The worst thing about liking to cook is that you are forced to like to do dishes. Frozen dinners and/or eating out are so much easier at cleanup time. Last night for dinner I made spaghetti and tried my hand at bruschetta. Spaghetti I have done a million times. My mom worked while I was in junior high and high school so I learned to cook at an early age and spaghetti was probably one of the first things I learned. Bruschetta I never learned but I taught myself last night. It was very good so I will share the recipe with you. If it stunk I would not share the recipe because I like you; I would keep working it until it didn't stink and then I'd share the recipe with you. That's one of the fun things about teaching yourself and coming up with your own recipes. You get to taste while you're creating and change it until it is good. Cooking is a mini version of life itself. If you didn't like the path it's headed in change it. Easier said than done in life.
Yesterday I added the movie review section in the sidebar area over there <-------- so now I will add a recipe area over there <--------- too. I will include it here in my main blog when I first do it so I can tag it. That way I can go back and find it when I'm having a Middle moment and can't remember how I made my gourmet dish. So, here's my newly Helser-house famous bruschetta...enjoy:
brushetta ingredients
6 ripe plum tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic (minced)
I TBS extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 pound Kalamata olives
1/2 pound fresh mozzarella (I used those little balls)
4-5 oz of fresh feta cheese
8-9 fresh basil leaves (we grow our own)
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
toast ingredients
1 loaf french bread (italian is ok too)
1/2 - 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
Bring a medium sauce pan of water to a rolling boil.
Remove pan from heat and gently drop the tomatoes into hot water.
Leave them in the hot water for about a minute so skins separate from tomato "meat"
Drain water and tomatoes into a colander and peel and discard skins.
Once peeled cut the tomatoes into quarters and remove the stem areas, seeds and juice.
Make sure one of your oven racks is on the very top (inside) of your oven and preheat oven to 450*
While the oven is heating chop the tomatoes into very small cubes
put tomatoes, garlic, 1 TBS of EVOO, balsamic vinegar in a bowl and mix
chop the basil leaves and add them to the tomato mix
chop the Kalamata olives and add to the mix to taste
add the mozzarella balls and crumble in the feta cheese
add salt and pepper to taste
put the bowl in the fridge and let the newly introduced guests (ingredients) get to know each other in the bowl while you get the bread (toast) ready
slice the bread diagonally in 1/2" thick slices (the bruschetta will cause the toast to fall apart if sliced too thin)
coat one side of each slice with EVOO using a pastry brush
place coated slices (coated side up) on a cookie sheet
place pan on top shelf/rack of oven and cook 5-6 minutes
I like them a little toastier so I then put them under the broiler until light brown
Ready to serve. Either serve the bread and bruschetta in separate dishes and let people top the bread with the bruschetta themselves or if you want to serve the bread "pre-bruschetta'd" top the bread right before serving or the bread will become soggy and ruin all of your great toasting efforts. So endeth the recipe!
I should have taken a picture...I always remember to do that when it's too late
Last night while enjoying the best bruschetta I have ever had I was watching one of the 15 or so episodes of "America The Story of Us" that I DVR'd this past weekend from History Channel. I watched the episode entitled "Heartland." I would have called it "Middleland" but that's why I just write a blog and don't program for History Channel. I guess the heart is in the Middle isn't it? One of the coolest parts for me was that they mentioned Joseph Glidden (barbed wire inventor). Joseph Glidden is from here - Middle Dekalb, Illinois. I live less than 1/2 mile from Annie Glidden road. Our high school mascot is barbed wire (sort of). Seriously, we are the Dekalb Barbs (no kidding). I always thought it was embarrassing being called the Dekalb Barbs but not when History Channel says barbed wire "made possible the settling of the West much sooner and more efficiently than it would have occurred otherwise." Without barbed wire and Middle America this country might not have flourished.
That can also be said for thousands and thousands of other ideas and inventions too. It shows that no matter how small of a thing you think you are working on it could make a tremendous difference in the history of the entire world. Keep working on what someone might call your hair-brained ideas Middles! Change the world for the better! I got off the track a bit (not a railroad westward expansion joke). If you get a chance (actually, make a chance) watch one of these History Channel "America The Story of Us" episodes. It is awe-inspiring. It's probably the best historical-based series since "Roots" or "Band of Brothers." The difference being that this show does not use actors...the stories and facts are the story. Episodes can also be viewed on History.com (History Channel) or they can be downloaded on iTunes. I am watching the Civil War episode right now on this computer probably because of Joseph Glidden. New episodes air Sundays at 8:00 PM (Middle/Central time).I have so much more to write but this is getting long (TWSS). I even have something to write about my daughter's Constitution test which fits with History Channel and all. Darn bruschetta recipe. Remember where we are and we'll talk again tomorrow. Have a Tuesday. That's it...have a Tuesday. Talk to you tomorrow...see you on Facebook :)
** bruschetta photo finely chopped from taheny.com because I forgot to take a photo, history channel photo expanded west from pfey.typepad.com & barbed wire photo rustled away from timecapsule.phasedraft.com**
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