Bruschetta night and being paranoid.

I had a great idea for dinner last night courtesy of a recipe I saw in vegetarian times and some input from my sister. We did a bruschetta night with al kinds of toppings for little crisp whole wheat baguette toasts. I'm sorry for the quality of these pictures. I had to take them with my phone because my camera's battery was dead and I couldn't pass up this dinner as a post.

I know I used to do more interesting, personal posts, but frankly, I got a little gunshy about criticism and and so for now I'm sticking to recipes and menu ideas. Maybe if I take it off of facebook I'll get braver again. I've got a lot of things going on in my life, but I'm nervous about sharing with everyone. How do other bloggers get past that? I don't know.

So for some of the toppings I grilled a bunch of veggies. I marinated in lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, honey, and evoo (lighthanded on the last two ingredients), with lots of garlic and Italian herbs. We had eggplant slices, red bell pepper rings, zucchini, yellow summer squash, asparagus (so cool it's in season and cheap), and red onion. Can I just say that the jarred roasted bell peppers have got nothing on fresh charred and grilled ones? I put both on the table and "nada que ver" --they were nothing alike.
The little toasts were easy --just sliced and broiled a minute or two on each side with a light coating of vegetable oil spray.
I also did a butter bean hummus. I saw cans of butter beans at the store the other day, and remembering my B-52's, knew they had to be good. I added lemon, garlic, and fresh basil. This was a great hummus.

The last two things were an easy olive tapenade, and a fresh Italian salsa. The salsa I know will be twenty times better in the summer with good garden tomatoes, but it was still a hit with my family last night with crappy grocery store ones. Tomatoes, bell pepper, red onion, fresh basil, fresh oregano, parsley, and rosemary (I always feel so rich with my own herb garden --the only thing I had to buy was the basil since it doesn't kick in until later in the summer).


Of course I just made a big old beast of a salad for me with all of the toppings and some spring mix. Man this satisfied. I guess it was the hummus and the olives, but it filled me up for almost 3 hours which is a record for me. I'm usually hungry again at two.

Here's Ari doing her thing. Anyway I CAN tell you all (without getting too nervous) that I'm doing a half marathon next weekend, and the big Wasatch Back Relay (Ragnar relay) in June. My goal is a 8.5 minute pace for the Wasatch Back, and this morning for a 5 mile run with hills I was at a 9.06. That's really great for me. Something about running and I don't push myself as hard as I do in a class. Maybe it was the episode of This American Life I was listening to. Verrrrrry Interesting. It'll make you mad. Here's the link in case you're brave.

What else am I brave enough to post about? I'm gonna stretch a little. Got my front yard weeded, and the peas, 3 kinds of spinach, kohlrabi (has anyone eaten this? it looks like turnips but I've never seen it for sale), beets, carrots, daikon, and parsnips planted. Now how do I keep them wet until the irrigation is turned on? I bought a new hose sprayer. Sigh. Just what I need, another daily chore.

One more thing (see how brave I'm being?) my oldest child has been abducted, and in her place is myself at 13 years old. I got my first eye roll out of this child last night. Middle child? She's given me the eye roll for years --but not my oldest. Honeymoon is over I guess. Time for parenting graduate school: the teenage years.

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