Thursday, April 15, 2010

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.

9 comments:

Brett G said...

Hey, bet you didn't know I kept up with you blog, but I love your writing. Remember, this is YOUR blog. You are doing it for you. It is nice to share with others, but don't get caught up in what others may say negatively. Be brave!!! What other way is there to live life. We are all entitled to our own opinion. Much better to share and be mocked than to keep it all inside.
Take care.
Brett

Rachel said...

I opted to have my blog private. It works for me because my blog is more a journal about us and to keep close family and friends up to date with how we are.

The biggest drawback with having it private is less people check in on it because it can't be updated in a blog roll so it just is at the bottom and people don't think about it.

Recently I had a friend that started doing a hybrid of both. She has her regular blog. When she posts on the private blog, she puts a post on the regular blog indicating that she has updated her private blog and posts a link. Only the people she wants to see will have access to the private blog. It makes it so people are always aware of when she posts, but only the people she wants to be actually see the updates get to see it.

Make sense?

Good luck! I hope you are OK. Now I'm worried about you :(

Deja said...

LOVELY bruschetta night. Lucky kids. And it's weird to think of T being a teen, but I guess it happens. Yikes!

I stress about my blog only slightly less than stress about my job. So, um, yeah. I hear you. You're lovely, keep posting, whatever with those meanies.

belann said...

As usual the food looks absolutely yummy! Your kids are so lucky to have you to fix such elaborate meals. Sorry you don't feel you can post all that you want. Who are the mean guys?

Kelli said...

hey, what kind of kohlrabi did you plant? I bought some seeds today for a purple variety. There are 6 million seeds in the packet so if you want some let me know. And I waited until Monday to plant some of my stuff because I knew it was going to rain on Tuesday. Yes, I plan out my laziness. They need to turn on that darn irrigation so I don't have to remember to water every day.
And yes, to all that other stuff we already discussed today. amen.

Jacobson Five said...

I probably would just not link your blog to Facebook. For me it is so a non issue, I think you are the only one that ever comments on my blog.
By the way...I stopped by the Bray home to pick up my kids just as she was finishing her preparations for brushetta night and everything smelled and looked delicious. Would you expect anything less from Amara?

Unknown said...

I don't link my blog to facebook for that reason. I have 300 something "friends" on facebook that are not all really friends. Get rid of that and then the people you REALLY know can follow.
ALSO, we will definatly take Tia. I will even pick her up. She can have her own room even!
-Kira

Terry Earley said...

I wonder if we could do this meal for the family get together, or would it be too complicated?

The eye roll! Heaven help you. You just made it to parenting graduate school. Try no to think of all three in teen years together!

Meeshab said...

It wasnn't me was it? I accidentally offended Kira! :(. Your posts are awesome. Your too awesome, it's just darn intimidating. I wish you could come cook for me! I actually checked last night to see if you blogged lately and I was sad so I was happy to read this!