Bruschetta

Bruschetta

     2 lbs tomatoes, seeded and chopped small
     3 bell peppers, seeded and chopped small
     1 tbsp basil, chopped
     1/4 c chopped onion
     1 small can olives, drained and chopped small
     1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
     3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
     1/4 c extra virgin olive oil + additional for bread
     1/2 tsp garlic salt
     1/2 tsp salt
     baguette, sliced in 1/2" thick slices

Combine all ingredients except for baguette and additional olive oil.  Toss gently.  Set aside or refrigerate until an hour before serving. Grill baguette slices, brushing one side with olive oil.  Spoon vegetable topping onto baguette slices and serve.

Potluck Food: Caprese Tomatoes

We had a potluck at work last week and, in hindsight, I should've brought this dish (although the kamaboko & kim chee dip and butter mochi were appreciated).  It would've been so easy to toss everything together.  And the red tomatoes sprinkled with green basil chiffonade looks like this was made for the holiday season.  Shucks!  Maybe next year.  Maybe NOT!!!

The potluck!  Ugh.  Actually, there were some really good things on the buffet line, but when you're food-poisoning phobic like me, what you do take is limited to things you know are safe (food not easily spoiled, food you know was stored properly, or food brought by someone you deem "clean" and hygienic). And, of course, food free from any trace of the devil's condiment.

BTW, we had another potluck, a private potluck, on Thursday.  That was even better!  I brought spicy soybeans to share.  The Keeper brought an awesome warabi salad made by MamaKeeper.  I think D2 would love it, so my next trip to the market will also be a quest for shredded codfish. 

As I mentioned at the tail end of last week's post, D1 is back.  In some ways, it's like she never left.  She even picked up fighting with D2.  Our holiday picture this year was done in one take; it had to be.  D2 had only one smile in her.  She told me later that D1 had upset her just before the shoot.  So nothing changed.

In the past two weeks, we've experienced appliance malfunction here.  The toaster oven started twitching, and the rice cooker/warmer became just a rice cooker.  Crispy rice in a day is ridiculous.  I just don't get it.  Looks like I'll be spending vacation trying to replace those must-have kitchen items.

Meanwhile, I guess all is not lost since I can still make this salad.

click on recipe title for printable recipe
Caprese Tomatoes

     6-8 tomatoes

     3 tbsp chopped fresh basil

     2 tbsp chopped Italian parsley

     2 tsp fresh thyme

     2 stalks green onion, chopped

     1 tbsp sugar

     1/4 tsp ground black pepper

     1 1/2 tsp garlic salt

     1 1/2 tsp seasoned salt

     6 tbsp red wine vinegar

     2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

     3/4 c vegetable oil

     1 log fresh mozzarella, sliced or 1 container fresh mozzarella balls

In a medium bowl, whisk all ingredients (except for tomatoes and mozzarella) together.  Cut each tomato into 8 wedges and remove all seeds.  Add to mixture.  Stir gently and allow to sit 3 hours.  Serve with mozzarella cheese.

Ultimate Salad and Dressing

Happy Labor Day!!!  I'm old enough to remember the time when the school year in Hawaii began AFTER Labor Day.  I miss those days.  Thats when Hawaii followed the same calendar as the rest of the nation and held summer time sacred.  I don't think we'll ever see those days.  How can Hawaii kids be college ready when the school system won't allow them to participate in summer pre-college programs.  This was the argument years ago when many Hawaii schools contemplated moving to a year-round calendar.  I guess people forgot the voice of reason, and I don't know of any university changing their calendars to enable Hawaii kids to participate without missing school. 

The work week went by pretty quickly.  I had two meetings with school personnel.  One of the meetings was out in Naalehu.  I ate a seafood salad sandwich at Punalu'u bakery prior to meeting with a scattered admin (thanks for the indigestion), but I did not go to Hana Hou for mac nut cream pie...next time.

I stayed out one day for funeral leave (farewell to Aunty Hisae "Stella" Nagano).  I was voluntold to make dessert for the post-funeral food table.  I made brownies (mom's contribution) and lemon bars (my contribution).  While I made the lemon bars from scratch, I used the Costco Ghirardelli brownie mix for the brownies.  I followed the directions on the box to make a bumboocha batch (half-sheet pan), thinking one pan would save me a lot of trouble.  Epic fail.  The brownies took over an hour to cut because I had to keep wiping the knife.  If there is a next time (brownie making, no need the funeral part), I will make the brownies in separate pans.  I still have 3 bags of brownie mix left (Costco size comes with 6 bags).

One thing on my "to-do" list for the week is to take D2 to Famous Footwear to buy some decent footwear.  In getting ready for Aunty's funeral, I realized she really only had rubber slippers.  We found a pair of Crocs sandals on the shoe rack, and she ended up wearing those to the funeral.  They were a little snug, but D2 was a good sport.  In spite of her crocs, she was not the most casually dressed person there.  UJohn showed up in sandals, polo shirt, shorts & suspenders!  ASandra's coworkers thought he was so cute.  The Help pointed out that, to UJohn's credit, he showed respect by wearing dark colors.  True dat.

I had a hard time deciding what recipe to feature this week, but a recent trip to Costco (same trip where I bought the brownie mix) helped me decide on this recipe.  I bought one of those trays of fancy artisan lettuce and wanted to make a dressing to showcase the lettuce.  Additionally, its been hot, hot, hot recently so we are still enjoying salad weather.

When I worked for the Office of Human Resources, we did a lot of collaboration with the nice mentors in Central District.  One of the ladies, Amy, cleaned house and gave me a whole bunch of cookbooks.  She told me her contribution to one of the cookbooks was a salad dressing recipe, which turned out to be Ultimate Salad Dressing.  Ultimate Salad Dressing is great on its own, but its even better when you throw together a kick-ass salad.

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Ultimate Dressing and Ultimate Salad

     2 tbsp brown sugar, packed

     2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

     2 tbsp olive oil

     1 tbsp rice vinegar

     1 tsp salt

     pepper

     grated garlic

Combine dressing ingredients and mix well.  Drizzle over assorted salad greens and toppings (carrots, red onions, bell pepper, feta cheese, bacon bits, cranberries, croutons.

Look who was on the Hawaii News Now photo stream!

Apologies for the blog pics this week.  I took them myself with a point-and-shoot.