Mediterranean Bread Salad

With the produce coming in fast and furious, consider making a bread salad.  You will need half of a baguette,  and if you can find a reduced price day old one, so much the better. cut in 1/2 inch cubes and toast with a bit of olive oil in a 425 degree oven for 5 - 10 minutes. 

6-8 tomatoes, from the garden (or someone's garden) if possible, cut into one inch chunks.
4 oz. baby spinach, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced really THIN!
8 oz. fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1/4 cup chopped basil, fresh, of course.
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese


Mix tomatoes thru basil in a large bowl.  Save all tomato juice from chopping.  Dress with 2 T. balsamic vinegar (I use white) and 3-4 T. olive oil.  Toss in bread cubes and toss well to miss ingredients.  Salad can sit a few minutes for bread to absorb juices.  Just before serving, sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan.

Serves 4-6. 

Although it seems counter-intuitive, the salad can be eaten with sliced bread.  Serve a soup or a hearty dessert.


Enjoy!    I like to eat the soggy salad the next day. 

Fruit desserts, especially home made pie

Now that cherries and berries and peaches are in season, we can have some wonderful desserts.  Long ago, in Cambridge, MA, there was a restaurant called The Woven Hose because it was housed in an old building where woven hoses (whatever they are) were formerly made.  At noon, there was a buffet, and sometimes they had homemade peach pie.  Whatever the pastry chef was doing, he/she was doing it right.  I come from a long line of pie bakers, and this peach pie had wonderful flaky crust, juicy peaches, not too much thickening or filling.  It was sweet with a bit of the tang of ripe fruit.  OMG it was so good.

And lo, one day there was no pie and when I asked, the pastry chef was gone!  They never had it again, and the only decent peach pies I've had since were if I made it myself (rare) or a friend did (also rare).  Guess I'll make one this summer.  They do look lovely with a lattice crust.  My grandma must have made a million of them, because she got bushes of peaches from "Old Zelick".  The woman had such a light hand with pastry.  Bread, too.

As a kid, you never REALLY appreciate these things until they are gone.  How many people do you know who make peach pies?  How many restaurants do you know that serve it?  I thought so. Damned few.

My uncle had a restaurant/variety store in Hesston, Kansas, back in the day, and every morning a few old ladies with round stomachs and arms would arrive early, don aprons and hairnets, and get to work on the pies.
Cherry.  Apple.  Peach.  Custard.  Apricot.  Chocolate.  Each one indescribably delectable.  Of course they always sold out.  They were so close to heaven.

This  recipe looks pretty close to what I remember without being gunked up with creative touches.

Lattice crust peach pie

The Blue Room now occupies the spot where the Woven Hose used to be.  Great creative food.  Good wine, too.  A pleasant place to pass an evening.

The cheeseparer.