Bruschetta and a Reference to Poltergeist.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!
Didya miss me? No? Well...I'm back anyway.
I haven't posted in so long because a) we've had a ton of company so I haven't been doing very much cooking, b) I didn't have access to even my super crappy camera when I did cook, c) I haven't been experimenting much, just following recipes, most of them from Pioneer Woman, and...I think there were more reasons, but I forget them now.

Tonight we're making bruschetta! I still don't have pictures, but it was really good so I'm going to tell you what I did anyway.
First, I looked up recipes online. I wanted to try to make the kind made in the movie Julie & Julia. I found this recipe: click me! I read it and promptly decided I wanted to make up my own recipe.

Ingredients:
1 loaf italian bread - I only used half because I wasn't making that much
butter
some olive oil
one half onion, chopped
garlic, chopped - I used two cloves
tomatoes, chopped - I used four
fresh basil
fresh thyme
salt
pepper

 First, I sliced up my bread, buttered both sides, and placed it in the oven to keep it from the flies that always find their way into our house. Stupid flies.
Second, cut up the tomatoes. The recipe I read said to de-seed the tomatoes, so I chopped them up and placed them in a strainer and stirred them around some, trying to squeeze out some extra juice. Then I chopped up the fresh herbs and placed them in a bowl with the tomatoes. Add salt and pepper. 
Third, chop up the onion and garlic and toss them in a pan with some olive oil. Put a lid on them and let them steam some so they get soft. Once they get soft, toss them in with the tomato mix.
Note: Fresh garlic is so much stronger than not fresh garlic. This is pretty obvious, but keep this in mind if you don't want a lot of garlic-y taste. I was surprised by how strong the garlic was because we never use fresh garlic, but I also really liked how strong it was.
Fourth, place the buttered bread in the pan and brown it. I read in a different recipe that they fried the bread in olive oil and I think that I might have liked that better.
Finally, scoop tomato mixture on your toast and enjoy.

You might consider sprinkling parmesan cheese on top of your bruschetta.
If you don't like the idea of vegetarian, fry up some bacon and crumble it into your tomato mixture. I'm pretty stoked to try that one.


Hope you enjoy! I'll be back later with some miscellaneous cooking tips.

Scout