I'm Not a Food Blogger But...

...this panzanella bread salad seriously deserves some attention.

I don't really have much to say about our garden these days. There are no whistle pigs. Our zucchini committed suicide.  We've scaled it back quite a bit and are only growing what we can eat fresh or store in the basement.  We aren't canning a single thing and the only thing I've frozen is our carrots.  What we can't eat I either chuck over the fence (which up until now Chris has been unaware of) or I network it out to friends who want it.  In other words, if you need something, just come pick it from our garden. I'm not saying we don't loooooove having fresh food from the garden to eat.  I'm just not letting it control me or bug me and I'm liberated by it.

Sometimes it's hard to know what to do with so many vegetables that need to be harvested at once.  If it were winter time it would be easy to throw them all in the crockpot and call it soup.  The Menno in me tells me to mix them all up in a bowl and add some sour cream, cream of anything soup, and two cups of fat cheese. And don't forget to top it off with bread crumbs mixed with a stick of butter. If you're good and eat it all you can have whoopie pies for dessert. Ugh. This is not summertime food. Save it for winter when you need food to comfort you and it's okay to shove your face.

But right now it is hot and muggy and if you wanna eat summertime, then try this...

The awesome thing about this is most of it grows in our garden and the only thing I had to add was stale bread and cheese.  Yep.  So here's the recipe.  Please go make this for supper right now.  If you have wine then you might feel like you are in Italy. Drink enough of it and maybe you will be.   If you have kids who won't eat this, just make them fish sticks so everyone can enjoy their supper.  Sometimes when I make good food I can't enjoy it because everyone at our dinner table is complaining or crying or smearing food in their hair. But not last night.  Supper was delicious and everyone was happy.

Tuscan Panzanella Bread Salad

4 large vine ripe slicing tomatoes
1/2 pound stale Italian-style country bread (crust removed)
1 1/4 c. thinly sliced red onion
1 c. fresh mozzarella cheese cubed

Dressing

2 t. minced garlic
1/4 c. red wine or balsamic vinegar
1/2 c. olive oil
1 large bunch FRESH basil chopped
salt and fresh ground pepper

Add dressing to salad and mix thoroughly.  Let set at room temp for about 30 minutes.  Drink with fantastic wine.  Let your kids run amuck because who cares this is good. Put leftovers in the fridge because it's even better tomorrow for lunch. Serve with this funness...

...fresh cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto drizzled with balsamic vinegar.  But be careful because when you're done you'll realize you're really not in Italy and now you need to go wash dishes.