After I learned the "Never buy clothes online" lesson for the 87th time, I braved the shopping mall yesterday to find a Mad Men, 60s-inspired dress. Although the task sounded easy, I found that most of the clothes that fit the period fell into the businessy or overly casual realms, not right for the party I'm headed to this weekend. Hrm. I'm a terrible shopper on a good day--I hate browsing, trying things on, etc.--and I hit five stores before I gave up and went to Nordstrom... with a big giant bad attitude. Thankfully the shopping gods smiled down upon me and I found these two gems, ON SALE, combined total less than the price of my earlier internet monstrosity.
 |
| The one I picked up is actually eggplant, but I couldn't find a picture. Photo credit. |
 |
| Thanks to the holidays and my incessant cooking, I am better able to round out the dress than our twiggy friend here. Ha! Photo credit. |
For some reason, thinking 60s kicked in my meat-and-potatoes Betty Crocker persona at dinner time and I set to work cooking NY strip, broccoli since I'm pretending to be healthy, and the best bruschetta I've ever had, despite the fact that my tomatoes were pretty ooky. (I know, I know, it took long enough to get to the bruschetta.) I can't wait to re-try this with home-grown mats!
Bruschetta*
Ingredients:
- 6 tomatoes chopped (most recipes call for Roma. I used four beefsteak because they were on sale)
- Half a red onion, diced fine
- 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced (you can dial it down if you want, but I tell you what, no vampires came by the Malvini-Redden abode last night)
- 1/4-1/2 cup fresh basil, torn into little pieces
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 loaf French bread or baguette
- Shredded mozzarella (I used pepperjack because it was all I had on hand. Worked fine.)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven on broiler setting.
2. Combine first nine ingredients, mixing well. Allow to sit for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, slice bread into 3/4-1 inch slices. Arrange on a foil covered baking tray and brush lightly with olive oil.
4. Broil French bread slices for 2-3 minutes until toasted.
5. Remove from oven and generously spoon tomato mixture onto each slice. Top with cheese and broil for 5-6 minutes until the cheese is melted.
6. Enjoy! (If you're like me, you could have eaten JUST bruschetta for dinner.)
xo!
shawna
* NSFD rankingLabels: appetizers, basil, bruschetta, Cooking, hors d'oeuvres, Mad Men, Mr. T, Recipes, self-reflection, shopping, tomatoes, winter
