Kitchen Therapy + Tomatopalooza = Bruchetta and Salsa

It's been a rough few days at Casa de Cagaanan. We have a sick doggie who's getting up there in her years - 15! Over the last week and a half we've made multiple trips to the vet, cleaned up lots of messes and finally invested in one of those pet spot carpet cleaners...

We're crossing our fingers that she will come out of this okay, but in the meantime there's a lot of wait-and-seeing going on.

Last night, after Lady Gwenivere was all taken care of, I decided to finally do something with that giant bowl of tomatoes on my counter, instead of sitting around feeling helpless.

It felt good to get my hands moving and chopping. It was all so theraputic, I didn't even break out the food processor.

My CSA box was full of those beautiful, oddly-shaped, multicolored heirloom tomatoes. I was just planning to make salsa, but after I chopped them up, I realized I had so much that I could also make something else.

Pat loves tomatoes too, but isn't a big fan of fresh salsa because of the onions. So, I decided to grab some fresh basil from the patio and make him some bruchetta to eat on the scrumptious Italian foccacia bread he brought home the other night.

For the salsa, I broiled the jalapenos, onion and garlic. I had lots of jalapenos so I thought broiling them would reduce the spiciness so I could use more. I also wanted to tame the onion for Pat.

I didn't really use recipes, I just started throwing stuff in by taste, but here's basically what I did:

Fresh Chunky Salsa
About 3 cups chopped tomatoes
4 jalapenos
1 really small yellow onion, peeled and cut in half
3 large cloves garlic
handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
1 lime
salt and peper to taste

After chopping up the tomatoes as small as I could, I threw 3 of the jalapenos, the onion and garlic in the broiler until browned.

I chopped that all up and added it to the tomatoes. Then I added the cilantro, juice of the lime and the salt and pepper. I tasted it and realized it needed more heat, so I added one more fresh jalapeno.

It turned out really good, but really chunky. If you aren't in need of some tomato-chopping therapy, you may want to throw it all in the food processor.

I may end up doing this afterall so it's easier to scoop. We'll see ... :)

As for the bruchetta, I've been making this for a long time. It's super easy and great to bring to parties with toasted slices of baguette brushed with olive oil! You can even top with vegan mozzarella or parmesean cheese, or regular if you must ... ;)

Basic Bruchetta
2 cups chopped tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, minced (I used a garlic press)
big handful of fresh basil, chopped
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Just mix everything together in the amounts that make you happy and voila - instant gourmet appetizer!

Well, all of this made me feel a little better - give it a try and let me know if it cures what ails you! If that doesn't work, try watching some "Friends" reruns - I swear they're always on and even funnier than you remember!