(no subject)

About two days ago, I made a loaf of white bread as a trial loaf for my bread-a-month recipient. It came out beautifully -- recipe is:

( Ordinary Crisp-Crust White Bread )

My loaf looked like this:( bread )

So then we had a loaf of bread, but as of tonight we'd only eaten a few slices. I didn't want it to go stale, so I sliced the rest of it up and made a sort of bruschetta, tapenade-inspired dinner. Basically, toast, and things to put on toast.

I sliced the rest of the loaf thinly, spread a little olive oil on each slice and ran it under the broiler for about three minutes, until it was golden-brown and crisp. Then I served it with red wine and the following toppings/sides, in little bowls:

* sliced salami
* sliced sharp cheddar
* pickled herring
* dill pickles
* olive tapenade (recipe follows)
* horseradish cream cheese (recipe follows)
* broiled chevre (recipe, inasmuch as it is a recipe, follows)

( Olive Tapenade )

( Horseradish Cream Cheese )

( Broiled Chevre )

It was, predictably, too much food. In the future I'd do either the salami or the pickled herring, but not both, and either the horseradish cream cheese or the chevre, but not both. Stlil, now we have brunch for tomorrow, and it was very good.

As I pointed out to the boy, there wasn't a thing on the menu that wasn't salted, pickled, cured, or fermented (except the horseradish cream cheese). It's the kind of meal you could have eaten before refrigeration. Which means it's peculiarly unsuited for summer -- a season when fresh produce is very available -- and yet it's also a good summer meal because it requires almost no cooking, and is cool and sharp and refreshing to eat.