OK, so here we go...I do not claim to have any great expertise when it comes to cooking/baking, but others have raved about things I have served them, and have asked for recipes. So, since I LOVE food in general; cooking, baking, grilling, EATING, and especially trying new things, and since I have created a notebook-style three-ring binder kind of cookbook that is bursting at the seams, I felt I needed a food blog as a creative outlet. Today's blog is all about food I made today (it seemed like a good starting place); most recently, a variation of bread salad I made for supper a mere hour and a half ago! I think I saw the recipe in Women's Health or Shape magazine (yes, I steal magazines from work), but "tweaked" it a bit, so this is how I made it:

1/2 french baguette, slightly stale, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

3 medium tomatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks

1 medium cucumber, cut into 1/2 inch chunks

1/2 small onion, diced

1 TBL olive oil

1 TBL red wine vinegar

1 TBL Dijon mustard

8 fresh basil leaves, torn to pieces

2 TBL pine nuts

sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar and mustard. In a large bowl, toss tomatoes, cucumbers, onion and dressing. Refrigerate before serving. Right before serving, add bread, basil and pine nuts and season with salt and pepper.

I had two servings. No one else wanted any - big surprise! The bread cubes soaked up a lot of the dressing - yummy! I thought it was a great dish, because I have a ton of tomatoes and cucumbers in my garden, and a stale baguette. Speaking of leftovers...I had some Hershey bars we had taken to my Mom's last week (for s'mores), so this morning, Regan and I made chocolate-filled croissants using a tube of Pillsbury crescent rolls and the leftover candy bars. Oh my! Regan ate 3...