Right when my husband and I moved into our new place we made friends with the neighbors. About two weeks later they had a Father's day party and invited us over to meet all their neighborhood friends. It was a pot luck scenario, my very first of many to come.
My neighbor offered to give me a pizza to cook up not knowing my passion for food. I laughed at her and told her how much I love to cook and that I will certainly not be bringing a frozen pizza to my first neighborhood party! :)
I searched through my CIA text book,
The Professional Chef, Ninth Edition. I really want to take this opportunity to impress. So I chose the perfect thing for a summer Father's day gathering,
Panzanella Salad. Now, you ought to know I always change recipes. I tweak it just a little bit to make it my own...
I roughly chopped two tomatoes, then I pealed and blanched about a quart of cherry tomatoes. Next time I only want to used blanched cherry tomatoes. I did this by cutting a little X on one end of the tomatoes, about eight at I time I dropped them in boiling water for 30 seconds. I took them out and dropped them in an ice bath and the skin basically peals off on its own. I cut six celery heart sticks on the bias, medium diced a yellow and a red pepper, three cloves of garlic finely diced, and I pealed and de-seeded a cucumber (using a spoon). I medium diced two peaches as well, this was my own addition. Next I added two table spoons of capers, and lemon basil, and added my home made red wine vinaigrette and of course you can't forget to S & P everything.
Just before the party I added a pint of stale bread, or you can toast up any bread you have laying around. Mix it all up and its ready to serve. It was a huge hit, and I will be making it again and again!
