Tomato Salad with Crushed Croutons

If it's any indication of the craziness of 2012-2013, here is a post that I wrote nearly five months ago...and it took me this long to just get the picture uploaded!

Well, it's been four months since the last post. The busiest semester of my grad school career has finally come to a close, and it's refreshing to be able to return to the blog. Though I have had the time (or energy) to sit down and post new recipes, don't you worry...there's been no shortage of cooking in the kitchen. I haven't starved, people. I know you were concerned.

So today I'm going to dip my toes into the pool, so to speak, and post a few recipes from many months back. I have more...many more...from Asian noodles to grilled artichokes to the joyous addition of my Cooking Club (which I started in February). There will be many more posts to follow, but frankly, having to load all my pictures to the computer and then write up a gazillion recipes feels just slightly overwhelming to me four days into my semester break. So I'll start slow, with many posts to follow in the coming weeks.

A few months ago, and by that I mean all the way back to October, I was feeling like I needed some non-school related activities to get involved in. Entering my second year of the program, I felt like I was overwhelmed with school and needed to get away from psychology for a little while. So I started hunting out small groups through my church. I've consistently met good friends this way in every city I've lived in, so I was hopeful about meeting some people that I had a few things in common with. The first group I attended was nice, but it wasn't a good fit. I was the youngest by 20 years, and they were several weeks into their study about an easy book at the back of the Bible called Revelation (*ahem, easy: read, "I don't understand it"). We had a nice discussion over a potluck-style gathering, and even if it wasn't love at first bite, I did get the opportunity to meet some new people, which encouraged me to keep trying new groups. This is what I made for that first meeting: tomato salad with crushed croutons from over here.

Ingredients
Croutons
4 slices rustic white bread
1 small shallot, minced (about 2 tbsp.)
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp. salt
Black pepper
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

Tomato Salad
1 lb. cherry or grap tomatoes
2 tsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/8 tsp. salt
Pinch of sugar


Tomato salad
1 pound cherry or grape tomatoes, mixed colors if you can find them
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon mellow red wine vinegar (yours isn’t mellow? use less)
1/8 teaspoon table salt
Pinch of sugar
Freshly ground black pepper
Handful basil leaves, slivered.

Prepare the crushed croutons: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Tear bread into chunks and pule them in a food processor until coarsely ground (largest chunks can be lima bean sized). No food processor? Keep tearing the bread up until it is in ragged, mixed sized crumbs. Spread crumbs on a rimmed baking sheet and toss with shallots, garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil and parmesan until croutons are evenly coated with oil. Bake until golden brown and dry, about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven and set aside to cool slightly. (Warm is fine, hot might wilt your tomatoes, boo.)

Assemble salad: Halve each tomato lengthwise and arrange cut side up on a platter. Whisk together vinegar, olive oil, salt, sugar and a few grinds of pepper in a small dish. Drizzle over tomatoes. Sprinkle tomatoes with crushed croutons. Garnish with slivers of basil.