We were planning on going out to brunch this morning, as a late celebration of my birthday. One of my all time favorite restautants is Pappadeaux, a Cajun place that is part of the Pappas brother's chain. There are two in the Chicago area, and I'm relieved that none of them are any closer than 30 minutes, or I'd LIVE there.
We visited Jamie and Speedbump for New Years two years ago, and I discovered that they have ALL the Pappas restaurants in one place. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. There are at least six restaurants that feature seafood, barbeque, steak, Mexican, Cajun and Italian. Each restaurant features one cusine, and has "pappa" built into the name (Pappadeaux, Pappacitos, Pappas Brothers, etc.)
At any rate....we were supposed to go to brunch this morning, but it seems a cold has set in, and no one was up for it. That's a first! We've spent a quiet morning. DH has been watching the History and Sci-Fi channels, I've been reading mail and blogging and Mother has been knitting and watching HGTV.
One of the problems associated with a change of plans like this is always.....what will we do for dinner. Today, it seems we are in luck.
Yesterday, I visited the Farmer's Market, so I had plenty of veggies on hand. We decided to do Roasted Red Peppers with Bread Salad, and pasta with a meat sauce. I made lasagna earlier in the week when my niece and her kids joined us for dinner, so I have a package of cooked hamburger and mild Italian sausage in the freezer. There are jars of Prego and boxes of pasta.
Bread salad is an interesting dish that may have come to us through Tuscany. Essentially, it's cubes of French or Italian bread, a diced tomato, diced cucumber, crumbled or cubed feta and brine cured olives. We add roasted red pepper marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and garlic, and we tend to leave out the olives.
I cut the peppers into strips and roasted them, skin side up for about 12 minutes. When they cool, I'll pull the skin away, cut them into bite sized pieces and marinate them. I'll rinse a small head of romaine and use that as a base for the salad, but you can serve it without greens.
Mother asked me to broil one extra pepper for her. We're going to skin and puree it, and freeze it in an ice cube tray. She plans to add a cube or two to tomato soup this winter, and one pepper should last her three or four meals.
So.....it's a quiet day here. I hope you're enjoying the beautiful fall weather!
Comments (1)
Sounds more than edible. Thanks for the enlightenment about the bread salad, I don't think I have ever had that or anything similar.
Posted by Dr. D. | October 12, 2003 5:28 PM
Posted on October 12, 2003 17:28