Bruschetta with the Texan

Saturday night my daughter's boyfriend joined us for dinner. Since Danielle was making her famous lemon chicken pasta, I opted to prepare the appetizer and dessert. But what would be a good appetizer. Something Italian. The mind wandered to my container garden brimming with basil and ripe tomatoes.

A-ha!

Since all of this transpired at the grocery store, I grabbed a loaf of french bread and headed for the checkout line.

Y'all, this was SO good. As in, I-could-make-a-meal-out-of-this good. Ruthy, the carbs were totally worth it.

Here's what you'll need:

• A baguette or loaf of crusty french bread, sliced
• 2 large cloves of garlic, cracked away from the skin
• extra virgin olive oil
• 3 small tomatoes, halved and seeded
• 20 fresh basil leaves
• coarse salt
• ground pepper

I don't have a lot of pictures, because I was so eager to get this made I kept forgetting to take the pix.

Chop seeded tomatoes and place in a small bowl. Pile your basil leaves about ten at a time, roll into a log and thinly slice. Add to tomatoes. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. A pinch of each will generally do.

Set aside.

Preheat broiler to high. You can also grill the bread, if you prefer. Place bread slices on a broiler pan. Toast bread on each side under hot broiler. Be sure you keep an eye on it. It can go from nothing to black in no time if you get distracted.

Remove from oven and drizzle with olive oil. I used my Mr. Misto and misted mine so the coating would be lighter. Then rub toasts with cracked garlic. I didn't think this would do much, but it really added a nice kick of flavor.

Top toasts with tomato/basil mixture.

Don't they look purty?

This was so easy and so...well, like I said, yummy. It was light and refreshing on a hot Texas eve. I can hardly wait to make it again.

What's growing in your garden and how do you plan to use it?