Bruschetta, It's Not Just A Snack Anymore

Greetings fellow food lovers,

First I want to give a warm thank you to all those of you who have started reading and follow my blog. The support is much appreciated!

Now enough of the gooey stuff, on to the cookin'.

Bruschetta is a wonderful little Italian snack commonly made of toasted bread, tomatoes, basil, onions, garlic and mozzarella. It's simple and easy. But it's commonly thought of as a snack or appetizer. So how can you make it more?

Here's what I did. I had left over chicken I had cooked and seasoned two nights before. I also had a few pieces of bread left over and I wanted to finish off the bag. In an effort to get rid of food before I went on vacation, I decided to take all the perishable leftovers in my refridgerator and mesh them all together, similar to jumbalaya in New Orleans, or paella in Spain.

First, preheat the oven between 350 and 400 degrees (depending on your impatience level).

I had half an onion just sitting in my fridge. So I chopped it up into long thin slices and threw them on the frying pan. Add a little bit of olive oil and just saute them until they sweeten, otherwise known as caramelized onions. While sauteing the onions, I threw in raw garlic cloves to toast the outsides. Boom. The difficult part is over!

I took the chicken, conveniently sitting in its tupperware and threw it in the oven for 30 seconds to warm it up. Now, take your pieces of bread, melt some butter in the microwave for 15 seconds, and using a brush, brush the butter evenly over both sides of the bread. Melting the butter isn't a taste issue so much as an ease of time and energy...

Take whatever cheese you have in your fridge. In this case, I had left over goat gouda cheese (delicious by the way, you can pick it up at King Soopers and is a great mild tasting melting cheese) and chevre (a dry soft goat cheese also good in literally everything). I sliced the gouda and crumbled the chevre onto the toast. Next, I took the chicken and chopped it into little pieces, laying it over the cheese. I had some tomatoes so I chopped those up in pieces and threw them on. I also had some dried rosemary in my spice cabinet so I sprinkled some on. Lastly, I took the hot caramelized onions and roasted garlic from the stove and put those on as well. Voila! Actual cooking complete.

Now just throw the complete product in the oven (make sure they're sitting on cookie sheet or some sort of oven-safe carrying device) and wait about 7 minutes. Just keep checking until the bread is at the desirable toasted level, and the cheese is melted. If your toast is ready, but the cheese is not, I would just throw it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds, and the cheese will melt immediately.

I ate 2 pieces of this bruschetta and was full, so it definitely can be a meal!

Love & Doughnuts,

The Mrakulous Kitchen