Tag: panzanella salad

Weekend Chef: Panzanella Salad

My mother, sister, daughter, and I painted from sunrise until sunset during our Columbus Day watercolor fest. We did take occasional breaks for important things–like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For lunch my sister whipped up this delightful Panzanella salad. It was quick, easy, and delicious. It’s best made with good quality home-grown tomatoes, like these beauties I bought last weekend at the farmer’s market–which were probably the last tomatoes of the season.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this salad:

Ingredients:

2 thick slices of  dense bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (we used honey sunflower artisan bread I bought at Harris Teeter)
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1/4 small red onion, diced
1 cup fresh mozzarella, cubed
1 stalk celery, diced
8 basil leaves, sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Combine all ingredients into a medium-sized bowl. Stir to combine. Let sit at room temperature until the bread softens. Serve with a glass of peach iced tea. Serves 3-4.

Eat, Paint, Love

What a busy weekend. Not only did I attend the Remington fall festival, I also hosted a Columbus Day girls weekend at my house. My mother, sister, daughter, and I spent the entire weekend together and we did what we girls do best–we cooked, we ate, and we painted. On Sunday we started off the day with a breakfast consisting of this delicious bananas foster puffed pancake and coffee:

After a quick clean-up, we got down to some serious painting.

My daughter worked on these colorful stargazer lilies:

My sister tried her hand at painting a bouquet of tulips:

My mother worked on these morning glories:

And I worked on this rainforest fairy, who looks a bit freakish at this stage because she has no eyes:

We painted for several hours then stopped for lunch. My sister prepared this fabulous panzanella salad with some tomatoes I bought at the farmer’s market (probably the last of the season) and some fresh basil from my mother’s garden. She served the salad with glasses of peach iced tea.

Then we continued our painting fest. We painted well into the evening because my sister was determined to go home with a finished painting. Everyone completed their paintings except my mother, who stopped to cook us this fabulous chicken with coconut-pineapple curry sauce, which we piled on top of jasmine rice:

I don’t know which was more fun–painting the day away with my family or preparing and eating these fabulous meals. I’ll call it a tie. I’ll be posting pictures of the completed paintings and recipes for the fabulous good eats next.

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