Kicking Off The Weekend

Ron, Reece and Aubrey had the day off yesterday.  Ron worked in the yard, mowing the grass.

Reece and Aubrey played with the Wii, went swimming and went with me to Gran's.    

I planted the front flower bed with the pink begonias and green and pink potato vines I bought a couple of days ago.

In the afternoon, I made some bruschetta for a snack for the family, but it wound up being my dinner as well.  Everyone liked it, even the little girls.  

I made two kinds, artichoke/parmesan and parmesan with tomato and basil.  So simple to make, and so delicious!  I started with a skinny loaf of french bread, sliced it into 1/2" pieces and brushed each piece with olive oil.

For the artichoke ones, I mixed about 3/4 of a jar of marinated artichokes with about 1/2 cup of fresh grated parmesan cheese.  Put a spoonful of the mixture on the bread and broil under the broiler for about 2 minutes, until the topping is bubbly and cheese is melty.  Eat it while it's warm.  Yummy!

For the tomato basil ones, each slice was brushed with olive oil, then put under the broiler to lightly toast.  Put a thin slice of parmesan on each toast and either stick them back under the broiler for a minute to melt the cheese, or put them into the microwave for 30 seconds until the cheese melts.  I used smallish tomatoes, and topped each piece of toast and cheese with a tomato slice and a fresh basil leaf.  Drizzle with a little more olive oil and shake on some salt and pepper.  So good!  And healthy.

There are so many toppings you could make for these.  Tomorrow I may make some with avocado, tomato and rosemary.  I also have some ricotta cheese, fig jam and honey--I wonder if that combination would taste good on them?  

Ron and I went to Lowes in the evening.  We got some Hasta Gro for the yard, three bags of potting soil, some organic bug spray and a liner for one of my hanging baskets.  I'm going to plant yellow petunias and a blackie sweet potato vine in it.  Oh, and we got two red knockout roses.  I'm looking forward to getting those planted.

Then we stopped at Sonic for a small chocolate malt for me and a mocha java chiller for Ron.  It was a nice day.

Have a great weekend!