Bruschetta and Vanilla Ice Cream

Well, its 107 degrees here at 4:30 in the afternoon if you trust the time and temp sign by the bank. There will be no cooking with stove or oven again tonight. Its just too hot. On the way home from work, I stopped at the grocery store for ideas and spotted store made bruschetta. That would be perfect for tonight; bruschetta on italian bread with panzanella.  Mmm.  Except that the storemade bruschetta was $5 for an itti bitti container. So, i made a mental note of the ingredients, bought the bread and tomatoes and came home to give it a shot. I couldn't find a recipe online that i liked the looks of so I made one up. It is now marinating happily awaiting consumption.

Bruschetta

2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 tsp paprika
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
10 basil leaves, roughly chopped
salt and pepper
5 medium sized tomatoes, diced
1/2 white onion, diced

In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes and onion. In another bowl, combine the other ingredients and whisk. Pour into larger bowl and stir to throughly coat the tomatoes and onions and evenly distribute all the flavors. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge. Allow flavors to marinate. My suggestion would be to make the day before since everything is always better the next day.

While the bruschetta was marinating, I decided that the heat necessitated the making of ice cream. So easy to make with an ice cream machine. It only takes a few minutes.

I used the recipe for vanilla ice cream that came with the ice cream machine. Can't go wrong with the original. I did add 1/2 tsp of fresh ground nutmeg for a little dimension. Yum.

(The ice cream needs a little work. It tastes delicious but it is rock solid and very hard to dish out.)