{recipe} bruschetta, sangria, & asparagus carbonara, oh my!

I had some very good friends over the other night for dinner and wine. My friend Amanda wanted to cook dinner for everyone, so I made sangria and an appetizer, Beth brought the wine and Kaitlin brought dessert! It was a wonderful night catching up with friends with extremely yummy food at that.

Bruschetta:

Ingredients:

6 roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil

3 cloves minced garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup fresh basil, stems removed

`1 french baguette

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Salt and ground black pepper (to taste)

Directions:

Step 1: Preheat oven on broiler setting.
Step 2: In a large bowl, combine the roma tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, 2 tbsp olive oil, vinegar, basil, salt, and pepper. Allow mixture to sit for about 10 minutes.

Step 3: Cut the baguette into 3/4-inch slices. On a baking sheet, arrange the baguette slices in a single layer. Divide the 1/4 cup of olive oil onto each baguette slice. Broil for 1 to 2 minutes. Watch this carefully! This is where my bread started to burn a little bit.

Step 4: Divide the tomato mixture evenly over the baguette slices. Top the slices with mozzarella cheese.

Step 5: Broil for about 3 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. Again, keep a very close eye on it!

White Wine Sangria

Ingredients:

Your favorite large bottle of white wine. (We used Pinot Grigio.)

2 cups of your favorite fruit (We used white peaches and strawberries)

1/4 cup orange juice with pulp

1/4 cup diet sprite

Directions: 

Combine all in a pitcher (if making ahead of time, omit the sprite and add just before serving). Put in fridge and serve over crushed ice. Enjoy :)

Amanda preparing our Asparagus Carbonara. She found the recipe on Closet Cooking, a wonderful blog filled with a very diverse recipe list. She added fat-free milk instead of the heavy cream the original recipe called for. The consistency of the sauce was still great, so if you are looking to cut calories and fat then you can do the same without losing any flavor! She also added yummy scallops as well.

Our chef for the night!

Kaitlin's yummy red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.

It was a great night and we decided we are going to try to keep it up at least once a week for the rest of summer :)

xox, Jen