My Version of Bruschetta

We are going to my daughter's lake house over the 4th. I have been thinking about an appetizer to take. I usually am requested to make a veggie pizza, but we will be traveling in the car for a few hours, so that probably won't work. I thought that I would make a Bruschetta.....only my way. This is how it came about....

Joe had been fishing and came in the house and said...."I smell garlic!" The odor permeated the house. I had been cooking peppers that morning...peppers and garlic. We bought red, yellow, orange, and green peppers at the store and I cut some of them in strips to put in freezer bags for winter. I had some left to fool around with, so I cut them in strips and took 4 cloves of minced garlic and put them in a fry pan with a generous amount of olive oil. I salt and peppered them and put them on a med heat and cooked them until they had softened. There they were in the pan all juicy and shiny...covered with that garlic flavored olive oil. I was in the house that day...and really didn't notice the garlicky smell. I suppose it was overpowering to walk in and have that hit you in the face. Well, I still didn't know quite what I was going to do with them. Then the idea came to me...I love Bruschetta that you get as an appetizer in a restaurant.They usually come with chopped tomatoes on top. Maybe I could use it for that. This idea was swimming around in my head...I don't know if I have seen it done this way...or if I dreamed it up.

I cooled it down and put it in a container in the fridg. I'm thinking that I will take a loaf of French bread and slice it....brush it with olive oil and put the slices on the grill. After they are a little browned...I'll put a shredded blend of white cheeses on...maybe mozzarella, romano, parm. and let them melt. Then I will top this with the already warmed pepper mixture and sprinkle with a few sliced black olives and basil or parsley. Last night, when Joe was rummaging through the fridg for a snack, he said...."What about these peppers?" I said, "Don't eat them!" He said, "You're guarding these with your life...aren't you?" I just smiled and thought about the new snack I had invented...or did I?

Balisha