Warning: You Just Might Get Hooked!

You know how you have that one thing that you just LOVE to eat? The thing that you would love to curl up with on a cold and lonely day, but then you feel too guilty because you know how much your husband loves it, too? Or the thing that you hope your kids DON'T eat a lot of, so there is more for you? Well, this is it for me!! I owe so much to my sister-in-law, Jill (an incredible culinary master), for introducing me to this fantastic dish. I don't think she is aware of the effect it has had on me! I can specifically remember the day she made it for us. Mmmm.... I get hungry just thinking about it! The other day, as I was making it for the umpteenth time, I thought it was about time I shared it with the rest of the world. Maybe you won't like it at all...but since I am so hooked on it, and Greg and my kids are so hooked on it, and I've managed to get most of my family hooked on it, I daresay you should give it a try. The real tragedy of the whole thing is that it has no name. Or better put, I don't know its name. We affectionately call it 'Bread Salad.' But, that doesn't quite do justice to the mouth-watering, craving-inducing, incredibly delicious thing that I am about to show you. Jill, if you are out there, Thank you, thank you for changing my life, and, by the way, What is this called?

Okay, let me show you what to do...First, you smile in anticipation. Then you grab a knife, and a few simple ingredients...

Here is my lovely assistant, Julia. She rivals or surpasses me in my love for Bread Salad! As you can see, you need a few tomatoes and a cucumber (seedless is best, regular is cheaper).
This puts the BREAD in Bread Salad. You need to cut up a baguette into bite-sized pieces. I highly recommend the mini baguettes from Costco. They come in a package of six, which, if you used them all, would make a lot of salad. My little town lacks a Costco, so I settle for the long, skinny baguette at the grocery store and I cut up the whole thing, sometimes two. Then, I put the pieces on a cookie sheet, like so.
Next, drizzle some extra-virgin olive oil over the bread. (My lovely assistant took this picture!) Put the bread in the oven, at say 350 for ten minutes or so. This is so non-technical. But, you want to get your bread toasty. Take it out when it starts to feel toasted on the edges.
While the bread is toasting, thinly slice up your cucumber. I prefer seedless, like I said, but usually opt for the cheaper seeded cuke. I use my cheese slicer to get the thin slices. Cut up your tomatoes (maybe 2, 3, or 4, depending on the size of your salad) as well, into small pieces. Then thinly slice a purple onion (1/4 to 1/2 of it) and put the slices in a ice-water bath to reduce to potency of the onion.
Remove the bread and dump the pieces into a large bowl. Add the cucumbers, tomatoes, and drained onion slices. Then, make the dressing: 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. I think Jill did equal parts of oil and vinegar, but I have adjusted it a little, and I usually just eyeball it. Again, it isn't very technical...and you really can't go wrong. Whip it together with a fork and immediately drizzle it over the salad. Then, mix it all up.
This is what it looks like without the dressing. You might not want all of the dressing on it, so pour it slowly, or add it to taste. I LOVE vinegar and salt, so I drench my salad, grab my own salt shaker, and thoroughly enjoy myself. I could eat this whole bowl...if I can fend off Julia and Greg, which I usually can't.
I hope you like it....whatever it's called.