Recipe Challenge, Day 3 of 5

Howdy y'all! After a brief break from the blog, I'm back to finish my five-day cooking challenge I began. Need to catch up? Take a gander at day one and day two.

Recipe #3 was pretty dang yummy and, of course, I inserted a few of my own tweaks to make it perfection for our table. Onward, we commence!

Mozzarella, Shrimp & Grilled Pepper Salad with Croutons 
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup EVOO
3 bell peppers, mixed colors
1/2 pint grape tomatoes, quartered lengthwise
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
Salt & pepper
1/2 large baguette, sliced crosswise into 3/4-inch-thick slices
8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese (I bought a container of the cherry tomato-sized ones)
1/3 cup torn basil leaves
1 bag frozen shrimp

Step 1) Thaw your shrimp by placing in a colander under cool running water until the ice is melted. Toss around occasionally to thaw evenly.

Step 2) In a small bowl, combine your chopped garlic and the EVOO and let it sit while you prep the next ingredients.

Step 3) Preheat grill to medium-high, while you core and slice your peppers. Lightly oil the grill grate and grill the pepper pieces for 8-10 minutes, flipping occasionally to promote even charring.

Step 4) The recipe called for uncooked tomatoes, but I prefer mine cooked so I popped them into a saute pan with a little bit of olive oil while my peppers were on the grill...

...after just a few minutes they should soften and brown a tiny bit. Remove from heat.

Step 5) If you haven't already, pour yourself a nice big glass of wine. I've become hooked on the Bota Box of Malbec! After a couple glugs dainty sips, you will feel refreshed and ready to conquer the rest. Or maybe that's just me. Either way, this is my recipe so we're following my steps, right?

Step 6) It's time to grill your bread and the shrimp. Brush the bread slices on both sides with the garlic olive oil you've had marinating. Grill, turning once, until grill marks appears—about 2-4 minutes. Cut into large cubes. If you're me, this comes in handy to discard any burned pieces that fell victim to the fire!

Step 7) Meanwhile, use a grill pan to grill the shrimp (I seasoned mine with a little bit of salt, pepper and feta cheese salad dressing... but S&P would do just fine) until they are opaque white. This should only take a couple minutes, slightly longer than the bread. Stir them around in your grill pan to keep them from overcooking.

Step 8) Lightly all your ingredients together, including the mozzarella balls, basil, red wine vinegar and any of the remaining garlic olive oil. Voila!

We ate every last bite, it was so good. It's almost like a fresh Mediterranean-style dish, if you ask me. I loved the grilled bread croutons and the cooked tomatoes were delicious. The balls of mozzarella didn't lend a lot of flavor, so we actually ended up pulling them out of the bowl and sprinkling in some feta cheese. That seemed to take the flavor up several notches, I highly recommend it!

Thanks for tagging along in the kitchen with me—come back for Recipe 4 tomorrow!