Grilled Appetizer before the Peas

From Bobby Flay's book Boy Gets Grill (page 63) this is Grilled Bread Panzanella. I grilled this appetizer because we were away from home at normal grilling time - it ended up being most of a meal. I chopped up tomatoes, red onion, and garlic. Then mixed in red wine vinegar, kosher salt and ground pepper and let all the ingredients set together in a covered container. I grilled the "crusty" bread after brushing both sides with olive oil. After they came off the grill, I wrapped them in foil and the whole dish became portable. When we served it up we added shredded Mozzarella. We put it together more like a brushetta than Bobby's original recipe. Bobby's version called for the grilled bread to be cut into cubes and mixed in with all the other ingredients makes it more like a salad or side dish. We left the bread cut in slices off the grill, so we could take it with us easier. 

Where were we going? The Black Eyed Peas concert! 

Over Christmas break, our son Ziggy was in Nashville. I told him that I had gotten tickets to the Black Eyed Peas. He said "What the heck!" and he texted his girlfriend that his old parents were going to this concert. So I was ready to not like it. I already know their music - how could you miss it these days, but I was ready to quickly dismiss them. I was ready to say that they were not as good as some of my favorites from 20 (and 30) years ago. But as Dorothy put it, "They were freaky good." I was a terrific show. Will.i.am is part concert emcee, part impromptu songwriter, part rapper, but all showman. He is the real deal as an entertainer. And Fergie - I'm sorry to my generation, but she is better than Linda Ronstadt and Pat Benatar combined. 

The show started with a computer generated face on huge screens telling is that the show was being downloaded. The face looked like a circuit board, spoke like Max Headroom, but gave off the essence of the Wizard of Oz. In fact there were Wizard of Oz throwbacks all night. Will.i.am wore a series of  metallic masks that looked like his actual face and hair - was he the 2010 Tin Man? The concert was three guys and a girl taking us on a journey. The was no yellow brick road, but there was a stage that cut out into the crowd. When Fergie went down that runway, the security guards - dressed in yellow - stood shoulder to shoulder against the mosh pit. The show actually was downloaded and all computer generated except for the voices. At times you couldn't tell who on stage was real and who was a life size video projected on the screen. Everyone dressed and danced like robots all night. The Black Eyed Peas are made up one African American (will.i.am), one Mexican American (Taboo), one Filipino (Apl de ap), and Fergie (the chick pea) - the crowd was very eclectic as well. Three generations of a Filipino family sat right behind us and they went crazy when Apl de ap came out in what looked like a South Pacific war headdress. There were parents with their kids (not real young kids - the warm up act was Ludacris). And, Ziggy we were not the oldest folks there! I may have been to a better concert - but I can't remember when. Check them out at http://www.blackeyedpeas.com/

The Peas move on through there world tour and the grilling moves on as well.

Paul