Crostini with tuna tapenade

From this week: whole wheat bread (ugh)

From weeks past: feta cheese, kalamata olives, tuna, capers, anchovy paste

Staples: olive oil, salt, white wine vinegar

Look at this brick:

I had my suspicions when the active dry yeast didn't foam or bubble or really do anything when I put it in the warm water. But I've made whole wheat bread a bunch of times. And the yeast doesn't always react like it probably should. And I still have never met a loaf I didn't like. Really, I'm not a good bread baker. I've never made a batch even close to perfection, but I happily ate every loaf. In fact, despite the general mystique surrounding bread baking (under which I operated up until recently), more than once I've said that it's impossible to foul up bread to the point that I won't eat it.

I probably shouldn't speak in such absolutes... The thing probably weighed 34 pounds.

Fortunately, toasting cures all ills. I sawed that thing into slices, tossed the stoney pieces in olive oil, and baked 'em up good. Keeping with my week's plan, I made a little tuna salad to top my crostini. I've been wanting to make a Mediterranean-inspired tuna salad since I discovered tuna packed in olive oil this summer (and ate it straight from the can). And I finished up a bottle of kalamata olives I bought a few weeks ago - important, because that means I can buy a new bottle when I finally let myself grocery shop next week! Eeeeee!

I think I have a spending addiction.

Crostini

1 loaf of bread (a baguette is preferable, but anything will work), sliced into 3/4 in. slices

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp kosher salt

Toss slices in olive oil and salt on a cookie sheet. Lay flat in one layer and bake at 350 until golden brown, about 25-30 minutes.

Tuna tapenade

1 can light tuna packed in olive oil

1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives

2 tbsp crumbled feta cheese

2 tsp capers

1 tsp anchovy paste

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp white wine vinegar (lemon juice would be better but I didn't have any)

Chop olives in food processor. Add capers, cheese, anchovy paste, olive oil, and vinegar and process until finely chopped (but not quite a paste). Mix into tuna by hand. Serve on crostini.