Big Muddy

Made a quick trip back to the lake this weekend. Just stayed one night. We have had historic amounts of rain here in July and the flood waters from the counties to our north made it to our lake, bringing lots of mud with them. I've never seen it this muddy. Glad our big family gathering was the week before.

But a muddy lake doesn't stop early morning knitting. I've done so little knitting this summer. Too much else going on. So it was good to slip out onto the porch in my pj's and work a few more rows on the striped socks. Surely I'll finish them before cold weather.

It wasn't very long before I was joined on the porch by Little Sister. Her first words—"Where the lookers?" You can see what "lookers" are. Love her small child vocabulary!

Little Sister and Daddy-O had a lesson in fishing. No bites this time. Could have a little something to do with the fact that Little Sister loves reeling the line in. Time the hook hit the water, she was turning the crank. A fish would nearly have to jump out of the water to get on her hook!

Just an update to the Salsa Chicken recipe I've posted here before. It was good the first time, but we liked it so much better when I used this salsa with corn and black beans. The flavor of the salsa is the make-or-break ingredient here, so pick the brand you like best. I froze this batch and took it to the lake for our July 4th stay. It made a good, easy dinner to feed our houseful one night.

And I'm finally getting around to sharing a recipe from our July 4th stay that was a really good one. Mommy was in charge of appetizers one day and she made this crostini for us. A good mix of summer flavors. It's a substantial appetizer which worked well for us since we had a late dinner that night. One caveat—the toppings tended to fall off, so it's not a finger-food that you walk around with. Good enough to make again, though!

SUMMER CROSTINI with WHIPPED ROASTED GARLIC GOAT CHEESE

   from HowSweetEats.com

1 baguette, sliced into 16 rounds**
12 ounces of goat cheese
2 tablespoons whipped cream cheese
1 head of roasted garlic
4 ears of grilled corn, cut from the cob
1 pint of grape tomatoes, quartered
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place bread slices on a baking sheet and bake until golden, about 10-12 minutes.

While bread is baking, add goat cheese, cream cheese and roasted garlic cloves to the bowl of your food processor and blend until creamy. (No food processor at the lake. Just used a fork to mash it all together in a bowl.)

Toss tomatoes with salt, pepper, and olive oil.

To prep  crostini, spread each slice with goat cheese, then top with a handful of tomatoes, grilled corn and fresh basil. Serve!

**We found that we had plenty of topping—the spread and the veggies—to make double the number of toasts. Suppose it depends on the size of the bread loaf you're using. Ours was skinny.