Last Ode to Summer: Caprese Salad

Hi everyone! I am so excited, because it is feeling like FALL! Fall is my absolute favorite...the changing leaves, the cooler weather, and the produce! I do realize that it is not officially Fall until later this month, so as a last ode to Summer I made a Caprese salad.

There is no recipe here, I just gathered ingredients and tossed them together in a bowl.

I started with mini Bocconcini from the market. I love fresh mozzarella! I admittedly popped a few of these into my mouth as I sliced them in half.

The basil I used was from our yard, and the little tomatoes were from the Saanich fall fair. They were very acidic and flavorful, and showed off their color beautifully when I cut them in half.

I put it all in a bowl together, making sure that there were about equal parts cheese and tomato, and enough basil that you would get a little with each bite. I poured a bit of plain balsamic salad dressing over it and let it marinate in the fridge for a few hours.

There is nothing original about this Italian recipe, but it is such a beautiful blend of bright colors and fresh flavors. My family and I really enjoyed this. Ben doesn't even like tomatoes very much, and he loved this salad!

I used all small ingredients because my tomatoes were tiny, but you can make a large plate with slices of big tomatoes and large fresh mozzarella too. It's worth trying at least once!

While on a walk in our yard the next day Ben and I discovered a little surprise. Tiny bright green tree frogs living in the plants along the side of our house! They were out sunning themselves on the big leaves, and were just SO cute!

We obviously spent WAY too much time taking pictures of them.

It's nice to have little neighbors like these. They sing to us from under our bedroom window in the evenings.

Perhaps they are saying goodbye to Summer too.