A Good Sunday, and Easy Cheesy Tomato Things

Today has been busy--after company left, Larry got to cutting grass and I got to work on the produce he'd picked in the morning. More dill pickles are in process (and will be finished before the hour is out), a few quarts of tomatoes are in the freezer (not enough for a canner load, so I froze them to use later in soups), some basil is hanging to dry and the bushel of peaches is sorted so all the ones with bad places are in a bucket for the turkeys and chickens to enjoy. I also finally got the huge weeds out of my poor herb garden, feeling like I needed to apologize to the herb plants for such neglect. They seem to have forgiven me, and my reward for cleaning up the garden was the most delightful combination of scents--rosemary, savory, basil, Thai basil, thyme and others provided heady perfume as I worked.

We started this morning with a late, massive breakfast. We'd been up late the past two nights, just talking on the porch. There is nothing more comforting to me than time like that with my family, talking about nothing in particular but still a rich and satisfying conversation with lots of laughter. So we were slow moving this morning and were back on the porch drinking coffee when Derek and his family arrived at 10:30 am. Now you know that's late for us country types!

 I mixed up pancakes and Derek cooked them and the sausage while Katie cut up strawberries and I thawed and sweetened blueberries to go with whipped cream on the pancakes. I wasn't hungry again until evening! And even then not very hungry, so I decided on something simple.

I remembered something my sister Maggie made when she was here on July 4th weekend. It's so simple and so good.

A cracker (I used water crackers), some goat cheese, a slice of tomato, and a basil leaf: that's all there is to it. An absolutely delicious snack and made in less than a minute. These are great appetizers.

Then I made one of my favorite sandwiches--grilled provolone and tomato on whole grain bread.

A few cucumber slices and that was supper.

I hope your day was as satisfying as mine has been. Even though the heat returned after last night's storms, it was still a good day.