Lunch on a slow day

After last week's holiday sales this week has been a bit slow. One of the things we've used the time for was a collaborative lunch.

All that wonderful Sweet Basil was from Beverly's garden. She and her green thumbed sisters have been gifting us with goodies all summer. I have never SEEN so much fresh Basil in one place!  

Lots of fresh Mozzarella, lots of tiny grape (or cherry) tomatoes.  Chop the cheese into small pieces, cut each tomato in half, cut up as much basil as you have and then add a bit more.  Tuck it into a hot oven until the cheese melts.  It won't take long.

Out of the oven all warm and melty...  Now, the original recipe suggests serving as a hot dip, with tortilla chips or pita chips or some such.  What we discovered was that there was some tomato juice and maybe some butter fat from the melted cheese...so there was a layer of liquid at the bottom, far too good to waste.  SO, rather than toasting the slices of french bread that we had planned to use as Crostini to dip the cheese with.

Instead, we sliced the untoasted bread (although we could also have toasted it) several slices per plate, and spooned the wonderful Caprese Dip over the bread.

We do eat well!