Tomato Basil Goat Cheese Bruschetta is one of my absolute favorite things about summer. Either this or Caprese Salad makes it onto our summer menu at least twice a week.

Get your hands on some fresh, sun ripened tomatoes.  I used cherry tomatoes cut into quarters, but you could use whatever you’re growing.

This takes fresh goat cheese (the creamy kind).  Use a little spoon to create globs of creamy goat cheese goodness all over the tomatoes.  I go for pieces that are about the same size as the tomato pieces.  You want about half as much goat cheese as tomatoes.

Go out to your garden and pick a handful of  fresh basil. Clean your basil leaves and then stack the leaves up on top of each other.  Gently slice them into thin ribbons and then scatter them on top of the cheese.  For a cup and a half of tomatoes, I use 10 to 15 good sized basil leaves.

Drizzle a good quality olive oil all around the salad.  I don’t measure, but I’d guess it’s about 1- 2 tablespoons worth.

Drizzle some balsamic syrup (reduced balsamic vinegar) on there too.  Again, I don’t measure, but it’s about 1-2 tablespoons.

Sprinkle a bit of kosher or sea salt on the top, along with a few grinds of fresh black pepper. If you feel extra fancy, use Maldon Flaked Sea Salt (affiliate link).

Stir and combine the ingredients gently.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  I like to add a little more balsamic vinegar on the top.

This is wonderful on a bed of baby spinach leaves as a main dish salad, or served with some crispy garlic bread slices for an appetizer.  Or if you’re like me, just eat it with a spoon before your husband comes home.  Hide all the evidence and serve him cold cuts for dinner.

(not that i’ve ever done that honey.  honest.)

Tomato Basil Goat Cheese Bruschetta Recipe

To make it be actual bruschetta, spread it onto the crispy thick bread slices that you serve bruschetta on.  Personally, I use cheap french bread from the grocery store cut into one inch thick slices and lightly toasted on both sides.

It’s Five Minute Friday, hosted by Lisa-Jo Baker at The Gypsy Mama.  Five minutes of free writing flash mob goodness.

If you aren’t familiar, the rules are simple.  Lisa-Jo Baker gives a single word writing prompt every Friday.   Each of us have five minutes to write and post.  No editing, no second guessing, no fancy stuff.  Just plain writing – straight from the heart. (click HERE for the official rules and details).  Then we go visit other participants and shower them with comment love.

Last week, the word was COMFORT

This week, the word is SONG.

On the surface, this looks like a story about little birds learning to fly.  It’s not.

I’m sure your next assumption is that the little flying birds are a metaphor for my children.  That would be a mighty fine story and you’re welcome to tell it to yourself.  This… this is something different.

There was a little bird in the front yard the other day.

It was a baby blue jay to be specific.  Although, perhaps the word “juvenile” is a better description.

It wasn’t quite flying, but it was doing the fly-hop thing.  The parental birds were in the nearest tree branch, crying out what sounded like encouragement and instruction.

My neighbor and her daughters were quite distressed.  They were worried that the sweet little baby would be devoured by one of the neighborhood cats.  They were worried that the bird would die of cold, unable to fly back up to it’s nest.  They worried that the bird would starve.

A few weeks ago, I started a board on Pinterest about Candy Crush.

I started a Pinterest board about my #CandyCrush addiction with the plan of writing a blog post about it. That about covers it.

— Susan (ThisHappyMom) (@happymomsusan) April 28, 2013

I figured that tweeting about a meme I was pinning on Pinterest that started as a Facebook game pretty much covered all my social media addictions in one basket.  The only thing left was my blog.  Just to complete things, I’ll Instagram something from today’s post and then tweet the Instagram post.

(it seems i may have a social media addiction in addition to this darn candy crush thing.)

That was a few weeks ago.

Since then, I’ve played a bit more Candy Crush.  I’ve also paid attention to how my friends talk about it.   I’ve gotten a good idea of how to assess your level of Candy Crush Saga Addiction.

Some levels are more acceptable than others.

My kids make me laugh almost daily, even when I’m not expecting it.  Like the other day when they saw twins.

As an adult, twins aren’t that big of deal to me.  I graduated from high school with two sisters who happened to be idential twins, and that kind of made twins seem normal to me.

I’d forgotten that twins fascinated me as a kid.

As a kid, I thought twins were cool.

I wanted a twin so bad.  Obviously, I could then go crazy and break all the rules and blame everything on my evil twin… all the time claiming to be a good girl.