Birds and Spiders

Sometimes life is just a busy mess of routines. Brush teeth, drive to work, care for others, eat and sleep. You often forget about taking time to look around and appreciate it all. Before you know it your baby is drawing and your little baby is feeding herself bananas.

I recently got a written report from my son, Calvin's, day care about his day. It reminded me to remember the simple pleasures of life:

"Calvin had a good morning and played with his friends in the sandbox. He went potty twice. He was very interested in the new kid that visited and was very gentle with him. Calvin enjoyed playing on the boat and the climbing structure. He also enjoyed drawing with the green marker. He went in the nap room with his caregivers and they helped him to sleep. He slept for 2 hours and then had snack. He then had fun with the dance party!"

Oh to be a kid, draw pictures of birds and spiders and DANCE!

Love!

Blackberry Lemon Goat Cheese Puffs

 Someday I will make my own soap...today is not that day. I will organize the junk drawer and dream about jellybeans...but today is not that day. Someday, I will add more pictures to my kids baby books and make sure that my toddler flosses his teeth...today is not that day. Someday, I will make my own puff pastry...until then I will use frozen. And these are so easy and crowd pleasing, I may just put my energy into something else. You must make these....someday.

I cut my pastry into triangles as I only had one frozen sheet of pastry and wanted to make a lot for a weekend BBQ crowd.

Don't worry if the blackberry falls off during the baking process. You will have to lift it up to put on the arugula.

Simple and easy and a melt in your mouth butter of goodness!

Blackberry Lemon Goat Cheese Puffs

Adapted from Sutterbean

Makes a whole bunch!
6-8oz of goat cheese room temperature
1 and 1/2 tablespoons lemon zest
2 large tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of milk
1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed
1 pint blackberries
3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
Arugula

Preheat the oven to 400F. Line your baking sheets with parchment.

In a bowl, mix the room temperature goat cheese, lemon zest and honey together. In another bowl mix the blackberries and vinegar and let them sit for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Cut the puff pastry into squares or triangles. ( You could even do circles with a cookie cutter)  Place them on the lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart and score a triangle into the pastry making sure not to cut all the way to the bottom. (If you are making squares, score a square, circle score a circle) You get my drift. Using a pastry brush lightly brush the pastry with milk.

Place a dollop of the lemon goat cheese on top of each pastry and top with a blackberry.
Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes until golden. Let them cool and then place a leaf of arugula under each blackberry. Can be served warm or at room temperature.
Enjoy!