Picnic at the Agility Trial

My friend, June, invite me to another agility trial with her poodle, Beau, today. I had to be at her house at zero-dark-thirty to travel to lovely Lewis, NY, but we had a very nice day. It started off quite chilly, but the sun came out by the afternoon. And June and Beau qualified and placed first on all of their runs! But best of all was the picnic lunch that we prepared.

June brought two thermoses full of this wonderfully spiced butternut squash soup. She said she based it off of a recipe that she found on Epicurious that she will direct me to later, but basically, she started with bacon and shallots, vegetable broth and white wine, the squash, of course, and then star anise, peppercorns, and a bay leaf in a tea ball, and a sprinkling of cinnamon and fresh nutmeg at the end. So warming, filling, and DELICIOUS!

Since June did soup, my job was sandwiches. And I began by pondering the eternal question, why couldn't you combine a BLT and a Caprese salad into one incredible sandwich? As it turns out, you definitely can! So for the BLT part of the equation, I used local Bibb lettuce, peppered bacon, yellow heirloom tomatoes and a little mayo on a toasted crusty roll (ciabatta would be awesome, too). Then for the Caprese elements, I added fresh mozzarella slices, basil leaves from my herb garden, and a drizzle of thick balsamic glaze--the tomato being the common denominator, of course. You could also blend the mayo and basil leaves to make an herby spread, but I just layered on the whole basil leaves. SO YUMMY! The ultimate end-of-summer sandwich!