My brother and I have been partners in crime for more years than either of us are prepared to admit.
We fought like cats and dogs when we were growing up, and one of the proudest moments of my life is still the time during a loooooong car ride to Vermont when I tricked him into finishing his McDonalds fries before I finished mine…and then stretching mine out for the remainder of the four hour trip. (“Boy, these fries are SO good. I bet you wish you still had some. Mmmmmmmm.”)
You’d think that after that he wouldn’t have my back…but he always does. Through ups and downs, thick and thin. My bro. He also gave me one of the great gifts of my life, which is this character, otherwise known as my adorable nephew, otherwise known as the handsomest boy on the planet.
(Okay, I owe my sister-in-law for that too! Love you, C!)
Anyway, I do have a point with all of this, and here it is: he also turned me on to the best, and I mean the BEST mozzarella cheese I have ever tasted in my life. The first time I tried it, the Southern husband and I literally stood there in the kitchen and ate the whole hunk of it. No putting it into lasagna, not even a cracker – I’m not sure we even used a knife, we may have just ripped pieces off of it and guzzled it until it was gone.
And now basically all other mozzarella cheese in the world has been ruined for me, so when decided to make these cute little caprese bites, it involved driving a half hour down and another half hour back to my brother’s town to buy a nice big piece of this cheese. Which did have the extra bonus of getting to hang out with him for a little while, so there was that.
If you are lucky enough to live in the northern New Jersey area and want to experience mozzarella cheese nirvana, it comes from Vito’s Bakery (yes, bakery…no idea why and not asking questions) in Secaucus, New Jersey. They make it fresh there three times daily, and whatever they are doing, I hope they never ever stop. If you don’t, just nab a piece of the best mozzarella cheese you can find. This is the perfect little nibble to make right now when the cherry tomatoes and basil are at their delicious peak. All you do is slice the tomatos in half, cut the cheese into tomato size cubes, and spear everything on a toothpick in this order: tomato half, cheese cube, other tomato half, basil leaf. If you have the tomato half with the stem side on the bottom, it will do a good job of standing upright since it is flatter.
Now mix up some balsamic vinegar with some olive oil and some fresh ground pepper and drizzle it over and around the caprese bites. And dig in – pop the whole thing in your mouth at once for the perfect sensation of tomato, cheese and basil. Mmmm, mmm, mmm. Even better than that last McDonald’s french fry.
Ingredients Directions
Recipe adapted from My Recipes
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Luckily it's pretty easy to find good mozzarella in NYC…and seriously…once you have good mozzarella it's impossible to eat anything less. These bites are so cute!
I am so happy, I actually have the ingredients for these
That baby is just so beautiful ~
Those are soo cute! What great party food!
Another little marvelous recipe! I have to tell you that I really love your blog and all your delicious recipes!
I participated in blog hop from Mom's Crazy Cooking that will link up today at 3pm – our assignment was to find the ultimate macaroni & cheese from another blog and feature it on our own blogs. I chose your incredible Macaroni & Cheese Cupcakes!
Please stop by for a visit today at Concetta's Cafe.
Have a wonderful day!
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Concetta
concettascafe.blogspot.com
Great presentation and photo! So nice to have a loving brother.
These are just DARLING. And so are you and your brother. (Any redhead gets high ratings in my book – I think my hair is just exactly the same color as yours! At least it looks that way in that adorable baby picture.)
I just made these and I can't stop eating them! Totally delicious! Doing the yummy food dance! Thanks for the recipe.
I featured you today. Thanks for an awesome recipe!! Feel free to stop by and pick up a feature button.
http://www.flexibledreams.com/2011/10/pins-ive-tried-1.html
Amy, thanks so much! xoxo
SUCH a cute idea. I actually saw these last night and dreamed about them – no joke. Mmmm…
Wow! You dreamed about them?? This may be my favorite comment ever!!!
We are celebrating my fathers 92nd birthday tomorrow and this is one of our appetizers, making them tonight and having trouble not eating them all!
That is wonderful! Hope he has the happiest of birthdays.
How did these turn out making them in advance?
They are just fine if you make them a few hours in advance – just long enough so the mozzarella doesn’t dry out. However, I find that people love to keep me company in the kitchen while I stand there and make them, and you can see the anticipation growing as the tray fills up with little caprese bites!
These look like the perfect summer appetizer! YUM! love it! Thanks for sharing your ideas on “Strut Your Stuff” Saturday! We hope to see you again! -The Sisters
Thanks so much, and you definitely will! Love your Saturday posts!
Love these! Want these! Thanks so much for the idea. I’m making them!
I’m so glad! I’m sure you’ll love ‘em. Hope you are having a grand holiday weekend!
You may not realize your find & replace turned McDonald’s to MctheSouthernhusbandald’s. Passing it along.
LOL! Thank you so much – all fixed.
SUCH a hit among my guests for Thanksgiving! Delicious, simple, easy, and fast. Absolutely perfect appetizer.
I’m so glad! They are like a little bit of summer in at the start of winter, right?
I did a trial run on these before making them for a Christmas cookie baking party this coming Saturday, in which I was instructed to provide the veggie tray. How boring is that!?! I decided to kick my tray up a notch, and stumbled on this site. Hubby and I are into gardening, so we have the basil out in the back yard. Since we are Floridians, this is our growing season. Personally, I loved the finished product, but I think I will place the basil between the cheese and the tomato, and not on top. Hubby hated the balsamic vinegar. I adored it. Let’s just say this is a battle between two different tastes.
I found a fantastic mozzarella infused with herbs, so it added one more element of flavor to my appetizer dish. I’m good to go with this! Thanks for sharing.
I love doing trial runs – we got to have crab cake bites for dinner this week as I was testing appetizers! Love your modifications – Merry Christmas!