Caprese Bites

Get ready for this, folks: I hereby officially have my very first original recipe to share with you.  Before you send me a congratulations card in the mail, know that I have since seen very similar recipes on the internet, but I swear to you that I came up with this on my own.  Here's the story:

Our garden is insane this year (was, I should say... I think we harvested for our last time the other day :( ) and we were overrun with cherry tomatoes.  Cherry tomatoes everywhere, all the time, in every recipe.  And we gave some away.  And we threw some out when they sat out and rotted.  And there were still cherry tomatoes everywhere.  So, the night of my movie premiere party (yes I'm famous and was on the Lifetime Network), I decided to make an appetizer using some of the bountiful little tomatoes.  Since I love caprese salad, I had the idea of pairing a cherry tomato with a ball of fresh mozzarella and some basil, skewering it all together on a toothpick.  Genius, right?  I was pretty proud of myself.  I know it's a pretty simple idea and it's not like I actually cooked anything... but still.  I was happy that I came up with an idea and was able to execute it without staring at a cookbook.  I'm so rules-oriented sometimes that going away from a real recipe scares me like crazy.

Anyway, nothing scary about this appetizer.  People really devoured them, despite the fact that I had tons and tons of food for them to eat (lots more posts about the premiere party food coming up!).  In fact, Kenzie ate so many that she gave herself an acid reflux attack but said she didn't regret it for a second.

They're adorable, first of all, and so delicious; I salted and peppered them, and gave some of them a quick drizzle of olive oil and balsamic (Mom hates it) to bring out the flavors a little more.  Quick, tasty, pretty, and fun... and mine!!!

Recipe:
caprese bites
from me!!!!!!

Ingredients:
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
10 - 14 small fresh mozzarella balls, halved or cut into thirds
1 large bunch fresh basil
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil to taste
balsamic vinegar to taste, optional

Instructions:

1) Pair each tomato half with a piece of mozzarella.  Depending on the size of your basil leaf, wrap the leaf around the tomato and mozzarella, or stack the tomato and mozzarella on top.  Skewer with a toothpick.  Salt and pepper the skewers, and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste.