Avocado and Goat Cheese Open-Face Sandwiches

I love days like today.  Days when my little guy sleeps past 6:30 (ok, barely, but every minute counts). Days when I had the foresight to do the dinner dishes last night, and wake up to clean reasonably tidy kitchen. Days when I can spend the morning strolling around the farmers market while the baby stares bright-eyed at all the colorful produce and “big” kids running around, nary a peep coming from those slobbery little lips of his.  Days when the afternoon is full of possibilities, none of which involve laundry (or maybe only a little laundry).

Today is one of those end of summer days that make me regret all the nasty things I said about this summer being too hot and dry and not conducive to growing a vegetable garden.  Finding this big ‘ole bushel of tomatoes at the farmers’ market takes some of the sting out of the fact that my garden has yielded exactly ZERO tomatoes thus far.

Yep, it looks like there is some tomato sauce-making in my future.  But I had to dig into one or two of these lovelies before they went into the pot.  And while the tomatoes aren’t really the star of this sandwich, they certainly help the situation. I love this sandwich because it feels like the perfect lunch for today- bright, fresh, simple, and so very enjoyable.  It’s the kind of lunch that never makes it off the cutting board and onto a plate.  Heck, the tomatoes barely made it onto the actual sandwich.

I love the flavor combination of goat cheese and avocado.  Both have this lovely, creamy texture thing going on, but the goat cheese adds a tang that makes the avocado seem even richer and creamier.  It’s downright dreamy.  A little squeeze of lemon balances out all that richness, along with the tomatoes.  Summer on a baguette.  I’m going to leave it at that, because this recipe is so simple that it seems a little silly to talk around it so much.  It’s just plain good.  And perfect for a day like today- or any day really.  It’ll make you wish that August lasted forever.  Enjoy.

Avocado and Goat Cheese Open-Face Sandwiches

adapted from (basically, the low-maintenance version of) this

You’ll notice there are no real amounts for most of the ingredients below.  As a guideline, I used one half of a large avocado and about an ounce of goat cheese when I made this for my lunch.  Everything else is to taste, so it would be a little silly for me to tell you how much lemon or salt or pepper you’d like on your sandwich, don’t you think?

1 oz. soft goat cheese

1/2 large, ripe avocado

lemon juice

freshly cracked black pepper

salt

extra-virgin olive oil

1 baguette, sliced horizontally

1 medium-sized tomato, sliced

In a small bowl, combine goat cheese, a squeeze of lemon juice, a few turns of freshly ground black pepper, and the flesh from the avocado. Lightly mash with a fork; season with salt, pepper, or more lemon juice to taste.

Divide avocado mixture between the baguette halves and spread to cover each. Top the baguette halves with tomato slices, then with a generous drizzle of olive oil, more lemon juice, and salt and pepper.  Dig in.