One of the many things I love about toddlers is how they articulate life in simple terms. During dinner last week, my son looked over at my husband and I with his beautiful big brown eyes and said “We’re happy, right guys?”. We both smiled and said “Yes, we are happy”. And he grinned and said “Yeah, I’m happy too”. Sometimes life can seem so complicated. What a lovely feeling to have your little one take you back to basics. We put so much of our energy into wondering if we’re reading to him enough, teaching him enough, being enough of a good example. But it’s times like these when we realize how much he is teaching us. He is a constant reminder to be in the moment and to be grateful for the simple joys in life (it sounds cliché but true things often do).
That’s also one of the things I love about this time of year. This season always takes me back to the ‘simple’ times of my childhood. The longer warm days, the end of the school year, my mom in her garden, big family BBQ’s, pool parties, and seemingly boundless amounts of strawberries. I grew up close to the California strawberry fields so strawberries have a very special place in my heart. I love eating them as is or layering them on everything from pie to salad to toast.
For this toast, I kept the strawberries simple and sliced. Then I added some of my favorite basic flavors into ricotta cheese. Lemon, honey, and vanilla are such a happy trio. So basic, but the perfect way to create a slightly sweet ricotta cream.
Ingredients
- Bread (sliced and toasted)
- Strawberries (hulled and sliced)
For the ricotta cream:
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 small lemon
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- Put the ricotta cheese, honey, and vanilla in a small bowl.
- Slice the lemon in half. Please a small strainer over the bowl and squeeze the juice of the lemon into strainer so that only the juice ends up in the bowl.
- Using a grater or zester, take the lemon halves and grate lemon zest directly over the bowl (optional: save some of the zest for topping)
- Stir well to combine all ingredients.
- Spread a good amount of the ricotta cream onto your toast, top with sliced strawberries, and enjoy!
Hope you enjoy this recipe! Some of my other favorite ways to use strawberries are as follows:
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