Lavender-Goat Cheese Crostini with Peaches and Mint

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I have mentioned the husband's new hobby: cheese. That means I have been looking for multiple ways to use cheese. On its own, in omelettes, tucked into frittatas, crumbled onto salads. 

And now: slathered onto crostini with a drizzle of lavender honey and a layer of sweet peaches. 


This little appetizer is, let's admit it, overkill in terms of summer. Lavender! Honey! Mint! Peaches! And it needs just the right creaminess of goat cheese to root it down a little, to remind these crostini they need not be so brazenly ensconced in full-blown summer.  

You could mix out the peaches for a slice of apple or a pile of pears. You could top the fruit with basil or even a pop of rosemary (imagine with me now--atop roasted figs). Sure, you could go these other, more autumnal or late summer routes. But this little toast refuses to let you get ahead of yourself and it insists you grab these peak days of July and hold onto them.


Because come autumn, I'll be mixing the goat cheese into souffles or with the last of the tomatoes into a tart or even with a pasta topped with beets, squash, and sage.  And I'll miss these heady days of sweet peaches and lavender and mint.

But I guarantee, the husband will still be making cheese.


(P.S. Do you see his first foray into Valençay? I am going to admit it here--it was quite good.  All fresh and nutty and creamy and mild. Well done, husband. Well done.) 






Lavender-Goat Cheese Crostini with Peaches and Mint

Adapted from Twenty Dinners

Yield:
4 Servings

Ingredients:
1/2 cup honey
A pinch of lavender, fresh or dried
2 peaches
1/2 baguette, cut into 1-inch slices, toasted
6-8 ounces goat cheese (any kind--young, aged, covered in ash)
Fresh mint leaves, chiffonade

 Instructions:
1. In a small pan, warm the honey and lavender on low heat for about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow the honey to cool to just above room temperature.
2. Slice the peaches into wedges, about 1/4 inch thick.

 3. Spread the toasted rounds with goat cheese. Top with peach slices. Add a few mint slices, then lightly drizzle with the lavender-honey mixture. 

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