Ladybug BLTs

It’s been a buggy summer here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes…the mosquitos have sharpened their stingers, the wood ticks are thriving and I’ve swatted more flies than seems reasonable for one living in the age of the screen door.  So what to do when your bugged by bugs?  Turn that frown upside down and make Ladybug BLTs!  Ladybugs are cute…and BLTs are delicious, so the combination is a match made in heaven.

These Ladybug BLTs feature our Howlin’ Horseradish Dip Mix, which is only around for a few more weeks.  It pairs beautifully with tomatoes and bacon, and I also have several bushel baskets worth of lettuce in my garden…and this was an especially cute way to use some of it up!

If you decide to hatch your own batch of Ladybug BLTs…be sure to send me a pic!

j*a*N*e

Ladybug BLTs

• 2 TBSP (1 capful) Howlin’ Horseradish Dip Mix™
• ½ cup mayo
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2-3 oz softened cream cheese, tinted with black food coloring
• 1 baguette, sliced
• Grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise
• Small black olives, halved crosswise
• Fresh rosemary or chives
• Leaf lettuce
• Thick bacon, cooked and cut crosswise into thirds or fourths

Prepare the Howlin’ Horseradish as directed on the label with mayo and sour cream.  Chill.  Blend the cream cheese with black food coloring; place it in a resealable freezer bag.  Snip a very teeny corner off one end.  Spread the dip on a baguette slice, top with a piece of bacon, lettuce leaf and a grape tomato half.  Attach the olive half to the tomato with a little of the cream cheese, piped from the bag.  Dot the back of the tomato with cream cheese.  Insert rosemary leaves or snipped chives into the olive for antennae.  Say “Oh for cute!” and serve.

Testing Notes

• These aren’t difficult to make…but it will take a little time.  It helps to prepare and assemble all of your ingredients first, so you can create an assembly line.
• I had to use a lot more black food coloring than I expected to achieve a dark enough dot on the grape tomatoes.  It wasn’t pitch black though…I didn’t have to go that far to achieve the look.
• I snipped a super teeny corner off of my resealable bag of cream cheese…you could barely see it.  But I wanted my dots to be small.  Go small…you can always cut more off if you need too, but you can’t put any back on!
• I experimented a bit before deciding that the best way to attach the olive “heads” to the tomato “bodies” was with a little piped cream cheese.  Toothpicks were way too much trouble, and not as effective.  Plus swallowing a toothpick just isn’t any fun…
• The fresh rosemary leaves worked very well for the antennae – they are sturdier than chives, so poking them into the olives was fairly easy, and bonus – it tasted great!
• I used leaf lettuce from my garden.  I found some small leaves and I cut others.  You could also use flat leaf parsley – very cute – but then you have to call it a BPT.
• I’m generally not very good at stuff like this, but these really were easy and you don’t have to be a full-fledged artist or food stylist!
• Sometimes things like this are either cute OR delicious…I’m happy to report that these are both!

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