A Cookable Feast

I felt like Adam Sandler in Billy Madison when he tells his first-grade teacher, Miss Lippy, why he colored a blue duck: “I made the duck blue because I’d never seen a blue duck before and I wanted to see one.” Yeah, that’s a random allusion, but it is so stuck in my head in connection with this salad! I wanted to add strawberries to a tomato mozzarella salad because I’d never seen them in a tomato mozzarella salad and wanted to. Not that this is a particularly earth-shattering addition to such a dish; I’m sure it’s been done before. Strawberries and balsamic go good together!

This is my first post since moving my blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org and an outside hosting platform. I miss my WordPress.com foodie friends already! I have to figure out if there is a way to transfer the followers I accumulated there over here; I think there’s a way to manually do it, but I need to research further. There’s definitely a lot for me to learn and rework here, but I think the change will be good overall. I am by no means the most technical person in the world; it took me almost four hours Sunday to figure out the whole transfer process, and even a few days after that I was still getting foiled by my computer, which kept maddeningly redirecting me back to a WordPress.com page when I would try to access my now-transferred domain, prompting me to uninstall and reinstall the WordPress software from my hosting platform and to start over again in importing the content – when ultimately, I think it was just an issue of clearing my computer caches . . . who knows. Enough jabbering about technical stuff – it’s time for a fun summer recipe that works as great for a healthy, filling weekday lunch as it does for an impromptu-gathering side!

-1 10.5-ounce container of red grape tomatoes, cut into quarters

-1 large cucumber, peeled and cubed

-10 strawberries, chopped

-12 large basil leaves, shredded

-1 cup cubed mozzarella

-1/4 cup olive oil

-1 tbs. (or more, according to taste preference) balsamic vinegar

Toss all ingredients together well, then enjoy! This salad is best served immediately, preferably under a lovely summer sun. 🙂