strawberries

on our way back from wisconsin at the beginning of the month, we drove through strawberry point, iowa, which is home of the world's largest strawberry.

berries are on major sale right now, so here are a few of my favorite non-dessert-y strawberry recipes...
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we're going to a party tonight and i'm bringing a green salad with this moosewood strawberry vinaigrette dressing:

1 cup strawberries, rinsed with stems removed
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp balsamic or cider vinegar
1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 tbsp water
pinch of ground black pepper

combine all ingredients in a blender and puree till smooth. refrigerate in a sealed container.
will keep for up to a week.
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for dinner a few weeks ago i made a composed salad based on a recipe in the may issue of cooking light with stuff we already had in the fridge and it was delicious. it was just:

salad greens (spinach or baby lettuces would work especially well, i think)
a handful of quartered strawberries
chopped rotisserie chicken breast
some chopped unsalted cashews
crumbled blue cheese

dress with red wine vinaigrette (1 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp water, pinch of salt and black pepper, 2 tbsp olive oil).