Strawberry Salad

We make this a few different ways. Sometimes Mandi lets the strawberries macerate in the Balsamic for an hour or so to get them all crazy. Today we went for the emulsion route. Here you can see some shallots and a little garlic ready to go in the blender

macerate [MAS-uh-rayt] to soak a food (usually fruit) in a liquid in order to infuse it with the liquid's flavor. A spirit such as brandy, rum or a LIQUEUR is usually the macerating liquid. See also MARINATE.

emulsion [ih-MUHL-shuhn] A mixture of one liquid with another with which it cannot normally combine smoothly -- oil and water being the classic example. Emulsifying is done by slowly (sometimes drop-by-drop) adding one ingredient to another while at the same time mixing rapidly. This disperses and suspends minute droplets of one liquid throughout the other. Emulsified mixtures are usually thick and satiny in texture. Mayonnaise (an uncooked combination of oil, egg yolks and vinegar or lemon juice) and HOLLANDAISE SAUCE (a cooked mixture of butter, egg yolks and vinegar or lemon juice) are two of the best-known emulsions.

Definitions from epicurious food dictionary

We made some real nice croutons out of whole grain bread.

Coating in oil before the oven

After we had the shallots and garlic in the blender, I added a drop of honey and some balsamic vinegar. Start blending and add oil slowly. A traditional vinaigrette is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, but I just do it till I think it looks good.

The strawberries were very fresh and delicious.

Mandi cleaned the baby spinach

The croutons came out great. I baked these really high for almost 10 minutes, and then broiled for 5 minutes shaking the pan around every minute. Haha There might have been an easier way...

Toasting some walnuts. Just throw them in a pan for 5 minutes.

I think the rest is self explanatory

This is Feta, I like Goat cheese for this better, but Mandi usually wins at the store.