Strawberry and Arugula Salad

Sometimes it seems like the universe is trying to tell me something.

A few weeks ago, I had my appointment for my first vaccine, which was about a 20 minute drive away.  Forty-five minutes and 16 panic attacks later, we were still in the car along with 30 million other poor slobs who were all trying to get past an accident scene where they funneled 4 lanes down into 1.  And the exits were about 6 billion miles apart, so you couldn’t even hop off and get on a side street.  I would have made coffee nervous at that point.

As Tim pulled the car up (finally) to the CVS, I was in such a state, I could barely wait for him to stop the car.  I practically tucked and rolled my way out of the car and into the store.  Bank robbers move more slowly trying to make their getaway.  Fortunately, there was a humongous line inside so I wasn’t really late after all.

For the second vaccine, I decided we would NOT take the highway, but use an alternate route.  I plugged the address into Waze and off we went.  Twenty-five minutes later, we were at our destination (NOT) which turned out to literally (according to Waze) to be in the middle of the road.  Seriously?

Up and down the street we went, searching for the CVS, but it was nowhere to be found.  I plugged the address into maps and not only was Waze wrong, but we were 20 minutes from where we needed to be!!!!  OMG!  I was beginning to think this CVS was somewhere in the Twilight Zone. . How could Waze have been so wrong??????  We weren’t even in the right town!!!

It was like the time my SIL left Harrisburg to drive 2 hours north and ended up going 5 hours west instead.  Except this was worse because it was happening to me! And I was using a nav system instead of a map.  And there was a ton of traffic.  And roadwork.  And probably a railroad crossing that had a five million car train passing by.  And a bridge that was up because of a regatta.

Once again, we pulled up like a race car pulling into the pit at NASCAR.  I ran into the store like I was being chased by a mob of pitchfork wielding villagers….only to find that once again, there was another enormous line.

I’m still confused about exactly what message the universe was trying to give me. 

Ingredients for salad:

• 3 cups (packed) arugula
• 1 cup strawberries (before slicing
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1/3 cup pine nuts

Ingredients for dressing:

• 1/3 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 Tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup loosely packed basil leaves
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon honey
• salt to taste (optional)

Directions:

1. Put the pine nuts in a small pan over medium high heat and stir or shake continuously till they are golden  and fragrant (no need to add oil as they have plenty and won’t stick).  Remove immediately to a dish since they will keep toasting in the pan and can burn.
2. Place the arugula in a bowl and add the blueberries.  Slice the strawberries and add them as well as the cooled pine nuts.
3. For the dressing, combine all ingredients in a blender and process till creamy (this is a thick dressing, so you will need to spoon it over the salad).  Taste before adding any salt (I found I did not need any, but you may find you want to add a pinch)

Enjoy!