I chopped the lettuce, julienned the carrots, chopped fresh thyme & dill and threw it on top.  I chopped the hard boiled eggs and added them as well.   I added the croutons and the broccoli mix, a wee bit more olive oil and some vinegar – I used some tarragon as well as red wine vinegar – and tossed it all together. 

 It was a lovely salad.  The cooked broccoli & onion gave it a really good flavor and they clung to the lettuce without a whole lot of oil.  I definitely need to experiment with that some more.  Edie got me a salad cookbook for Mother’s Day last year as a hint that I needed to liven up my salads.  I do love a nice, big salad.  I definitely need to give them more thought.

For a quick little dessert, I took some strawberries, cooked them in a wee bit of butter & chambord liquor, with sugar and a touch of balsamic vinegar.  I served them between wedges of the peanut butter cups I made last week with little dollops of whipped cream.  A perfect little sweet bite.

And that’s total amount of cooking I did all weekend.  We went out of town and it was one of those completely deserved, relaxing weekends.  I got quite a few inches of Pat’s sweater knitted and I got to spend Friday night with one of my most favorite people in the universe, just the two of us, no husbands, no kiddos.  Down right glorious.

Pat’s away at a conference this week, so it’s just me & my gal.  I pulled some soup out of the freezer for tonight’s dinner (it was dated and labeled so I do know it’s some vegetable soup I recently made) and am whipping up another salad like Saturday night’s.  This one uses cauliflower and blue cheese, because that’s what I have on hand.  

Clearly, I have come back slightly refreshed  and inspired from my weekend.  Ah, I needed that.