It’s spring.  Finally!  I did think it might not arrive.  And with spring comes fiddleheads, ramps, asparagus, and strawberries.  I was in the local supermarket and they had a sample of a goat cheese salad with roasted strawberries.  It was good, but the strawberries were, shall we say, lacking…it’s a texture thing.  But I liked the idea of roasted strawberries, so I decided to make a vinaigrette with them.  This is a rather simple recipe and perfect if you have some strawberries that aren’t perfect.  You may skewer the berries and grill them, but I decided to pop them into the oven.  It worked very well.  I tossed the berries with a bit of olive oil and a sprinkle of kosher salt, then into the preheated 450°F…very important that the oven is preheated.  Or pop the pan under the broiler.  I roasted them for about 5 minutes, shaking the pan once to move the strawberries about.  Pull the pan from the oven when the strawberries were just barely beginning to give up a bit of juice, and dump them into the blender (or food processor).  I deglazed the pan with 1/4 cup lemonade.

Squeezed the juice from a couple of small lemons, a large pinch of kosher salt, finely minced red onion and some lemon balm, and a few mint leaves thrown in, just for good measure.  Whirl the whole mess up, with some good olive oil.  Pour it into a jar, pop the lid on and into the fridge.  Now, I was given a bottle of olive oil with lemon for my birthday.  It’s beautiful stuff, so I used that, for half of the olive oil.  This is going to get drizzled over some greens with scallions, sliced fresh strawberries, toasted pecans and bleu (or goat) cheese.  And that’s all she wrote.