Purple Basil Caprese Salad

First post as a married woman — say whaat?! Yep, we tied the knot this weekend and IT. WAS. AWESOME. Seriously, I would not have changed a single thing about the day: it was truly perfect. And I'll be the first to admit that I'm critical — I was worried I'd pick the day apart, but I'm not. Success!!

Our first guests arrived Wednesday, and last guests left yesterday, so it's been a full week of fun with friends and family alike. Derek is making fun of me for having a "vacation hangover" from too much fun hanging out with everyone. Can everyone just move here, please? I also am suffering from a severe lack of words to adequately thank those who helped so much (mainly my family!) during the weekend. My family made 30 pies on Friday, then helped set up and take down the event Saturday, and hosted brunch on Sunday. Seriously? They're rockstars. I feel like sending them daily thank you notes for the next 10 years, at which point they'll probably just disown me.

We're now living in the happy afterglow of such a perfect event, hoping it will last forever. I'll go into more details about the actual wedding once I have pictures for you all, but for now you can see some previews on Kacie Q's facebook page. I can't wait to see the rest! It truly was a day full of love, and I can't wait to share it more fully with all of you!

After three nights of 9-10 hours of sleep (MUCH needed), I'm now paralyzed with what to accomplish first in getting back to real life: sell all of the wedding decor I can? Clean out the garage? Clean up wedding gifts? blog? work on my cookbook? train for the marathon which is RAPIDLY approaching? Oof. I'm struggling to get anything done with all of those options looming! So I caught up on Dexter and did a lot of yoga instead. Productive, right? Right.

I made this salad for lunch a few weeks ago after harvesting a big bunch of purple basil from a friends garden — isn't it just so pretty? I love caprese, but often find it awkward to eat. All chopped up like this, I just shovel it down! Problem solved. Perhaps this goes without saying, but using regular basil would be entirely appropriate here, too!

Purple Basil Caprese Salad

• Author: by Mary
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Total Time: 10 minutes

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 8 oz fresh mozzarella, cubed
• 2 lbs grape tomatoes, halved or quartered
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves, chopped
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 2 Tbsp balsamic reduction

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Instructions

1. Combine cheese, tomatoes, olive oil, and basil in a large bowl.
2. Toss to combine, season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Drizzle with balsamic reduction.

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