Salad Caprese

Last night I wasn't feeling very inspired to cook as I had taken on the challenge of cleaning out my spice and baking cabinets yesterday. Some of the spices and herbs I found in the bowels of that cabinet have probably moved with me since I came to Salem in 1990 from Seattle. Needless to say it was a jumbled, unorganized mess. Below is a pic of the mishmash I took out:

While I was at it I thought I might as well go for it and clean out the entire space. My friend Janet would be proud of me. She was (and probably still is) one of the neatest people I ever knew and her apartment always looked spotless. I took a trip to the local Bed, Bath, and Beyond and purchased functional clear glass jars for individual spices, labels, and a Lazy Susan (what an apropos name for that gadget). I then went next door to the World Market where I found a large selection of spices and herbs in manageable quantities for .99 cents each. Eureka!

An hour later after pouring the spices into their cute little jars and labeling them I felt such a sense of satisfaction. As well, the room and my hands were very fragrant with the heady smells of the spices. It smelled like walking into an Indian spice store. Below is a pic of the final results:

So, back to my original statement above, I whipped together some spaghetti with meat sauce and to accompany this Italian dinner we had Salad Caprese made with slices of vine ripe tomatoes (from the store, not our garden!), basil (from our garden) and slices of fresh whole milk mozzarella balls. The salad was dressed with salt, pepper and drizzles of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Truly a masterful summer salad!