His and Hers Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

I love to make tomato mozz salad every once in a while, rather than the regular greens.  One night, I cut up the tomatoes and sliced the mozzarella to discover that I did not have any balsamic vinegar.  At first, I freaked out a little.  I then googled "substitutes for balsamic vinegar" and discovered there is generally NO GOOD substitute.  I then freaked out a little more. 

Then, I remembered my favorite vinaigrette.  It is this wonderful bottled blush wine vinaigrette I stumbled on recently.  It claims it is very good over strawberries (which sounds sort of unsavory to me).  I thought it might just be great to drizzle over the sad, lonely, parched tomato and mozzarella. 

Well, I informed Arnnie of the change in plan.  Before I drizzled my lovely vinaigrette on his little salad, he asked me to please refrain and drizzle HIS favorite garlic dressing over his.  We both loved them so much that this has become our new way of making these great little salads.  See below:

Now, if you want to make a traditional caprese salad (the fancy term for tomato and mozzarella), just put a few sprigs of basil on top and drizzle both olive oil and balsamic vinegar. But, this his and hers variation is a really big hit at our house. Oh, and for those of you out there who want to make your own homemade salad dressing, just put in 3 parts olive oil to one part balsamic vinegar and crush in any type of berry you like best. I can't take credit for that. My friend, Kathleen, taught me that those long years ago when we lived together in Wheeling in that house I love on Howard Hill (before I left for law school and got all serious with life, sort of). I guess we did do some productive things in that house even though our schedules seemed to revolve mostly around what time we would meet at the Alpha or TJ's for drinks.  Ah.  Those were the days (that will, most definitely, not be part of another post!).