White Balsamic Fruit Salad

Perhaps I am a freak of nature, but I love to go grocery shopping.   Of course, I get to shop in a grocery store like no other, a place called Wegman's.  Calling Wegman's a grocery store is like calling Mt. Rushmore a sculpture in South Dakota.  Wegman's is a shrine to food--a veritable Disney World for grown-ups who like to cook.  The first time I walked in I just stood there and took in the place--not knowing whether I should cry or giggle.   The produce section features about 10 different kinds of apples, an entire wall devoted to mushrooms, and pretty much everything comes organic, mass produced, or locally grown.   There's an entire section of the store that sells nothing but cheese, and another that just sells tea.   I felt like a lost alien that finally got back home to the Mother Ship.

I'm not so stupid to realize that Wegman's is clearly the result of years of marketing studies and focus groups.  The mad demographers at their corporate headquarters have clued in completely to what the average middle-aged suburban mom wants from her "shopping experience."  They pipe in the lost artists of the 90's like Basia and the Cranberries.  You find yourself meandering through the aisles listening to the tunes of your youth oblivious to the fact that your funky ergodynamic shopping cart is being filled with items you had no intention of buying.  What's up with that?
 
It's also no accident that this month's Vanity Fair, the cover of which is a shirtless Rob Lowe, is oh-so-strategically placed throughout the store, so that when his bedroom eyes stop you dead in your tracks you'll be right next to the display of expensive prepared sauces and dressings.  It's kind of frightening and Orwellian, but it works.  These guys are good.  So.  Thanks to my friends at Wegman's and Rob Lowe's biceps (or is it his pecs?), I now have on hand a bottle of a white balsamic vinegrette.  I wasn't exactly sure what to do with it, but because Wegman's knows what I'm thinking before I do, they've come up with the following:

White Balsamic Fruit Salad

1.  Peel and cut into bite-sized chunks one honey dew melon.

2.  Toss in a couple of handfuls of blueberries, 1/2 cup fresh cut mint leaves, and 1 cup crumbled feta.

3.  Generously dress with Wegman's white balsamic vinegrette, which as best as I can approximate if you are among the unfortunate masses without ready access to Wegman's:  1 part white balsamic vinegar, 2 parts canola oil, 1 clove minced garlic, 1 tsp dried parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

Not as tasty as Rob Lowe, but better for your marriage

4.   Serve yourself a bowl.  It's simultaneously sweet and savory, and you might even be able to pass it off as dessert.  Then hunker down with fantasies of Rob Lowe or at least the May 2011 issue of Vanity Fair.