Salad #2

Ok so last night I tried another recipe. Actually the whole meal was full of new things! But it was planned around another salad. I'm trying to find my inner adult and really love salads. A close friend of ours Brad, came to have dinner with us, so it was perfect to get input from another set of taste buds. This recipe is one I found online. I'm going to put it up how I think it would be best, but don't worry, I'll let you know what changes I made.

Strawberry Pecan Salad

Ingredients:

2 T. white sugar
2 T. olive oil
4 t. honey
1 T. apple cider vinegar
1 t. lemon juice

2 cups torn salad greens
10 Strawberries, sliced
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. In a small bowl whisk together the sugar, olive oil, honey, vinegar and lemon juice. Set aside

2. Toss salad greens, strawberries and pecans. Try to keep the strawberries from settling to the bottom. drizzle dressing throughout and toss again.

Refrigerate for up to 2 hours before serving or serve immediately.

yield: 2 servings


What you're probably wondering is why on earth you should try this salad when you most likely already have a great strawberry salad recipe that gets great reviews. Let me tell you why. I love strawberries. More than most other things. But somehow most strawberry nutty salads I've tried seem to fall flat. I never knew why until I tasted this delight.
I think its the dressings, that always seemed a bit too vinegar-ry for my own taste. It never seemed quite right to have natures sweetest fruit mixed in with a bitter dressing! Because of the generous amount of honey and sugar in this great dressing I felt the sweetness was never compromised. And yet the apple cider vinegar adds a slight punch. Its great!

One additional thing called for in the recipe (which i purposely left out) was one avocado, pitted and sliced. The Three of us (Brent, Brad and myself) unanimously decreed, yes decreed that the avocados were mostly useless here. Their creamy unobtrusive flavor just couldn't hack it when paired with the strawberries and that dressing I've just gushed about. Do what you wish.

Of course I couldn't just feed two big, hungry men just a strawberry salad, and I didn't have much time to plan ahead for this one, so I tried to think of a quick, easy something to complete the meal. I went with Garlic bread (a staple in the Houston home) and decided to try something I learned of on my mission for the main course.

Now don't get too excited its not cow's feet or adobo (a recipe i will share later). Its a simple essential with an extra dose of simple. You may have had it millions of times, but I never have, and lets face it, I'm the one in charge here!
I can't help giggling because I've got you all worked up for this and by now you're thinking "my goodness just spit it out! Alright:

Spaghetti noodles tossed in olive oil and Parmesan cheese.

I told you it was basic.
Brent was a little apprehensive and unbelieving, but after adding some salt and pepper, he really enjoyed it!
To me it was the perfect pasta for this salad. Its best to keep your food from fighting after all and when you've got a salad with some spunk I prefer a pasta without it. Without being too heavy or overloading our taste buds we enjoyed a great meal and had a great time. With such quick preparation time -boil noodles, butter bread and whisk dressing, this is a easy meal I'm going to repeat again soon!

la petite femme