Thanksgiving Tips – A Wonderful Salad for a Special Dinner

Tags

apple, Festive Tossed Salad, Pear, poppy seed dressing, taste of home, vegan, vegetarian

  As I’ve mentioned before, some of my favorite recipes come from the Taste of Home folks. They have a monthly magazine, website and annual cookbooks that have wonderful, down to earth recipes. I love that their recipes are usually made from a combination of commonly used ingredients, so I often already have all the ingredients in my pantry.

Several years ago, my sister ran across a Taste of Home recipe for a fabulous green salad called Festive Tossed Salad. It’s a little more work than your run of the mill green salad (not that bad though!), but it tastes WAY better than those every day salads. We tend to make this salad for special occasions and family gatherings, since it’s a little more work we usually have someone other than the hostess bring this item. That way the person brining it can focus on that one thing and when that’s all you have to make, it’s not overwhelming at all.

Festive Salad

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2/3 cup canola oil

• 2 to 3 teaspoons poppy seeds

• 10 cups torn romaine

• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Swiss cheese

• 1 medium apple, chopped

• 1 medium pear, chopped

• 1/4 cup dried cranberries

• 1/2 to 1 cup chopped cashews
Directions

1. In a blender, combine the sugar, vinegar, lemon juice, onion and salt. Cover and process until blended. With blender running, gradually add oil. Add poppy seeds and blend.

2. In a salad bowl, combine the romaine, cheese, apple, pear and cranberries. Drizzle with desired amount of dressing. Add cashews; toss to coat. Yield: 8-10 servings.

Enjoy!

Pork and Sweet Potatoes

Tags

apple, apples, Cooking, Food, healthy, main dish, pork, recipe, sweet potato

Once again, my organic produce delivery inspired a wonderful dinner! This week’s delivery included organic sweet potatoes, onions and apples. I love to cook apples and onions with pork. I thought the sweet potatoes would be a good add. The apples and sweet potatoes are both pretty sweet, so I wanted to a some savory spices to balance out the dish.
1/2 – 3/4 lb pork chops or pork loin, diced

1/2 – 3/4 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

1/2 red onion, diced

1 tbsp canola oil

1 apple, diced

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp ground all spice

1/8 tsp cinnamon

In a dutch oven over medium heat, heat canola oil until beginning to smoke. Add pork, onion and sweet potatoes and cook, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes.  Add apple, chicken broth and all seasonings and simmer on medium-low heat for 30 minutes with lid askew, so steam can escape. This will allow everything to cook through, but the broth to reduce.

I served this over brown rice (1 & 1/2 cup instant brown rice, 1 & 3/4 cup water). Making about 4 servings.