Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Strawberry Spinach Salad


It's been a great food week here at the old homestead. The first of the artichokes is ripe (see beautiful artichoke patch here).
The Kahuna's been firing up the grill, complete with rotisseried Cornish game hens, snagged on sale at one of our favorite grocery stores, Lucky's.

The shrimp and fresh pineapple kabobs were amazing. (Don't you just love that word? Kabob. Kabob. Kabob. Say it with me. Kabob.)
And one of the yummiest dishes of all, strawberry spinach salad, discovered at Kathryn's sweet blog Full Life, Simple Heart. With Kathryn's kind permission, I give you:
STRAWBERRY SPINACH SALAD
(Warning: This makes a lot. I made half of what follows and still had some for the next day's lunch.)
DRESSING:
3 T. sesame seeds
1 T. plus 1 1/2 t. poppy seeds
1/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. plus 2 T. balsamic vinegar
1/4 t. paprika
1/4 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 T. plus 1 1/2 t. minced onion
SALAD
15 oz. fresh spinach, washed and dried
6 c. strawberries, sliced
1/4 c. plus 2 T. chopped almonds or walnuts
crumbled feta cheese
In medium bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients. Cover and chill for an hour.
In large bowl, combine salad ingredients. Pour on the dressing and toss.
Any other favorite salad combinations out there?
NOTE: Visit Shan at What's Cooking Wednesday to see what great food ideas everyone else is coming up with.

Labels:

16 Comments:

Blogger Carpool Queen said...

I like to mix dried cherries, roasted pecans, and blue cheese crumbles with a spring mix salad. It's especially yummy with a pomegranate vinaigrette.

April 22, 2009 at 6:19 PM  
Blogger Lynn said...

That combination sounds wonderful, Carpoolqueen. How do you make pomegranate vinaigrette?

April 22, 2009 at 6:37 PM  
Blogger Kathryn said...

Lynn,
Thank you for your kind words. I've never heard of anyone growing their own artichokes in their backyard. I love that! Honestly, I've never even eaten an artichoke....other than a "heart" from a can! How do you prepare them?

April 22, 2009 at 7:06 PM  
Blogger Lynn said...

Kathryn, artichokes are super simple to prepare. After rinsing them off and trimming a bit off the bottom part, you just steam them on the stove in a pot, covered, for somewhere close to an hour. Then you serve by dipping the fleshy part of each leaf in mayonnaise or hollandaise sauce or melted butter. They are yummy. Last year I tried cutting some up, doing a breadcrumb thing to them and baking. They were delicious but I remember it really smoked up the kitchen :0 so I'm not sure if I'll try that again or not.

April 22, 2009 at 7:21 PM  
Blogger Heather S-G said...

What a delicious meal...gorgeous salad!

April 22, 2009 at 8:27 PM  
Blogger Jaime and Jen DISH said...

This looks amazing, GOOD LORD, tasty!!

I wanted to follow your blog but you don't have that option here, sigh.

Jenifer

April 22, 2009 at 10:46 PM  
Anonymous moderate sherri said...

Lynn- I loved your idea for the regular highlighting of individual cookbooks from my massive collection. I will do it! Thanks for the tip!

I am a lover of spinach and salads, so you've won me over with this recipe!

I'm adding you to my list of favorites on my blog roll!

April 23, 2009 at 4:38 AM  
Blogger VK said...

Last weekend I drove over the hill and saw the beautiful miles of field of artichokes. (gotta love SantaCruz/Monterey County)
YUM!!
My husband won a "cookoff" in the salad category with a very similar spinach salad last Saturday.
YUM!!
I want kabobs for dinner.
YUM!
Sorry I am a flake!
(not so yum)

April 23, 2009 at 6:53 AM  
Blogger Kathryn said...

Thanks, Lynn! I'll give the artichokes a try. Sounds great.

April 23, 2009 at 7:23 AM  
Blogger Bobbi Jo Nichols said...

All I have to say is YUMMY! Hugs, Bobbi Jo

April 23, 2009 at 1:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I remember many, many years ago, the first time I saw a salad recipe that included strawberries. I was shocked! Now they are definitely one of my favorite salad adds. My other favorite fruit to put in spinach salad is pears.

April 23, 2009 at 3:33 PM  
Blogger Lynn said...

Thank you, everyone, for stopping by. Moderate Sherri, I'm honored you're adding me to your blog roll, and I can't wait to see which cookbooks you're going to entice us with next ;)

VK, we must have more news about your hubby and his cookoff! You will blog about it, I hope?

Addhumorandfaith -- now, pears; what a great idea to add to salads. Why have I not thought of that? I'll bet it'd be great with a big ol' hunk of blue cheese, too :)

April 23, 2009 at 8:22 PM  
Blogger Shan said...

Mmm what a great looking salad. And kabob is a great word! Welcome to WCW!

April 25, 2009 at 7:23 AM  
Blogger Tessa said...

Now my tummy is rumbling! How delicious those photos look and the spinach and strawberry salad sounds - and looks - an absolute winner. Thanks so much for sharing that wonderful post, Lynn.

April 25, 2009 at 8:23 AM  
Blogger Anna Lefler said...

OMG, this all looks so GOOD!

Thanks for visiting my blog - so happy to have you! - and congrats on your book! So cool...

Take care...

:^) Anna

April 26, 2009 at 10:07 PM  
Blogger SAH in Suburbia said...

The strawberry salad recipe is very similar to mine. Yummy - one of my favourites.

You always post such great recipes!!

April 27, 2009 at 2:05 PM  

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