Winter to Spring Spinach Salad

I wish I could put off spring just a little longer. If winter were one of my students, I'd make him repeat a grade, just to enjoy him a little longer. Maybe I should move to Alaska. It's a secret escapist fantasy of mine, anyway. You might think that I don't love spring, but you'd be wrong. I love the chirping birds, the bright blue skies, the colorful flowers, the urge to be outdoors tossing a frisbee. But I love winter, too. I love the coziness, the sparkly frost and snow, the shadowy silhouettes during the dinner hour, the pots simmering and the oven baking, and the solitude of shrinking in and away. If I were Mother Nature, you would be assured 6 months of ice and snow. I'd be about as popular as Obama.

But I'm not in charge. So here comes spring in just a couple of weeks, officially. In the meantime, I find myself craving leafy greens and tender berries, in spite of myself. I'm still hanging on to my zesty citrus and hearty apples, so I created this salad to represent the best of both winter and spring. I admit to eating it daily for lunch. The dressing is sweet with caramel undertones from the brown sugar, yet zesty from the apple cider vinegar and a hint of mustard. The dressing is also deceptively low in fat, but you'll never notice that. But it's spring and that means its almost almost almost swimsuit season. Groan. Just another reason to love winter.

Winter to Spring Salad

Estimated Cost: $5.00

Money Saving Tips: It's almost time to plant spinach! Plant a row of spinach a week to keep you saving all throughout the spring. Choose any apples or berries that you find on sale and vary the nuts according to what you have on hand. You'll have plenty of extra dressing for more salad later in the week.

1 (6 ounce) bag baby spinach

1 large orange, peeled and sectioned

1 sweet apple, sliced thin

1 cup sliced strawberries

1/4 cup paper thin slices of red onion

1/3 cup toasted pecans, broken into bits

For Dressing:

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons dijon mustard

1/4 cup vegetable oil

salt and pepper to taste

For Salad, layer spinach, orange, apple, strawberries, onions, and pecans on a platter. Combine all dressing ingredients in a jar with a screwtop lid. Shake until well combined. Just before serving, drizzle dressing all over salad.

Next Up:

Captain Crunch Chicken

Mother's Day Chicken-Spinach Salad with Strawberry Dressing

This is the Quiet Man. My name is not really the Quiet Man. I'm called Shane, which starts with SH. Shhh! I've been hearing this all my life "Sh....ane" Perhaps this is why I have become so quiet. I doubt it though. My name is not really Shane either, but that is another story for another Mother's day.

Once a year I feel obligated to at least try to make a special Mother's Day meal. Not the breakfast in bed meal, but a Sunday afternoon sit down meal. Usually, I pass my ideas along to Prudence Pennywise and we get a revision or two. My meal ideas tend to be like a rusted out Pontiac station wagon, and then after a short discussion with Prudence Pennywise, we have a Cadillac version, at the same price. In recent Mother's Days, I have teamed up with Prudy's Father, who also feels obligated to make a marvelous meal for Mother's Day. Truthfully, despite our attempts to go it alone, there is always a kind word of encouragement or suggestion from Prudy and Prudy's mother. They say things like: "Well kid, you did your best." Anyway, the fathers end up doing a bang up job of cleaning the dishes, the kitchen and the mess. Here we have this year's attempt at a special Mother's Day meal. Isn't it the thought that counts? Not around here, it's more like making the attempt that counts. Here goes:

Popeye would be proud of our garden and we've got more spinach than I care to eat in a whole year. With that pleasant thought, I decided dinner had to be a salad. A lady kind of salad-the kind ladies think is a whole meal. (They do that with soup, too.)

I planned to grill the chicken, but it got a little windy, as it tends to do, so I moved it inside and broiled it in the oven, with just a little bit of S&P, red wine vinegar and olive oil. Yeah you heard me say it: "broiled it in the oven", where do you think I learned that?If you have some cornbread lying around, or if you feel inclined to make some, it makes very good croutons. By the way, cornbread has been on the mind recently. You can also use plain bread. In either case, cut them into cubes and put them in the oven to toast. I had the broiler on and I turned my back for a minute. Do you think Prudy will notice?

Well fellas, have a go at it. I'm going to have to take a brief hiatus from blog posting now, as I don't have anything left to say. That's why they call me the Quiet Man. I'll be back before long with dessert-chocolate covered strawberries.

Mother's Day Spring Chicken and Spinach Salad with Strawberry Dressing

For the dressing:

Equal parts strawberry jam

olive oil

red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

For the Salad:

spinach

sliced strawberries

sliced red onion

day old cornbread, cut into croutons and dried in the oven

grilled (or broiled) chicken strips

walnuts

feta cheese

Next Up:

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries for Mother's Day Dessert

Cranberry Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing

Last July, we moved to a quaint little small town in the southwest. It's the kind of town where neighbors congregate in driveways to chat about PTA meetings and the price of gasoline while the children eat Popsicles and race bicycles around the cul-de-sac. It's also the kind of neighborhood where if you have something extra, you pass it around. It could be extra tickets to the symphony, half open bags of fertilizer, gently used baby bibs, or it could be this....Spring Spinach.

So fresh, so green, so crisp that I couldn't even dream of cooking it. A simple salad was the only worthy choice. The hot-and-smoky, sweet-and-tart, bacon-and-onion dressing only slightly tames the greens, making it possible to eat vast quantities without feeling too much like Popeye the Sailor man before he socks it to Bluto. Although it helps to bring up the famous sea-faring spinach-lover if you're trying to convince a 5 year old boy about the virtues of iron and folate. It helps to remind grown-ups (38 year old husbands), too.

You're going to want seconds....

Cranberry Spinach Salad

Estimated Cost: $5.50

Notes: To make this salad more substantial, add a couple of hard-cooked eggs.

4-8 slices of bacon, chopped

1 red onion, cut into thin wedges

4 tablespoons apple cider or red wine vinegar

4 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Fresh spinach

sweetened dried cranberries

sliced fresh mushrooms

In a medium saucepan, cook bacon for five minutes over medium heat. Add onions and continue cooking till bacon is crisp. Add vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook until thick and syrupy. Meanwhile, layer spinach, cranberries and mushrooms on 4 separate plates. Pour HOT dressing atop salad and serve immediately. Makes four servings.