Making Home: Wordless ( almost) Wednesday with Addie .... and a Recipe

The last two days have been in beautiful , sunshiny and in the 50's.

Today when I had the day off , no sunshine.

It was hidden behind a blanket of fog.

Go figure....

On top of that , my Princess is not feeling the best.

She has a cold and a cough.

It didn't slow her down much , but a little.

More on Princess in a minute...

First I want to share a recipe with you.

I have a new salad that I just love.

I found it on Pinterest ( of course ) a while ago.

When my nieces were here visiting , I made it for the first time.

Since I was trying to impress them with my culinary skills I followed the recipe ( don't usually do that ).

Since then I have done variations of said recipe.

First , the original.

via thecafesucrefarine.blogspot.com

Cranberry-Avocado Salad with Candied Spiced Almonds and Sweet White Balsamic Vinaigrette

You can find their fabulous recipe by clicking on the link.

Let me tell you it is fabulous.

The Candied Spiced Almonds are a step I would ordinarily skip ( I'm a lazy cook) ,but because I ~~was trying to impress~~ I love my nieces so much , I went the extra mile .

Let me just say , the extra mile was SO worth it!

YUMMO !

But when it's just Hubby and I , we get plain nuts.

Because we LOVE nuts in our salad.

This recipe called for almonds , but I like walnuts with it too.

Here's the basic recipe:

1 bag spinach

2 avocados sliced

3/4 cup dried cranberries

Now here are the things I like to switch up.

I love, love , love dried cranberries but sometimes I run out ( it's called unorganized) and I live in the back of beyond ( impossible to have a quick grocery store run ), so , I ave been known to substitute apples , mandarin oranges or pears for the cranberries.

3/4 cup nuts of your choice ( remember the sugar spiced are BEST )

Yeah, I was out of nuts the day I made this too...

Geez .... organization already ...

What makes this salad really great is the dressing.

It is now the hubs favorite dressing.

I keep in in the frig always.

Again , this is my tweaked recipe , the original is much more gourmet.

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup vegetable oil ( I use canola )

1/3 cup WHITE balsamic vinegar

I can not stress enough how important it is to use white and not red , trust me on this ...K

1/3 cup honey

11/2 T. poppy seeds

1/2 t. paprika

The original recipe called for sugar , not honey.

I try to stay away from sugar if I can .

However , I will say the honey sets up when this is stored in the frig.

I have a handy dandy Pampered Chef dressing thingy that has a little blendy thing built in ,( pretty technical terms huh? ) so I just give it a little mix before we use it.

You could do the same thing with a jar ( or bowl ) and a whisk.

This salad is very versatile , healthy and just plain good.

Now , the moment you all have been waiting for.

The Princess let me take her picture today.

Have I mentioned she LOVES chocolate ?

She does .

A LOT.

This Grandma is not above bribing her with it .