Salad Extraordinaire - thanks PW!

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! Here's a family shot of Kelsey, Jake, and me from the evening of Thanksgiving. (I'd had about 4 glasses of sangria on an empty stomach at the time of this shot, hence the 'crazy eyes.' Lol! Oh well...the memories.)

At my family Thanksgiving gathering, I was only asked to bring a salad. How great is that? I didn't even have to turn on my oven for Thanksgiving. (Well, I did though. I ended up buying a turkey because I wanted to be able to have it to make leftovers for the next week and to put even more leftovers up in my freezer for the coming month or two.)

Of course, I wanted to bring a salad that was kind of impressive and festive, so I turned to my fave recipe goddess - the Pioneer Woman. She's a photographer, chef, homeschooling mom. I wouldn't be surprised if she scrapbooks too. :) If you don't already follow Ree on Instagram or her blog, then you def need to do so. Here's a link to her blog.  I've followed her work for years, and she's always entertaining. (I'm not as big a fan of the tv show as I am of her blog; for whatever reason, the blog feels more like her than the tv show does. That's just my opinion of course.)

After searching her site, I found the perfect recipe - Apple, Pecan and Blue Cheese Salad with Dried Cherries.  I made a few changes to it based on need and circumstance. My local grocery store didn't have dried cherries, so I had to go with dried cranberries. I used a mix of hand cut romaine lettuce and kale rather than the bag of greens sold by the store. The dressing was a tart one of dijon mustard and maple syrup and olive oil that was just delightful, but I didn't use quite as much apple cider vinegar in it as she did. I also doubled the recipe including the one for the dressing for a large crowd, and it turned out great.

I'm so goofy that I didn't take pictures of my salad before I left the house. By the time I realized I needed to take pics at our gathering, my salad was gone. Literally, it was devoured. I think there was one spoonful of fixin's left in the bottom of a giant glass bowl. Never fear, I'm including the Pioneer Woman's photo here for reference.  If you're looking for a great salad to take to a potluck event or to make for Christmas, make this. You won't be disappointed!

Let's be honest, I never could've taken a food shot like this anyway. The Pioneer Woman could and did - plus her recipe was 'da bomb!