Baby Blue Salad

Toss greens with Balsamic Vinaigrette and gorgonzola cheese. Place on six individual plates. Arrange orange slices over greens; sprinkle with strawberries and top with pecans.

Balsamic Vinaigrette:

½ cup balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons honey

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 small shallots, minced

¼ teaspoon salt and pepper, each

1 cup olive oil.

Whisk together first seven ingredients until blended. Gradually whisk in olive oil.

Sweet and Spicy Pecans:

¼ cup sugar

1 cup warm water

1 cup pecan halves

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper

Stir together ¼ cup sugar and 1 cup warm water until sugar dissolves. Add pecan halves and soak 10 minutes. Drain, discarding sugar water.

Combine remaining spices and add pecans, tossing to coat. Place on lightly greased baking sheet and bake 350 for 10 minutes, stirring once.

NOTE: Found this in June 2001 Southern Living as one of the top rated recipes from 2000. I made the entire dressing as we’ll use it frequently. Only used enough greens for two of us to have a main course salad, one naval orange for the two salads, and sliced up 2-3 strawberries on each salad. The pecans were good and the recipe I shared previously for pecans would be just as good. It did call for blue cheese, but Michael prefers gorgonzola, so that is what I used. It also said to whisk the dressing but I did mine in my cuisinart. A definite keeper for us!