Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day, my stepdad, sister, and I put together a delicious meal for Mom after church today. She requested ham, one of her favorites. Chet made his mom's famous rolls and some macaroni salad, I made a Bluegrass salad, Dorie's Tall and Creamy Cheesecake (mom LOVES cheesecake), and Dorie's Tartest Lemon Tart (it's our assignment for this Tuesday). We had quite the feast...we were all gluttons. And I thought I'd milk the meal for all it's worth and use some of the components as posts here on The Sweet Life. By the way, in the picture above, my sister Allison is on the left, Mom is in the middle, and I'm on the right.

Let's get down to business with the Bluegrass Salad, recipe courtesy of my in-laws. Let's start with the salad components. Who shall we invite to this party?

You'll need a couple of hearts of romaine, (maybe you've also got some baby greens from your husband's uncle's garden...if you do, they'd be great), walnuts lightly toasted in butter, some sweetened dried cranberries, a couple of nice pears, and feta cheese. The recipe really calls for blue cheese, but Mom doesn't really care for it, so we're going with feta on this one. We're gonna need some dressing, too. Let's see what we can come up with...

We'll need some extra virgin olive oil, some rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and some Splenda. You'll need to whisk it all together real good, and you've got a fantastic dressing! Toss all of your ingredients together, and you'll have one dynamite salad!
Here's the recipe if it sounds like something you'd like to try. I highly reccommend it! It's fabulous!

Bluegrass Salad

Recipe Courtesty of Earl Orr

For the Dressing:

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 tbs. balsamic vinegar

5 pkg. artificial sweetener (if this freaks you out, feel free to sub regular sugar)

Whisk all the ingredients and set aside.

For the Salad:
2 hearts of romaine, chopped
Walnuts, toasted in butter (use as much as you like)
Sweetened dried cranberries (use as much as you like)
Blue Cheese (as much as you like; I used feta instead, which is good, too)
2 D'Anjou Pears, chopped

Mix all ingredients. Top with dressing and mix well to combine. Enjoy!