Sweet and Tangy Salad

I hope everyone is enjoying a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving.  I haven't blogged or focused much on Thanksgiving because I don't consider myself much of a foodie or great cook.  But I did want to share this fresh salad I put together for today's meal.

I'm glad I decided to add a green salad to our holiday menu.  It was a nice break from the starches that made up most of our meal.

For my sweet and tangy salad, I used:

• spring salad greens (I must admit these were packaged)
• crushed walnuts (broken down into smaller chunks)
• dried cranberries
• blue cheese crumbles

I used a healthy tablespoon of each of the toppings (walnuts, dried cranberries and blue cheese) for each serving size.  I made the mistake of tossing my salad before taking any photos, so most of the fun toppings fell to the bottom.  Blue cheese may seem like a weird choice for this salad, but I think it added just the right amount of tang.  This salad would also be great with some leftover turkey tossed in.

To top it off, I threw together what might be called "kitchen sink" dressing, because I just grabbed some stuff that sounded like it would work well together:

Sweet & Tangy Dressing (amounts for a single serving for a side salad)

• tablespoon of olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon of red wine vinegar (maybe a little bit more)
• tablespoon of raspberry or strawberry preserves (I used strawberry because it's what I had)

You could also add a dash of salt and pepper, but I wanted this dressing to be more fruity than sharp.  Stir together ingredients really, really well.  Make sure you give it a good stir before adding it to your salad.

If I hadn't used this dressing, I probably would have just put on a light drizzle of my favorite poppy seed dressing from my nearby big box retailer.  This stuff is really, really good!

I realize this salad and dressing isn't really breaking new culinary ground, but I was really pleased not only with how this salad and dressing came out, but also how well it complimented our Thanksgiving feast :)

I hope you enjoyed your holiday as much as I enjoyed mine! 

Have Yourself A Craftastic Holiday!

I'm still in crafting mode as the holiday season heats up (and cools down - brrr!).  Next up:

Christmas Ornaments Made from Recycled Greeting Cards!  

Every year, I save my favorite cards from the holiday greetings we receive from friends and family.  And now I'm thrilled to have a project that reuses these cards, yet allows me to still enjoy their beautiful images and sentiments. 

This holiday project is easy and great to do with kids.  And the materials are things that most crafters already have on hand!  You can find more information and directions on my Hubpages! 

I hope you are getting your holiday craft on :)

I'm Bloglovin!

Are you?  Follow my blog with Bloglovin!!

Needle Felted Tree for the Holidays or Everyday!!

I know that I promised that I wasn't trying to rush Christmas, but I wanted to share another tree I made.  You can find the directions and details here on my Hubpages.  I didn't specifically make this as a Christmas decoration, and I think I can display this tree year round :)

I've decorated my tree with needle felted flowers, buttons, and some (very basic) embroidery stitches.  If you have never seen needle felting, I've posted a very simple, low-tech video demonstration below.

Thanks!  Let me know if you have any problems viewing the video.

Show Off Your Bling for the Holidays!!

I might be pushing the holiday season a bit this year, but I'm excited to get started on some projects and share them with you :)

First up is this Christmas wall hanging I made from some cloth and my collection of vintage jewelry.  I love how this came out and there are a lot of ways you can change this up to use your own costume jewelry.  Step by step instructions are on my Hubpages.  Thanks for checking it out!!

And This is Why I Love Fall

Just beautiful!