Hey–it’’s Jen guest blogging again.  Thursday nights are pretty hectic around our house as Thomas and I volunteer every other week, so I offered to make Thomas’ favorite salad for dinner tonight.  I’m not kidding when I say that you can throw this salad together in 5 minutes at the most and it tastes absolutely delicious! 

Let’s Cook (or in this case ‘Let’s Combine Ingredients’ since there is no cooking for this meal)!

TCH’s Favorite Salad (The Cooking Husband’s Favorite Salad)

1 bag Sweet Butter Lettuce Mix

1/3 cup Craisins

1/3 cup Gorgonzola Cheese, crumbled

1/3 cup Glazed Pecan and Walnut pieces

1 Tablespoon Brianna’s Poppy Seed Dressing (this is one time I promise the name brand makes a difference)

2 Tablespoons Brianna’s French Vinaigrette Dressing (again, the name brand dressing makes a difference)

Start by putting the entire bag of lettuce in a large salad bowl after rinsing the lettuce.

 Next, measure out 1/3 cup of Craisins for the salad.  For those of you who do not know what Craisins are, it is dried cranberries which add a punch of flavor to this salad.  If you really like the flavor, feel free to add more than 1/3 cup.  This salad is about what YOU like most!

Time to add the Craisins to the lettuce.  I’m telling you this is such hard work to make this salad!

Now, time to measure out the Gorgonzola.  Again, this is to your taste so if you love Gorgonzola, feel free to add more.  I find it is a really good mix to have equal parts Craisins and Gorgonzola to balance out the flavors.

Now, add the Gorgonzola to the salad.  Again–tough work!

Time to measure out the Glazed Pecans and Walnuts.  Trust me this is the true secret ingredient to this salad.  I found this bag of goodies in the produce section of our grocery store on one of the end caps, and I think you could safely say that I am mildly obsessed with the flavor and balance between sweet and salty that these little gems add to a salad.

Time to add the nuts to the salad.  YUM!

Now it is time to do the crazy action of mixing 2 different salad dressings to come up with the most perfect flavor ever.  Take 1 Tablespoon of the Poppy Seed Dressing and put it into a small container with a lid so you can shake the dressings together.

Remember how I said the name brand of these salad dressings is important–I meant it.  I learned the hard way.  I’m a big fan of buying store brands of things to save a few dollars, but in this case the store brands of Poppy Seed dressing (which is somewhat sweet by nature) were entirely too sweet and really messed with the taste of the mixed dressing, so just bite the bullet and by the Brianna’s brand of both dressings.  I promise you will thank me.  Time to add the French Vinaigrette to the same container and get ready to mix.

Now, put on the lid, shake to combine and this is the consistency when both dressings are mixed together.

Drizzle the salad dressing mixture on the salad and toss to mix.

Time to plate–I used Thomas’ favorite white bowls to serve this delicious salad.

And the close up:

There you go–this is The Cooking Husband’s favorite salad.  So easy to make, and it took longer to photograph the steps than it did to actually put everything together.  The next time you have dinner guests coming over that you want to impress, try this salad.  I promise you will get rave reviews.

Happy Cooking!