home for the weekend

It’s bound to happen every now and then – staying home. This weekend I enjoyed Easter dinner at my mother’s house. Our family holidays have evolved a bit as the “children” have grown, but we always know we’ll have a good time and enjoy a great meal.

As usual, I was in charge of bringing the salad – “sympathy salad” as my daughter’s boyfriend has dubbed it. He’s convinced that no one really wants to eat salad when there are so many better dishes present, but sympathetic guests always eat some anyway. He's probably correct (although my family insists that they actually like salad – hmmmm).

I’m not an enthusiastic cook, so salad suits me fine. But really – sympathy salad? Time to shake things up! This year I brought a layered salad - ooooooo, ahhhhhh.

Of course this is really just a regular old salad layered into a glass bowl. But it’s oh so pretty to look at – right?

I chose not to make the traditional recipe with bacon and eggs as ham and deviled eggs were already on the menu. Sympathy salad is bad enough, but I really didn’t want to bring redundant salad…

We all know how to make salad, so no instructions here. This is the list of the ingredients that I used layered from bottom to top:

Layered Spring Salad

spring mix
red and orange peppers (chopped)
artichoke hearts
sliced cherry tomatoes
frozen peas (defrosted)
salad dressing (½ cup mayonnaise, ½ cup sour cream, ½ package ranch dressing mix)
shredded gruyere cheese
toasted slivered almonds

Layered salad recipes always instruct to make ahead of time. I’m not sure why - it’s not as though the flavors mix at all. The nice thing, though, is that you can make it ahead of time. I added the almonds right before serving to keep them crunchy.

The possible combinations of ingredients are endless. Choose a theme (or not) and have fun!

Thanks for dropping in!