Pears!

I love pears.  I always have.  When I lived in Charlotte I would buy a bag of them at Aldi's and eat them all.  Last week Alisha bought us 2 boxes of pears for 15 cents a pound at the church farm.  Talk about cheap.  They are delicious.  I have been eating at least one every day.  Yesterday mom and I canned 19 jars of pears.  I love canning or at least I love the finished product of jarred produce and the popping sound that tells me a jar is sealed.

We went to a spur of the moment church dinner last night so we had to throw together something to take in 5 minutes.  We couldn't have thrown together anything better than we did.  Of course it entailed pears.  Ready for this recipe?  I'll call it Spinach Cinnamon Pear Nut Fall Salad since it entails pears and it is soon to be Fall given we have a tinge of yellow on some of the leaves that we passed on our way to chemo this morning.

Spinach
Pears (skinned, chopped and placed in lemon juice so they don't brown)
Craisons
Sugared Walnuts from Winco (you could use almonds and sugar/cinnamon them yourself)
Feta cheese (Had I have had goat cheese I would have used it)
Blueberries

The dressing was divine!  I basically used the same one from the Strawberry Spinach Salad, however changed it a bit and left out the poppy seeds.
1/2 cup mayo (I think next time I will use less)
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar (the original recipe calls for 1/2 cup but this worked just fine)
2 T Cinnamon Pear Balsamic Vinegar (which I got when I was in Martha's Vineyard in March) key ingredient and made this taste so amazing!  I guess you could use balsamic vinegar and cinnamon and maybe it would taste the same.  I loved their selection of balsamic vinegars!  The Vinegar is from Leroux which are stores located in Martha's Vineyard, Portland, ME and Portsmouth, NH.  You can taste all of their vinegars if you go to their stores.  But you can order them on www.lerouxkitchen.com.  You won't be disappointed.  I also have the summer peach white balsamic vinegar that I love.  I really want to get the cherry one.  Maybe an order is in the near future!