Cooking 101

Yesterday's post made me hungry for strawberries and blueberries, so today I thought I would include some recipes that had them as ingredients...I know eating them right off the plant is delicious, but just in case you want a change, here are some recipes...some simple salad recipes...Enjoy!

Strawberry Pineapple Salad

Ingredients

- 1 large box strawberry Jell-O
- 10 oz fresh or frozen strawberries
- 1 small can crushed pineapple (you can also use a fresh one)
- 1 pkg. Dream whip
- 3 oz. Cream cheese
- Nuts (optional)

Directions:

Mix the dream whip and cream cheese together. Then add the strawberries and pineapple. Mix well. Spoon into individual serving bowls. Mix Jell-O and 1 cup boiling water. Pour Jell-O on top of the mixture in the bowls. Chill until firm.

Serve with one strawberry on top of each serving and sprinkle with chopped nuts, if desired.

Blueberry Breakfast Salad

Ingredients

Mixed salad greens

4 cups fresh blueberries

4 cups mandarin oranges, drained

2 cups Granola

Blueberry Vinaigrette (recipe follows)

Directions:

Gently toss the salad greens with 1-1/2 cups of the Blueberry Vinaigrette. Divide greens among eight plates. Place 1/2 cup each of the mandarin oranges and the blueberries on top of each salad greens. Divide the granola into 1/4 cup portions and sprinkle each salad. Drizzle remaining Vinaigrette over each plate. Serve immediately.

YIELD: 8 portions

Blueberry Vinaigrette: 1 cup olive oil, 1 cup frozen blueberries (thawed), 1 TBL Dijon mustard, 2 TBLS brown sugar, 2 tsp minced shallot, 3/4 tsp Kosher salt, 1/2 tsp ground white pepper, 1/2 tsp paprika

Mix everything in a food processor and process until smooth. Chill for 30 minutes before mixing with salad greens.