Fisher Nuts Summer Salad Challenge & #Giveaway

I love a good “fancy” salad.  I tend to like salads with nuts, fruit and cheese and a good dressing of course.  I’m not very good about putting together a nice salad at home so I often find myself ordering them at restaurants.  The exception is if I’m asked to bring a salad to a get-together.  Then I try to impress 🙂  Here’s a fresh summer salad recipe I recently came up with:

Ingredients:

Bag of Spring Mix salad
1 1/2 cups [amazon_link id=”B004339NBW” target=”_blank” ]Fisher Walnuts[/amazon_link]
Mandarin Oranges
Sliced Strawberries
Feta Cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs butter
1/4 tsp vanilla
½ tsp grated orange peel, or orange zest
1/3 cup fresh orange juice ( 1 to 2 oranges )
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon “Good Seasons Dry Italian” dressing mix.

For fall, substitute the sliced strawberries with Fisher Dried Cranberries.

STEP ONE — Candy the nuts:

1. First, bake the nuts at 325 degrees for 10 minutes in a single layer in a shallow baking pan. Stir once about halfway through.
2. While they’re cooking, prepare a baking sheet by lining it with foil and spraying with cooking spray
3.  Place sugar in a skillet. Heat over medium-high heat, shaking skillet several times to heat sugar evenly (do not stir). Heat until some of the sugar is melted (it should look syrupy). Begin to stir only the melted sugar to keep it from overbrowning and stirring remaining sugar as it melts. Reduce heat to medium to low. Continue to cook until all the sugar is melted and golden, about 5 minutes more. Add 1 tablespoons butter to skillet, stirring until butter melts and mixture is combined. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla.
4. Add the nuts to skillet and stir to coat. Pour nut mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. Cool completely. Break into clusters. Store tightly covered at room temperature for up to 3 weeks or freeze for up to 3 months.

STEP 2 — Prepare the salad dressing:

I found this recipe at cjaneinthekitchen.blogspot.ca

Orange Dressing

½ tsp grated orange peel, or orange zest
1/3 cup fresh orange juice ( 1 to 2 oranges )
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon “Good Seasons Dry Italian” dressing mix. It is about ½ a package

Put all ingredients in a container and shake.

STEP 3 — Assemble the salad!  I haven’t included measurements for the nuts, cheese or fruit as it’s a matter of preference how much stuff you like in your salad.  Mix everything together in large bowl and serve immediately.  Enjoy!

Visit http://www.fishernuts.com/recipes/salads-sides for other great salad recipes — they’ve got some really good ones!

Feeling lucky?  Win a Summer Salad kit from Fisher Nuts which includes:

• Fisher Chef’s Naturals Sliced Almonds
• Fisher Chef’s Naturals Walnut Halves & Pieces
• Fisher Dried Cranberries
• 5 reusable produce bags
• Salad dressing shaker
• 8-quart stainless steel mixing bowl
• 11-inch salad tongs

Enter the giveaway by filling out the form below.  Also, be sure to check out all of our other giveaways. NOTE: if you are having trouble with the mandatory entry on the form below, click “I did this” first. Then the form will pop up to enter your info. If you don’t leave your address, I won’t have a way to get your prize to you. If you need more guidance, you can watch this video on how to enter Rafflecopter giveaways.

This giveaway is open until September 10, 2012 at 12:01 am EST to U.S residents.

Your information is confidential and used for contacting the winner and prize fulfillment purposes only.

Disclosure: I am working with Fisher to create my own original salad recipe using Fisher Nuts and tools they provided. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.  See Mommies With Cents disclosure policy for more details.

a Rafflecopter giveaway