Memorable Memorial Day

I love to entertain. I mean, I REALLY love it when people come over to my house and I can feed them (read: stuff them) and enjoy their company. I get even more excited when the day just goes on and on, and nobody leaves. Memorial Day this year was just that, and I am so happy it was!

We had the Ivey family (Mr. Mike, Miss Susan and Lauren) and (Mr.) Matt at our house. Tommy grilled (his favorite thing to do!) and I was in the kitchen, making too much food, as I always do. William and Lauren were crawling everywhere and putting everything in their mouths, the men were out grilling, and Patrick and Emma asked questions and played with whomever would be with them.

Patrick stuck around Mr. Mike and his Iphone so he could play games (one of which was Simon! I really miss that game) and Mr. Matt and his videos from his trip. Patrick just wanted to have more videos taken and eventually had his own Iphone to use. It did some pretty amazing things.

We are so happy it was such a great day, and we can't wait to do it again.

One of the recipes I made was a salad that went over BIG:

The Pampered Chef ®

Strawberry Spinach Salad:

Dressing

1 lemon

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp poppy seeds (I forgot, er, omitted)

Salad

1/4 cup sliced almonds

8 ounces (1 1/2 cups) strawberries, hulled and quartered

1/2 medium cucumber, sliced and cut in half

1/4 small red onion, sliced into thin wedges

1 pkg baby spinach

1. Dressing: zest lemon to measure 1/2 tsp zest; juice lemon to measure 2 tbsp juice. Combine juice, zest, sugar, white wine vinegar, oil and seeds. Whisk. Refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Preheat oven to 350. Spread almonds on Small bar pan and toast for 10-12 minutes. Cool.

3. Hull strawberries, and cut into quarters

4. Score cucumber, remove seeds, and slice cucumber. Cut slices in half. Slice onion into thin wedges.

5. Place spinach into large serving bowl, add strawberries, cucumber, and onion. Whisk dressing and pour over salad. Toss gently, and add almonds. Serve immediately.

Yield: 10 servings. Pampered Chef Casual Cooking cookbook.