Molly Cookie

Grilled Pear Salad with Bacon and Walnuts

Nov 2, 2009 Food Things, Salads

I love November.

November is by far my favorite month of the year. There are so many wonderful things that happen in November. The trees are beautiful shades of red, yellow, and green, my wedding anniversary is on November 8, my birthday is November 15, my niece’s birthday is November 21, and my favorite holiday is in November. Also, New Moon comes out this year in November which makes the month even more exciting.

Yes, I am a Twilight fanatic. Feel free to be shocked and consider deleting my blog from your RSS feeds.

Actually, please don’t do that.

Instead look at these pictures that I took in my back yard yesterday morning.

I love my back yard.

I also love this Pear Bacon Salad. Do you remember the bet that I lost? This salad was one of the courses in the dinner that I made for Brian this past weekend to hold up my end of the bargain. I made it because Brian loves bacon and blue cheese, and I wanted to make a salad with some seasonal fruit. I got the idea from a recipe from Bon Appetit but I didn’t make my own dressing. I wanted to find something comparable that would go well with the recipe, and I found a Blush Wine Vinaigrette Dressing at Wholefoods from Briannas Home Style. It worked perfectly with the salad. It was just slightly (very slightly) sweet and didn’t overpower or cover up the bacon and Roquefort, which is what I wanted.

The recipe called for Roquefort, and to be honest I was scared when I bought it. The mold looked so much more.. green than the other blue cheeses. I thought it must be a huge mistake and the cheese was going to eat us from the inside out, but I was assured that it was normal Roquefort color. I just knew I was going to hate it, but this dinner was really for Brian and I thought, what the heck, I can do this. When I got home and opened the cheese I wasn’t overwhelmed by funky smell like I had expected. Instead I was pleasantly surprised when what I tasted was actually a milder blue cheese than I was used to. It worked perfectly in the salad, and from now on I will never be scared of Roquefort again. I admit, it was delicious.

Grilled Pear Salad with Bacon and Walnuts

(makes 4 pre-dinner sized servings)

A bunch of mixed greens
6 slices of bacon
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 pears
2 oz Roquefort cheese crumbled
Briannas Homestyle Blush Wine Vinaigrette or Port Vinaigrette

Cook bacon in a frying pan over medium high heat. Add brown sugar to the pan and fry until crispy. Remove bacon from the pan and let dry on a paper towel. Slice bacon into 1/2 inch thick pieces and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350. Place walnuts on a baking sheet and bake them for about 4 minutes on each side or until slightly browned. Remove from oven and set aside.

Slice pears into 1/4 inch think slices. Grill or broil for about 2 minutes on each side. Assemble salad with greens, bacon, pears, walnuts, and crumbled Roquefort cheese. Top with vinaigrette and serve! It is sure to make your taste buds very, very happy.