Fruit and Nut Salad

Just as an FYI, I probably won't be posting much of anything about sewing for awhile because I am in the process of making my wedding gown. This is a HUGE project and I am documenting it as I go, but I don't want to spoil the surprise before the big day. So, be patient and you will be rewarded with many posts about my experiences sewing my own wedding gown. I feel especially obligated to share what I've learned/am learning because there is a huge lack of information available to home sewers about sewing fine garments.

Now to the good stuff...tasty, refreshing fruit and nut salad. This is just the kind of salad that can be enjoyed anytime of year. I'm not asking you to go out and find something obscure or that's only good when it's at the peak of ripeness. No, this salad will do most anytime of the year. I had it first at a B&B last summer and recreated it shortly after. I keep on tweaking it depending on the occasion or my mood. Feel free to do the same when you make it!

Fruit and Nut Salad

Mix half a package of cream cheese, about 4 oz., with about 1 Tbs. of brown sugar (add more or less to taste) in a medium bowl. If you want really fluffy, light cream cheese, use an electric mixer. I just used a fork and kind of mashed the cream cheese and brown sugar against the side of my bowl until everything was well incorporated.

Chop 2 granny smith apples (or other variety, I just liked the contrasting color of the green skins) into 1/2 pieces. You want the pieces to be small enough to fit on a spoon. Clean about a half a bunch of red/purple grapes (again, you could use green if you choose, but I would definitely go with seedless grapes for this salad) and pull them off the stems. You want about an equal amount of apple pieces and grapes. Be sure to dry the grapes because you don't want to water down the cream cheese mixture. Roughly chop 1/2 cup of pecans (once again, feel free to substitute walnuts, almonds or other nuts).

Mix the fruit and nuts into the cream cheese mixture. This takes a bit of patience because the cream cheese doesn't like to evenly coat the fruit at first.

As a bit of garnish you could make some candied nuts to sprinkle on top or you could just sprinkle it with a bit of brown sugar to make the top sparkly. As long as the fruit was nice and dry when you mixed it with the cream cheese your salad should last 3-5 days in the fridge in a sealed container.

Let me know if you find some great variations on this salad. I would love to continue playing with my food!