Dinner Party Worthy Salad

Last week, my boyfriend and I got together with a group of friends to carve pumpkins and have one last BBQ of the season. Aside from perfect weather and good company, we had some GREAT food. Our grill master did an amazing job grilling pre-marinated pork-loin and hamburgers (sounds like a weird combo, but you just can't have a BBQ without a burger, in my opinion!) To go along with our meat, I took a short-cut, and baked frozen potato wedges. To round out the meal, I threw together what is now my new favorite salad.


I tossed together spinach with cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, pepper jack cheese, ranch flavored almond slivers (right from the package) with a balsamic and olive oil drizzle. It was so delicious and super easy to prepare. The hint of ranch on the almonds really mellowed out the kick in the pepper jack cheese. YUM! It is good in fact, I've been making it at home ever since. It would be a great dish to throw together when you need a little extra for dinner, or even better to serve at a dinner party.

Since I was busy in the kitchen, I didn't have much time to carve my pumpkin, so I did the simplest, yet cutest thing I could think of. A CUPCAKE! :)


I just love fall!