spinach strawberry salad with poppy seed dressing

Poppy seed dressing

This is my husband's favorite salad! We have it for special occasions like Thanksgiving, anniversary, and Christmas. The recipe was from our close friend. Hope you like it, too! 

Ingredients:

[Poppy seed dressing]

White sugar - 1/4 cup
Dry mustard - 2 tsp
Salt - 2 tsp
Vinegar - 1/2 cup
Vegetable oil - 1/3 cup (add 1/3 cup more if you like to less thick)**see TIPS
Sweet onion - 2 large 
Lemon juice - 2 tsp
Poppy seeds - 2 tsp

[Spinach salad]

Baby spinach leaves - 1 bag (or 4 cups)
Bacon - 3 (cooked and crumbled)
Strawberries - 2 cups (sliced)
Candied walnuts/almond - 1/2 cup
Mandarin oranges - 1 can (medium)
Dried cranberries - 1/3 cup 

Prep:

1. [Poppy seed dressing] Measure all ingredients.

Cook:

1. In a blender, blend sweet onion, white sugar and vinegar until smooth. 
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth. 
3. Keep in the airtight container. It tastes the best after a day or two in the fridge. 

TIPS

• Adjust consistency of the dressing with vegetable oil

homemade bbq sauce

It says, "BBQ sauce" in case you were wondering... :)

Have you ever experienced cooking something and then you find out you are missing something? Or you are so lazy to go out and get the necessary ingredients? Yes, I've done that many times. I thought I had BBQ sauce in the fridge, but I didn't! So I looked up the recipe and it turned out great. I find this BBQ is better because you can adjust the taste. :)

Ingredients: 
Brown sugar - 1 and 1/3 cup
White sugar or honey - 2 TBS
Ketchup - 1 and 2/3 cups
Red wine vinegar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Worcestershire sauce - 1 TBS
Dry mustard - 2 TBS
Paprika - 2 tsp
Salt - 2 tsp
Black pepper - 1and 1/2 tsp

Prep/Cook:

1. Measure all ingredients. Put them all in the blender.
2. Blend it until smooth.
3. Keep in airtight container. It tastes better after couple of days. (It still taste great the day of)