The Erica Salad

Brian and I eat several salads a week. This is one of my favorites. If you don't want the baked goat cheese on top, you can substitute feta crumbles. I told a lovely co-worker about it, and she makes it now too. She named it the Erica Salad. I usually just call it Baked Goat Cheese Salad. I adapted the goat cheese from a recipe appearing in Real Simple magazine. Here's the recipe (I'm afraid I don't really measure, so just do it to taste):

Baked Goat Cheese Salad

Spinach
Dried Cranberries
Toasted Pine Nuts
Onion
Baked Goat
Cheese (recipe follows)
Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing (recipe follows)

Baked Goat Cheese:
Slice Goat Cheese 1/2 " thick. Coat goat cheese slices with olive oil, and dredge in bread crumbs Italian flavor, or plain mixed with oregano, thyme, garlic powder, and pepper). Refrigerate coated slices for 30 minutes. Bake Goat Cheese slices at 350 degrees until crumbs turn golden
brown.

Dressing:
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Nutmeg
Garlic
Powder
Oregano
Thyme
salt
pepper


Mix together a couple TBSPs of Balsamic Vinegar, a couple dashes of nutmeg, garlic powder, oregano, thyme salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle in Olive Oil and whisk until emulsified. Pour dressing over a couple handfuls of baby spinach, a handful of dried cranberries, chopped onion, and toasted pine nuts. Toss. Plate and then place goat cheese rounds on top.

I highly recommend a glass of red wine with this salad. Enjoy!