Winner Announced: This giveaway is now closed. The randomly chosen winner is Laurie, who said: “We’re having a great day grilling with the family!” Congratulations, Laurie. Please check your email to claim your prize. 🙂
Happy Memorial Day weekend y’all!
What are your big plans? We just finalized plans yesterday. Out of the blue, our friends from Chicago called us and told us they were in town for a funeral. So, guess who’s coming over to grill out with us tomorrow. Yippee!! It’s always great seeing old friends, especially this family. They have four kids of their own, so we’re gonna bust out the slip ‘n slide my parents gave us and the bouncy house some other friends gave us. 🙂 Yay for FUN freebies!
I’m seeing all over Instagram that there is unusually colder weather across the country. Same here in Mississippi, except that means instead of the typical 100+ degree temps with high humidity, we are experiencing beautiful 80 degree weather with NO humidity. Perfect for being outside! We’re going to soak this up as much as we can before the real heat strikes.
Salads are great for warmer weather, and since it is strawberry season I thought I would share with you one of my favorites. It’s probably the easiest salad you can throw together, too. Everyone has their favorite version of this with variants of toppings, but I keep it very simple with just strawberries and pecans.
I was first introduced to Poppyseed Dressing as a kid from my mom. She would always buy a bottle of it from a local restaurant because “it was the best!” And, really, it was good! I’m excited that I know how to make it at home and with staple pantry ingredients, where the taste is just as delicious!
This version of Poppyseed Dressing is from my friend, Lauren’s, new e-cookbook “Everyday Ingredients, Extraordinary Meals“. I’m super positive that you would love this book, along with her blog if you don’t read it already. She shares fabulous recipes that you can make with ingredients that you’ve actually heard of before! Everything in the book is easily achievable even in the novice home chef’s kitchen.
Lauren provided me a copy of her book, but I wanted to buy one anyway to support her. So, I’m going to buy it instead for one of YOU!
To enter the giveaway for one e-cookbook “Everyday Ingredients, Extraordinary Meals,” simply leave a comment below telling me your plans for Memorial Day. The giveaway will close tomorrow (Memorial Day) evening at 10:00 PM EST. One winner will be chosen randomly and announced at the top of this post. Make sure you leave a valid email address in the correct field when leaving a comment so I can also notify you by email if you win.
If you don’t win and would like to purchase a copy of your own, click here to buy: 
Here’s the recipe:
- 5 oz baby spinach leaves
- 1 lb fresh strawberries , washed, dried and sliced
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 4 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon poppyseeds
- Salt and pepper , to taste
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Toss the salad ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate medium bowl, whisk the dressing ingredients together until fully combined. Drizzle just a few Tablespoons over the spinach salad and toss. Add more to taste. Serve immediately.
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Store the leftover dressing in an airtight container in the fridge. Will last for a couple of weeks.
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Source: Poppyseed dressing from Lauren's Latest, "Everyday Ingredients, Extraordinary Meals"
My son and husband are going to my in-laws for the day. I’ll be at home cleaning and shopping to get ready for the week. This salad will probably be on the menu as it fast and easy which is perfect for the week! Thank you!!
Having a cookout with the family and amazingly, it’s going to be a spectacular day for it 🙂
i’m working at banana republic for memorial day, but i have a beach vacation in a few weeks that i’m looking forward to, happy memorial day!
Would that restaurant have been Arnies?! Love this salad. Can’t wait till strawberries are ready in the Mitten ; ) Have fun with your friends.
Yes, Sheila! Good call! Not too long until you can pick strawberries there. We did it in June last year with Judah while visiting my family and he LOVED it. 🙂
We are planning to enjoy a lazyday at the pool!
I pretty much just ate this for lunch (plus goats cheese) so I know it’s yummy! Looks lovely!
We are planning a cookout with family and friends!
Lots of yard work, then grilling a side of salmon. It’ll be just me, so I’m just as excited for tomorrow’s meal as I am for those throughout the week using leftovers!
Nothing big, but we are grilling hamburgers for supper and eating them out of super cute baskets from Target’s Dollar Spot!
bbq with the family!
My husband and I will be watching Arrested Development on Netflix!
We are having some friends and family over to our house. Totally random and last second. 🙂
My plans for memorial day include completing a few DIY orders for my Etsy store and making my ooey-gooey brownies for my family picnic located on our family farm. Oh! And trying out my new camera!
It’s going to be a cool day in Chicago so I am making Baby back Ribs in the oven for a family get together.. This is a nod to our Kansas City roots and we can enjoy our favorite meal no matter what the weather.
It’s a quiet day for us, no cookout this year. We’ll take our 4 grandsons to see fireworks Monday evening. I plan to spend the day curled up in the cookbook section at B&N. I’ve become intrigued by the various no-knead bread books out now, and plan to browse until I drop, or I find the one I simply *must* have.
Having a BBQ despite the cold:)
We always have a family BBQ on Memorial Day Monday and we also have it as a memorial to my late grandpa’s birthday whose birthday was May 30.
My 30 th anniversary is May 28. My daughter and new son in law were married May 26th and this is their first anniversary. So they are in Houston for an anniversary weekend and will be back in town (Corpus Christi ) on Memorial Day in time to celebrate Memorial Day and my anniversary , We are also spending our time with my beloved Father in law, who is a cancer survivor but has recently had health problems and has been given only one more week to live. He is a devoted family man who loved to have all of his family over every chance he could for good food, good company and stories of his life to pass on to the next generation. Such as this gem. One of the nearby streets in town flooded . So being a jokester, he went home, got a frozen fish he had caught earlier and put it on a fishing line and would yank it out as someone passed by . It made the newspaper with the headline – “Man catches fish in flooded waters !” He had such a good laugh !!
I am in a new city but will try to find some great bbq with my husband
I am going to spend the enjoying myself with family. Its not often we call get together. So excited!
We are hosting a BBQ in our newly remodeled backyard.
Hopefully cleaning the garage and house…sounds boring but we need to get it done!!! Then a good dinner on the grill!
We will be heading over to a friends place, but we might have to divide and conquer as the little guy’s had a temp all day today..
We’re going to the parade with some of the grandchildren and then back home for lunch. It looks like the rain will hold off until this afternoon.
Working in the yard, then, cooking and relaxing later today.
No special plans. My husband has to work.
Having hot dogs with the family
I plan on making big juicy burgers and some chocolate chip cookies.
we just moved away from family, so we are just hanging out and taking it easy today.
Spending precious time with family. I am making this today!
It’s raining cats and dogs today, so we will be indoors. I am going to make hot spinach and artichoke dip…my 1st time. And I will bake cookies with my daughter to share with her class in celebration of her birth! 🙂
Have a great BBQ!
My husband and I are going to my parents’ house for our annual cookout. I’m taking the family recipe macaroni and cheese and an Oreo chocolate cake 🙂 Yum!
I also had to attend a funeral out of town this weekend, so not much time to prepare. This salad sounds perfect!!!
I’m spending the day with my mother packing for our upcoming trip to Charlotte, North Carolina!
We’re having a great day grilling with the family!
We are smoking the free turkey we got at Thanksgiving and have had sitting in our freezer. Then it’s leftover turkey sandwiches all week. Yum!
Grilling hamburgers with my husband and son. Working on end of the year progress reports and other school things–the end is in sight!!
My plan for today was to do a whole lot of nothing, but instead I gardened, went strawberry picking, cleaned the house, and went to grocery shopping!
Visiting the cemetery then bbq with family and friends.
Worked today (I’m a self-employed medical transcriptionist), but grilled burgers last night at home, just the two of us.
We are having a family cookout with burgers and hotdogs! 🙂
Cleaning up my house & relaxing with my hubby
I’m guessing the poppyseed dressing you grew up on was the same one I grew up on….it wouldn’t be Arnies famous poppyseed dressing…would it? 🙂
Yep! 🙂
We are spending a quiet day at home. DH has had a severe allergy attack so – shish kabobs and long grain and wild rice is one the menu.
i was at the beach with my family, how cliche, huh?
I just love this!! so simply and perfect for summer.
This salad looks so fresh and delicious 🙂 I am putting strawberries on everything I can lately!