A New Twist (Pear and Pecan Salad)

What good is a cook book when the price triumphs over taste and thinking while one stares at a recipe, is it really worth twenty dollars? That is why I love the Half Price Book Store so much. The price is the last thing I have to worry about when wandering from aisle to aisle scanning all the gently used and greatly loved books. The store has been so lovingly good to me in the past years from accompanying pleasurable summer novels for me to read while lounging around the beaches of Mexico, to saving my life with Spark notes for school projects in English, and now leaving extra change in my pocket to buy my first vegetarian cook book. Yes, that is right, I have pledged to PETA, and have happily become a vegetarian. So good bye meat, and sorry to those meat lovers, but this will no longer be a blog of meat. And for those meat lovers, well, it was very nice to meat you. (Hah, Blake, I had to add a pun! It only made sense!...Or since I am talking about saving money, it only made cents!)

I absolutely loved this salad, because the textures melted so well together. The pear was perfectly ripe and sweetened the red tipped lettuce, while the toasted pecans added a huge crunch to every bite. The softness of the pear almost smashed into the salad and the crunch of the pecans caused them to crumble on top. Because of this, a perfect salad was created. Thank you Nicola Graimes for this splendid combo! Note to reader: As this recipe did come from a cook book, I did change it up quite a bit and I saved more or less the idea of blending the two main ingredients together in the salad.
Ingredients:
1 cup shelled pecan nuts, halved

2 ripe pears

about half or so red tipped lettuce
caesar dressing that is more on the oily side

LETS COOK!

At 350 degrees fahrenheit, toast pecans on baking sheet that is lightly covered with olive oil. Make sure they do not burn. Cut the pears into even and thin slices, leaving the skin intact and discarding the cores. Wash the salad leaves and spin dry as well as patting down to with towel to further drying. Pour dressing and nuts over lettuce and toss. Serve with pecans on top, and enjoy!