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:
Recipe Card
Strawberry Spinach Salad with a Simple Poppyseed Dressing
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 5 oz baby spinach leaves
- 1 lb fresh strawberries , washed, dried and sliced
- ½ cup chopped pecans
For the poppyseed dressing:
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup white vinegar
- 4 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon poppyseeds
- Salt and pepper , to taste
Instructions
- 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.
- Store the leftover dressing in an airtight container in the fridge. Will last for a couple of weeks.
- Source: Poppyseed dressing from Lauren's Latest, "Everyday Ingredients, Extraordinary Meals"
