Salad... Boring?

I love salad. All variations and varieties... but let's face it. Sometimes even a salad lover can get bored of the typical lettuce, veggies and dressing combo. It is typical and somewhat expected to find a salad at our dinner table most nights. In light of this, my sister-in-law and I decided to spice up our family dinner by making two of the Barefoot Contessa's recipes and combining them into a wintery salad that turned out to be wonderful, rich and filling.

We made maple-roasted butternut squash, served it over lettuce with goat cheese, walnuts, dried cranberries and drizzled a warm cider vinaigrette over it. Both of these recipes are found in Ina Garten's Back to Basics cookbook.

Not only did everyone in both families love the meal, but there were two distinct victories in my mind. First, my brother-in-law usually has to choke down any sort of salad (nearly literally). He might kill me for saying so... but a week after this meal, he requested we make it again for his birthday dinner. Secondly, it was wonderful to find a vegetarian meal that is satisfying and delicious. Even though no one in our family is a strict vegetarian... in my mind, it isn't necessary to always have meat in a meal. For these two reasons, this meal will definitely be a staple among the Swift family recipes.