{"id":4672,"date":"2011-07-19T13:51:59","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T19:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/?p=4672"},"modified":"2011-07-19T13:51:59","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T19:51:59","slug":"pear-pecan-and-cranberry-salad-with-honey-goat-cheese-dressing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/19\/pear-pecan-and-cranberry-salad-with-honey-goat-cheese-dressing\/","title":{"rendered":"Pear, Pecan and Cranberry Salad with Honey Goat Cheese Dressing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever I eat goat cheese I wonder why I don&#8217;t use it more often. \u00a0I love its tang and creaminess. \u00a0Even the tiniest of crumbles of the stuff can transform a dish. \u00a0The honey goat cheese dressing on this salad was so tasty, and took an already great salad to another level of deliciousness.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/honeygoatcheese.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4673\" title=\"honeygoatcheese\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/honeygoatcheese.jpg?resize=581%2C388\" alt=\"\" width=\"581\" height=\"388\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/honeygoatcheese.jpg?w=581 581w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/honeygoatcheese.jpg?resize=300%2C200 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/honeygoatcheese.jpg?resize=150%2C100 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/honeygoatcheese.jpg?resize=400%2C267 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 581px) 100vw, 581px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My mother in law turned me on to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.skinnytaste.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">skinnytaste.com<\/a> after making two meals for us with recipes from the site. \u00a0Both tasted great and were pretty healthy. \u00a0If you do Weight Watchers, then you&#8217;re in luck because Gina includes the points.<\/p>\n<p>I added some grilled chicken to this salad to make it a meal. \u00a0Instead of apples I used pears, which I think pair better with the other ingredients. \u00a0You must, must, must toast the pecans. \u00a0The flavor of any nut is improved by a quick toasting in the oven or in a dry skillet on the stove. \u00a0Do the same when you are adding pecans, walnuts or almonds to baked goods. \u00a0They just taste better. \u00a0So take the extra 5 minutes. \u00a0You&#8217;ll be glad you did.<\/p>\n<p>This salad recipe used measurements for the apples and cranberries, but I just added what I wanted. \u00a0This probably messes with the points, so <a href=\"http:\/\/www.skinnytaste.com\/2009\/10\/honey-goat-cheese-dressing-and-giveaway.html\" target=\"_blank\">here is the link <\/a>to Gina&#8217;s original recipe. \u00a0If you don&#8217;t care so much about counting out how many cranberries or slices of apple you can use, then just pile on a plate the following ingredients and top with the dressing.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Spring mix or baby spinach<\/li>\n<li>Dried cranberries<\/li>\n<li>1 Bosc Pear, sliced<\/li>\n<li>Toasted pecans, halves or pieces<\/li>\n<li>Grilled chicken, sliced (optional)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The dressing was a little on the thick side when I made it, so I added a little more water, lemon juice and a touch of olive oil to loosen it up a bit. \u00a0After storing the leftover dressing in the fridge it was no longer\u00a0pour able, so either let it warm up at room temp before you plan to use it again, or zap it in the microwave for a few seconds and stir it up. \u00a0Enjoy!<\/p>\n<h3>Honey Goat Cheese Dressing<\/h3>\n<p>Courtesy of skinnytaste.com<\/p>\n<p><em>Ingredients<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>4 oz goat cheese, room temperature<\/li>\n<li>1 1\/2 tbsp honey<\/li>\n<li>2-3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil<\/li>\n<li>2 tsp apple cider vinegar<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 lemon, juiced<\/li>\n<li>1-2 tbsp water<\/li>\n<li>Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><em>Directions<\/em><\/div>\n<ol>\n<li>In a small blender,\u00a0combine\u00a0goat cheese, honey, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, water.<\/li>\n<li>Season to taste with salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.<\/li>\n<li>Add more lemon juice, water, or oil to create desired consistency.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:70px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/19\/pear-pecan-and-cranberry-salad-with-honey-goat-cheese-dressing\/\" send=\"false\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"400\" show_faces=\"true\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever I eat goat cheese I wonder why I don&#8217;t use it more often. \u00a0I love its tang and creaminess. \u00a0Even the tiniest of crumbles of the stuff can transform a dish. \u00a0The honey goat cheese dressing on this salad was so tasty, and took an already great salad to another level of deliciousness. My [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[55,5,26],"tags":[440,481,482,185,910],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p51jE-1dm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4674,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672\/revisions\/4674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}