{Salad Of The Week} and a Giveaway!!!

{GIVEAWAY CLOSED} WINNER: CAROLINE K.

This week I ventured out to my husband's warehouse at Muir Copper Canyon Farms and perused all the Muir Gourmet products! It was so much fun! I oogled all the fine vinegars, oils, chocolate, french butter, and pretty much all the best in specialty foods! I can't even tell you how much I love all these products. I love that they are so accessible to me through my husband's work. The great news is that ANYONE can now place orders to pick up at their warehouse or to ship through UPS or FedEx. They carry a wide variety of gourmet foods, oils, vinegars, spices, chocolate, pastry products, pastry decor, cheeses, dried pasta, fresh pasta, cured meats, dried fruits, nuts, gelato products, beverages, and some Asian specialties. Muir Gourmet is the Intermountain West's Premier Specialty Foods Distributor/Wholesaler. You are welcome to call anytime to place an order or talk about their products with Mike Muir (801) 419-8103. To learn more about their parent company Muir Copper Canyon Farms visit their website: coppercanyonfarms.com. 

To celebrate the grand opening of their new company Muir Gourmet and I are holding a giveaway of some amazing fall specialty products! These are featured in this {Salad Of The Week}!! Yeah!

Here are the 5 fabulous products I snatched to use for this weeks {Salad Of The Week}. All of which will be in the Giveaway today!!! Enter below to win these fantastic specialty products from Muir Gourmet!

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1: Fusion Napa Valley Verjus Blanc. This is so amazing. It has wonderful flavor and made a great salad dressing paired with the grapeseed oil!

2: Salute Sante Extra Virgin Cold Pressed Chardonnay Grapeseed Oil. This product won a Fancy Food Show Sofi Award Winner in 2013!

3: Fig Vincotto Vinegar. This is my favorite new find as far as vinegars go. It's flavor is to die for. I used it to drizzle over my salad. It has also been the perfect hint of flavor on crostini appetizers of many varieties. I just LOVE this vinegar. Its a winner in my book!

4: Harvest Song Fresh Walnut Artisan Preserves. OH MY HECK! Where have these been all my life? If you could bottle up the essence of fall it would be this goodness in a jar. Seriously these blew me away. They are so addicting. They made my {Salad Of The Week} something special. These are preserved fresh walnuts grown with care on the slopes of Mount Ararat in Armenia. They are delicious beyond compare.

5: Kunik Cheese by Nettle Meadows. This is a mildly flavored cheese made with Goat's Milk and Jersey Cow Cream, so it's not as strong as a straight goat's milk cheese. It has a creamy texture, but is firm enough that you can cut it with a knife. The flavor of this cheese was so decadent and light, it fit perfectly with my fall fruit filled {Salad Of The Week}. I will definitely use this cheese again. It was awesome!

{Salad Of The Week} Fall Harvest Salad with Verjus Dressing and Fig Vinegar Drizzle.

This salad was inspired by my latest trip to Tender Greens Restaurant in San Diego, California. I loved this trendy, fresh restaurant. The vibe in there was great, and every morsel of food we ate there was so flavorful and creative. I will definitely go there again next time we are in town. :)

They hit the nail on the head with their version of a seasonal salad... (but I liked mine even better! Te-hee.) Maybe that was due to my enthusiasm for the specialty products I had my hand on.... Just maybe.

This salad features some wonderful fall seasonal fruits like, pomegranates, persimmons, figs and red pears. They all worked like champs together to make this salad a success.

If you haven't joined me in the movement of my {Salad Of The Week} you should jump on the train this week! It has really made a difference in my ability to whip together healthy and appetizing salads on a regular basis (even with my busy mom schedule). Here's how it works!

Each weekend I plan and prepare my ingredients and dressing for my go-to salad. I make sure all my lettuce is chopped, and that all other veggies are prepped and ready to toss in the salad. In this case, since I was using some fresh fruit that I didn't want pre-chopped, I just made sure I had them on hand and ready to use. I made a batch of my Almond Coconut Granola to sprinkle over top this salad as well. 

In short, this week's salad prep was pretty simple...

1-Remove the seeds from the pomegranates and place them in a Ziploc for easy access. 

2- Make a batch of my Almond Coconut Granola. Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator. 

3- Chop lettuce and kale and place in Ziploc bags with paper towels in them to catch excess moisture. 

4- Make the Verjus dressing and keep in the refrigerator.

5- Have persimmons, figs, red pears, fresh walnut artisan preserves and Kunik Cheese on hand to dice quickly when preparing the salad.

Bing* Bang* Boom* you are done!! That wasn't so bad right? Now you have everything you need to scarf down some blow your mind delicious salads on the quick! Ya baby!

Remove pomegranate seeds and store in an airtight container.

Make a batch of Almond Coconut Granola (or your granola of choice).

Wash and chop lettuce and kale leaves and store in Ziploc bags with paper towels inside to catch excess moisture.

Make Verjus dressing in these 4 easy steps! Mince shallot and rosemary. Add Chardonnay Grapeseed Oil and Verjus Blanc. Sweeten with a little sugar. Emulsify and store in a cruet in the refrigerator. 

Dice a few delectable walnut preserves. (a.k.a. Candy)

Wash outside of figs. Slice of stem and cut into small wedges. Figs are quite soft and sweet when ripe. 

Slice a red pear. If you are serving just one person you can save 1/2 of the pear for later in a Ziploc bag with a little lemon juice over it if you want. 

Give a chop to a persimmon, stem removed. Same rule goes for the persimmon. You can save some in a bag with lemon juice too. :)

Dice some Kunik Cheese and your set to whip together something fabulous!!!

Gather up your array of mouthwatering additions to this Fall Harvest Salad and serve with your Verjus Dressing. Enjoy! This should leave you prepared to conquer your week with the benefit of a quick healthy lunch prepped and ready in your refrigerator. :) I hope this helps you as much as it does me!

CLICK ON RECIPE TO VIEW A PRINTABLE JPG

Don't forget to enter to win those 5 Fall Specialty Products from Muir Gourmet! You'll love them, I swear. :)

xoxo

Laura