Simple Spinach Salad and a little dose of gratefulness.

One of things that I love best about blogging is the people that I have met on this crazy 'ole contraption we call the Internet.

I think it's my favorite thing about the blogging community. The friendships, the camaraderie, the fellowship. It's a lot like when you were a kid growing up and you had your best friends, and you thought no one, no other living soul on the face of this earth understood you like those friends did. I have that same kind of feeling about some of my favorite bloggers. I'll read something they write and out loud, I'll say "yes!" or I'll giggle or nod my head in agreement, or think "I wish I would have written that" or "OMG, she is so _______ smart, inventive, beautiful, insightful, talented, etc." I fill in the blank as I go along. I'll see a picture they took and I can actually feel what they wanted to express the moment the shutter clicked. I'm so enamoured. I gasp at the beauty of it all. Such talent.

They share a little bit of their lives with me, and always seem to enrich mine somehow, whether it be their recipes, their wit, humor, or a comment that says "hey you're ok" or a message on Facebook that says "I'm right there with ya". They get me. They have also given me so much inspiration in so many, many ways.

We might not have sat over a cup of tea, or gone shopping together, or even talked on the phone, but I really do consider them friends.

So I wanted to do a little shout out to these fantastic women (and one man. Don't hate on me men, there may be a part deux for you). Here's part of my roll call. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone! I just know it and I'm going to feel awful when I realize it.

No, they are not all recipe blogs, although most of them will throw a recipe or two in from time to time, and I love that. It's quite a bunch of extraordinary folks and it would be well worth your time to stop and visit and check them out, so you can see for yourself why I'm so lucky to have them in my world.

You'll find that no two are quite alike, and I love that.

Take a moment to visit:
Jen, Krysta, Katie, Joan-Marie, Melissa, Dana, Kim, Todd & Diane and June.

Thanks to all of you for making my life a little sweeter.

OK - BACK TO THE FOOD! On to my Simple (very simple) Spinach Salad.



As most readers know, I have two sons, but you might notice that there always seems to be one young lady in a lot of my photos. That would be Sara, my best friends daughter. No, she was not spawned from my loins, but she is the daughter I will never have. My sweet, sweet Sara who lives at my house almost every other weekend, who I treat as my own child and who my boys treat just like a sister.

This child will eat just about anything that you will put down in front of her except - salad. She's not a traditional salad kinda kid. Tati told me the only salad she will eat is Spinach Salad. Her very simple spinach salad. So I gave it shot. Get ready, here's the mind-blowing recipe.

1 big bowl baby spinach (please wash and dry it before consumption)
oil & vinegar
salt & pepper
crushed garlic
hard boiled egg (optional)

Throw the spinach in a big bowl. Combine the oil, vinegar, salt & pepper, and crushed garlic. I used 2 cloves for one salad. Pour over salad and toss.

I threw in some hard boiled eggs cause I like them.

That's it. Can't get any easier than that. It's simplicity at it's best. No muss, no fuss, eat. I served this with dinner the other night and the kids loved it. Jesse proclaimed it "the best spinach salad ever". It does help that both my kids love spinach, if yours don't, well then this is definitely not the salad for you.

Oh I forgot one last thing......Popeye approved - it'll grow some musclies on ya.