Spinach Salad with Strawberries

I had a few people request the recipe for the salad I made at my friend's baby shower, so I thought I would post it. It really is an amazing salad, tastes great and looks pretty, totally great for entertaining. I made it again the next night after the shower because I loved it so much and one person I made it for said they liked it even though they won't eat any vegetables. So if this salad will please a vegetable hater, I figure it's a winner.

Spinach Salad with Strawberries

from Lion House Entertaining

DRESSING

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

3 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup oil

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup strawberry jam

SALAD

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup cashew pieces

15 wontons, cut into thin strips*

1 large head red leaf lettuce, washed and broken into pieces

1 package fresh spinach, with stems trimmed

1/3 cup bacon pieces, cooked and well drained

1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped

1 purple onion, sliced

1 cup strawberries, sliced

To make dressing, mix together vinegar, sugar, oil, mustard, salt, and strawberry jam. Mix until all ingredients are well blended. Set aside.

Heat a medium frying pan and add sugar and nuts. Stir constantly over medium heat until nuts are coated and slightly browned. Remove from heat and set aside.**

Fry wontons in hot cooking oil and drain onto paper towels.

When ready to serve salad, put lettuce, spinach, bacon, red pepper, onion, and strawberries into a large bowl and toss. Add salad dressing and toss. Add sugared nuts and wontons last. Makes 10 servings (They were definitely 10 generous servings).

Variation: Use fresh raspberries and raspberry jam instead of strawberries and strawberry jam. Substitute almonds for cashews. When fresh berries aren't available substitute dried cranberries.

*I didn't use wontons because it seemed like too much extra work, I'm pretty lazy, and the salad already had bacon in it so I thought it didn't really need anything fried in it. I did the raspberry jam variation the first time, but the second time I was out of fresh raspberries so I just used fresh strawberries but with raspberry jam in the dressing and it still tasted good.

**Be careful not to overcook the nuts, mine tasted slightly overdone on their own, but you couldn't really tell in the salad. Sheldon thought it might be easier to melt the sugar by itself, and then add the nuts once the sugar is liquidy.