Warming up to fall.

Wilted spinach salad with caramelized red onions, pink ping pong tomatoes, and chevre

This salad was introduced to us about a year ago by my adorable sister-in-law and her brilliant chef of a boyfriend. We were at Thanksgiving dinner and I remember smelling the onions slowly caramelizing in their pan as we began appetizers. Fairly familiar with my mother-in-law's culinary repertoire I was curious to see what new creations were cooking up in her kitchen. And being the nosy daughter-in-law I stuck my nose in the kitchen to see what was cooking :) Shocker, right?

To tell you about the magic of this introduction is pointless... let's just say it has quickly made it into our culinary repertoire on a regular basis.

Anyway, the caramelized onions are gently poured over a base of spinach (in this case the baby variety) that has been lightly salted and peppered and speckled with pink ping pongs. The big finale is the crumbling --okay so it's more like force cut pieces-- of chevre cheese (that's just goat cheese rolled in herbs). The salad is then tossed together and viola! you have a hearty main dish, a delicious and savory starter....or a great fall lunch.

I can't wait to make this salad more often as the weather turns, with the addition of other seasonal goodies like seared butternut squash, roasted carrots, or just some good ole bacon!