I wish I could take credit for this, but in truth, it has pieces of three different recipes. I served it several times over the holidays and had many requests for the recipe. I thought I’d share it with everyone!
Ingredients:
Your favorite salad greens
Goat cheese, crumbled
Ingredients for Candied Walnuts
1/2 cup Walnut halves
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1.5 tsp walnut oil
Ingredients for Salad Dressing
2-3 Bosc Pears, peel, core and cut lenth-wise into 8 or more slices per pear
A bottle of Merlot — no sipping because the recipe needs all of it. The cook must open another bottle!
1/2 cup brown sugar
1.5 tsp grated lemon peel
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 stick cinmamon
1/2 tsp. of black peppercorns
1. Place all the salad dressing ingredients in a large pan and bring to a simmer.
2. Add the pears, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the pears are tender.
3. Remove the pears and let them cool.
4. Turn the heat up and boil the remaining ingredients until it is reduced to about one cup.
5. Strain out the peppercorns, lemon peel and cinnamon.
6. Let cool. (I prepared this the night before serving. I kept the pears in a separate container from the dressing).
Candied Walnuts
1. Mix all the candied walnut ingredients in a mid-size frying pan and cook on medium-high setting. Keep stirring them and the brown sugar will carmelize and coat the nuts. This takes about five minutes, Be careful because they can easily burn. (Not that I ever did this. 
)
2. Transfer to a piece of wax paper to cool. (This is a good place for sampling!)
To serve:
1. Place salad greens on salad plate.
2. Pour on desired amount of dressing.
3. Add 2 pear slices per salad.
4. Sprinkle some of the walnuts over the salad.
5. Top with desired amount of goat cheese crumbles.
That’s it! If you try this, let me know your thoughts! Also, if you have any ideas to improve upon it, I’d love to hear them as well. I hope you enjoy it!
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