Citrus Salad

I served this salad at my daughter's birthday party. While of course I know that three year olds would never touch this, it turned out that most of the guests were going to be the adult kind, most of whom were going to drive a couple of hours to join the festivities and I couldn't just give them pizza and ice cream. So, in addition to the children's table I set up a buffet including quiches (recipes to come), bagels and spreads, my tortellini salad and a bunch of other stuff including this yummy salad. No one can argue about the visual appeal of this one. It was a stunner and delicious as well! Honestly, I am not the biggest fan of goat cheese but I keep using it to try to force myself to like it. For some reason in this salad the goat cheese's "goaty-ness" wasn't so bad when paired with the sweetness of the almonds and the citrus. Enjoy!

8 cups Mesclun mix
2 grapefruits, segmented
1 can mandarin oranges, or 2 oranges segmented
1/2 cup candied almonds
1 red onion sliced
1/3 cup goat cheese, crumbled


1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
2/3 cup light Olive oil
1/4 cup real maple syrup
1 tsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Arrange the salad ingredients artfully in a pretty bowl. Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing and drizzle over the salad right before serving.