Meal No. 1000: Roasted Salmon on Spiced Pecan and Blue Cheese Salad

Just shy of five years since the first meal was made once the kitchen addition was completed, and I have hit the magical mark of One Thousand. Today it was lunch that caused this milestone to be reached, prepared for the very special occasion of a visit from Princeton, NJ, friends Everett Kline and David Wald.

Later, I realized I'd made this salad for them the last time they visited, three years ago, but they were too gracious to make note of this faux pas. Shows what a limited imagination I must have.

But what was new for them, and relatively new still for me, was the New Orleans Pecan Pie bread pudding that I made for dessert, with a whiskey sauce to put us over the edge.

This necessitated a big downtown walk following the meal, which gave us a chance to walk around all the construction and development on the east side of downtown in Wake Forest Innovation Quarter.

Also, a quick yard note: before David and Everett arrived, I received my spring top soil load from Pope Sand & Gravel:

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"Spiced Pecan and Blue Cheese Salad," inspired by the signature salad at Ryan's Steaks, Chops, & Seafood (an excellent Winston-Salem restaurant). "Sweet and Sour Vinaigrette" from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, compiled and edited by Julie Fisher Gunter. Birmingham, AL: Oxmoor House (1999), p. 373. "Crispy Cayenne Nuts" recipe from Southern Living, July 2008, available online at MyRecipes.com.

Salmon based on "Herb-Roasted Salmon Fillets," by Luanne Asta of New York, NY. In Taste of Home, December 2013, p. 28.

"New Orleans Pecan Pie Bread Pudding," from King Arthur Flour online.

NOTE: The two reviews of the bread pudding that have been posted thus far on the KingArthurFlour.com website are not all that favorable, but I think I had better results because I referenced another bread pudding recipe when making it. I upped the amount of heavy cream and also let the dried bread cubes soak a while longer. I think I also used more melted butter than called for.