A New Favorite

My grandmother was kind enough to send me this recipe. It is on my new favorites list. Crisp-fresh grapes, tangy-creamy dressing, and a scrumptious-sweet-crunchy-nutty topping. You have to try it to believe it. I've convinced myself that this salad is incredibly healthy. Fruit, dairy, nuts (have to get your protein somehow!). I think we'll just have grape salad for dinner.

Grape Salad

3 pounds seedless grapes, (red, green or mixture, cleaned)

8 oz cream cheese
8 oz sour cream
l tsp vanilla
1/3 cup sugar

Mix together these 4 ingredients with electric mixer and add to cleaned grapes. Pour into serving dish (long, flat dish like 9x13 works best to give some topping for each spoonful). (A full batch makes a very creamy salad. You can use as little as 1/2 the creamy mixture and still have a delicious salad!)

Topping:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup finely chopped pecans (or walnuts)
2 Tbs melted butter or marg.

Mix together and spread on baking sheet and bake for 6-7 minutes at 350 degrees. Keep an eye on it as it burns very easily, stirring a couple times. When cool, crumble and spread over grapes and refrigerate overnight.

Warning: Do not, under any circumstances, be tempted to snitch some of the topping. Not even the tiniest bit. Believe me, in two minutes you will have no topping left to put on the grape salad. (Ask me how I know.) If possible, make a double (or triple) batch of topping. Snitch some, put extra on the salad, and save a bit for ice cream. I'll be making batch #3 today.