Winter Fruit Salad

Oh MY, this was a good fruit salad. No small feat, considering we are in the miserable throes of  a New England February: the farmer’s market is a distant memory, and Stop + Shop produce is all hideously expensive and anemic-looking. But I wanted to make something fresh and light for Tom’s birthday brunch, so I went to Deb for suggestions: while her winter fruit salad is a thing of great and terrible beauty, I futzed with it some (I am, by nature, a futzer).

You will need: 3 gala apples (chopped) + 2 green pears (also chopped) + 1 red pear (keep chopping) + a handful of golden raisins + a handful of dates (pitted and cut in half) + a handful of walnuts + 1 tablespoon of brown sugar + 1 teaspoon of good vanilla. Put everything in a giant bowl and mix it up with clean hands.

Share with friends. Or sit on the couch with the whole bowl in your lap, which is what I am planning to do when I make this again tomorrow morning.