Blueberry Pound Cake

2 cups sugar
1-cup butter, softened
1-tablespoon pure vanilla extract
4 eggs
3 cups flour, divided
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries, thaw if frozen
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (I leave them out because I never seem to have pecans on hand)

Preheat oven to 325.

In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Beat in eggs, one at a time until well blended.

Mix 2 cups flour and baking powder; gradually beat into creamed mixture until smooth.

Mix blueberries, pecans and remaining flour until coated. Carefully fold into batter. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon granulated sugar into bottom of a greased bundt cake pan, then pour in batter. Bake 1 hour 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Invert on cooling rack; cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar when serving.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

INGREDIENTS
1 bags of spinach

1 pints of sliced strawberries
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

1 cup caramelized pecans

DIRECTIONS
To Carmelize pecans stir 1/4 cup of sugar with 1 cup of pecans in a sauce pan until the sugar browns and sticks to the nuts.

In a large bowl, toss together the spinach and strawberries.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, sugar, paprika, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds. Pour over the spinach and strawberries, and toss to coat. Add pecans.

To caramelize the pecans I added ¼ cup of sugar to the one cup of pecans and stirred constantly over medium heat in a saucepan. When the sugar sticks to the pecans and changes color pour onto aluminum foil. Separate the pecans so they do not stick together and cool.