Pear and Grape Salad

I remember looking at this recipe when I was a toddler and wanting to make it. So once I was old enough to do it this is the first thing I ever made in the kitchen. I make this every year for Thanksgiving. One thing is to try to find the smallest grapes possible and cut them length wise to make it as cluster like as possible. I use dark celery leaves to decorate and lay it on a bed of pretty lettuce. The original recipe I remember from my mom's CIA cookbook called for it to be served with French dressing which is very good. People always enjoy this salad very much because it is small and light and delightful. Sometimes I put chopped walnuts under the pear. I remember candle salad from the same era but that's a whole other story.

The pears and grapes tasted wonderful together especially with the cream cheese "glue". I used a fresh ripe anjou pear and some seedless grapes that were rather large. I think this would have had greater visual appeal had I used very small grapes. I didn't have any grape leaves so I just used silk ivy leaves. This was a fun recipe to prepare and I think kids would really enjoy making these!