recipe: ginger fruit salad

Happy New Year! If your resolution was to "eat healthy," boy, do I have the recipe for you. I made this fruit salad when Mike, Jen and Jamie came over for our Christmas brunch. I like it because the ginger is unexpected.

The ingredients sound weird (honey + red wine vinegar + ginger) -- but trust me on this one. It's good.

Ginger Fruit Salad

Adapted from The Cook's Country Cookbook

• Fruit to fill a medium bowl (I used 2 large apples, 1 can mandarin oranges, 2 handfuls of frozen blueberries and 2 handfuls of grapes that I froze when they were on sale)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

Combine 1/8 cup oranges (or any fruit of your choice), water, honey, vinegar and ginger in a small saucepan. Break down with a potato masher. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook 2 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Strain, reserving the juices and throwing away the solids.

Toss the remaining fruit in a bowl with the fruit juice. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

(By the way, after I cut the apples, I sprinkled them with lemon juice to keep them from browning.)