Ingredients:
6 handfuls of tender field greens.
2 cups of sliced strawberries, (about 1 basket)
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup pineapple chunks
(juice pack) reserve juice
1 cup mandarin oranges,
( juice pack)
1 / 4 cup toasted almonds
3 / 4 lb of juliened pork or chicken (optional)

Dressing:
1 / 4 cup vanilla vinegar
1 / 4 cup pineapple juice
4 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
1 / 4 teaspoon xanathan gum

Vanilla Vinegar is vanilla beans infused in white balsamic vinegar.

You can also use a combination of 1/ 4 cup vinegar of your choice and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract.

Get the ingredients together.
This salad we made to be transported so all the ingredients were separated so
they could be assembled at the last minute.

Get your dressing ingredients together and then blend them
in a food processor or blender. You can whip them in
a stainless bowl with a whip but you will need to really
mix well to activate the xanathan gum to thicken it up.

Here is a recipe for vanilla vinegar

You can use any nice vinegar and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract if you want.

In the April issue of Cook's Illustrated they did a test on vanilla beans and vanilla extracts.

They used some major brands including McCormick whom many of us grew up with , and Neilsen-Massey that is found in many gourmet stores and then some branded ones like Durkee.

Their conclusion is that good vanilla gets "cooked out" if baked very long. They felt that if you add vanilla extract after the pudding is made you get more flavor.

They tasted different real and fake vanillas in milk, the way that professional tasters do. The real vanillas of course won the day.

One reason is that real vanilla has over 250 flavor compounds in it and they develop as the extract sits. You can taste such subtle spicy, nutty and a complex flavors and in the Fake Vanilla they tasted bitter and medicinal. No doubt, imitation vanilla is made from a by product of paper production or it is a tar derivative. They did say that for making cookies imitation vanilla can do a pretty good job.
Well one thing for sure, it's hard to ramp up your vanilla in a recipe which I OFTEN do, to get that INCREDIBLE flavor if you use imitation. It will turn things bitter fast!