Herb Salad with Blackberries and Feta

My favorite types of salads in the past couple years have had three things: a fruit, a cheese and a nut. Add a homemade dressing and you've just made one of the most basic, boring food items into a treat.

My past salads have included my take on the wine country salad, salad with strawberries, feta and walnuts, salad with strawberries and parmesan, and salad with watermelon and feta. This week, I gave a new fruit a whirl: blackberries.

I combined an herb mix of greens with blackberries, feta and glazed walnuts.

But the REAL excitement was getting to use the salad dressing emulsifier we received for Christmas from Sean's Aunt Elizabeth! I used a dressing recipe from Martha Stewart as a base, but had to adjust to suit what I had in my pantry.

My citrus dressing (which was really a perfect complement to the salad, btw) was:

• 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of orange juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper
• drops of lemon juice to taste