Apricot Wild Rice Salad

Ours basically looked the same (minus the random Christmas ornament)

Photo and recipe credit to Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 3 cups water
• 2 cups uncooked wild rice
• 2 cups finely chopped dried apricots
• 2 cups dried cherries
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt

Directions

• In a large saucepan, bring water and rice to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 45-50 minutes or until rice is tender. Drain if necessary. Transfer to a large bowl; cool completely.
• Meanwhile, place apricots in a small bowl; cover with boiling water. Let stand for 5 minutes; drain. Stir the apricots, cherries and walnuts into rice. In a small bowl, whisk the oil, lemon juice, maple syrup and salt. Pour over rice mixture and mix well. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Yield: 15 servings (2/3 cup each).

Notes:

• Use a good quality olive oil, because it's a pretty major flavor.
• We omitted the maple syrup and it was just fine.  
• We thought that the amount this recipe was supposed to make was a little ridiculous, so we went with about 4 cups of cooked rice, a 6-oz bag of apricots, and about half on the dressing ingredients.
• Overall a thumbs-up, and it was fun to make something a little different!