Given the longstanding love affair between beer and grilled and barbecued meats, you could be forgiven for overlooking a less-talked-about pairing opportunity. And I’m not talking about pizza, burgers, hot dogs or even cheese, all of which are beer matches made practically in heaven. I’m talking about beer and salad.

OK, so it’s not the most obvious choice, but beer is extremely versatile, and can be paired wonderfully with almost any dish — it’s just a matter of finding the best pairing to unlock a combination of flavors that is more than the sum of its parts.

For simplicity’s sake, I’m looking at the first-course salads that tend to be more delicate, yet contain numerous individual ingredients and strong, flavored dressings, rather than heartier-style salads, and divided my recommendations based on the style of dressing. The best pairings are often with lighter-bodied, more nuanced beers to complement the delicacy of the salad. A beer that’s too strong or too heavy will run roughshod over the subtle flavors in your salad.

Creamy dressings

In the United States, the most popular salad dressing is ranch, which in the 1950s was first pioneered in California by Steven Henson for his Hidden Valley Ranch steakhouse near Santa Barbara. Ranch, alongside other creamy dressings, such as Caesar, Thousand Island and Green Goddess, pair nicely with hefeweizens, weissbier and other wheat beers, where the smoothness from the added wheat keeps them from overwhelming the salad.

Hoppy pilsners are another good choice, along with red ales, amber lagers and blonde ales. Although they’re harder to find, a rye beer is also great because of the spiciness the rye adds.

Stronger creamy dressings, like blue cheese, carry tangy flavors that can stand up to heartier beers, even dark ones, so I’d recommend a doppelbock or dunkelweizen (a dark wheat beer).

Consider pairing a more meat-heavy salad with a hazy IPA or a spicy Belgian tripel. (Courtesy Getty Images)

Vinaigrettes

Oil and vinegar is easily the oldest type of dressing, with evidence of the ancient Babylonians using it nearly 2,000 years ago. The French later refined oil and vinegar dressing, adding mustard, ketchup, paprika and other herbs, but the most popular one in California — according to sales data from 2023 — is Italian dressing, which adds herbs, spices, chopped vegetables and garlic into the mix. Other similar dressings include honey mustard, balsamic and other vinaigrettes.

For lighter beers, great choices are a Belgian witbier, whose signature orange peel and coriander pull out a salad’s nuances, or a saison or farmhouse ale, especially one that exhibits notes of pepper from the yeast used in brewing. Other good choices include kölsches, wheat beers and amber lagers.

Or you can lean into the dressing’s vinegary flavors and choose a sour, more acidic beer such as a Belgian lambic, gueuze, or Berliner Weisse. A sour Flanders red can also pair wonderfully with your salad, especially if it includes seafood.

For a wedge salad, try an IPA, a porter or a stout, but not an imperial one. The imperial versions are high alcohol, which tends to overwhelm the more delicate flavors of any salad.

If your salad includes fruit, a complementary fruit beer, especially a fruit wheat beer, can work wonders.

Another approach is to ignore the dressing in favor of a specific component. For example, you can pair a Waldorf salad and its signature walnuts with a nut brown ale to give more weight to that ingredient. A rich pale ale works well, too.

Here are two more pairings for a couple of the most popular types of salads.

Ale Caesar

Caesar salads, which originated in Mexico, are one of the most popular varieties today. I’m personally fond of pairing mine with a German helles, a light-bodied, malty lager, but pilsners, blonde ales or cream ales are solid choices, too.

Cobb

Since a Cobb salad commonly includes more meat than many other salads, it’s one of the few types that will work well with a hazy IPA. Naturally, the same is true for any other heavily meaty salad. A spicy Belgian tripel is also a great pairing.

Contact Jay R. Brooks at BrooksOnBeer@gmail.com.

By LARRY LAGE

MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) — Barry Sanders was not motivated by statistics during his Pro Football Hall of Fame career, memorably opting to retire instead of playing one more season to likely break the NFL’s all-time rushing record.

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“It never was a driver for me,” Sanders said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press.

Nearly 15 months after he had a heart attack, cholesterol numbers have become critically important for the Detroit Lions great. Sanders is hoping to encourage people to talk with their physicians about their cardiovascular health.

“I hope that they take advantage of just having the conversation with their doctor to see what their LDL-C number is — LDL-C is bad cholesterol,” Sanders said. “So many of us are impacted by heart disease. Hardly anybody is untouched when you think about a loved one or a friend or relative.”

Last year on Father’s Day, he woke up with a burning sensation in the middle of his chest and drove himself to the hospital that night after the pain didn’t subside.

“They proceeded to run tests and and told me that it was a heart attack,” Sanders recalled. “Spent a few days in the hospital, got on a good treatment plan.”

Barry Sanders talks during an interview Monday, Sept. 8, 2025, in Madison Heights, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Sanders later partnered with Amgen Inc., a biotech drug developer, to amplify his new role as a heart health advocate with a documentary and interviews.

The 57-year-old Sanders retired just before training camp in 1999, when he was within striking distance of Walter Payton’s then-record 16,726 rushing yards. Emmitt Smith later set the league mark of 18,355 yards that still stands.

Sanders ran for 15,269 yards for Detroit, a career that included an MVP award in 1997, six All-Pro nods and a Pro Bowl berth in each of his 10 seasons. Detroit drafted Sanders with the No. 3 overall pick in 1989 after his Heisman Trophy-winning season with Oklahoma State.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Christine Benz of Morningstar

There are definitely things I get wrong in my investment portfolio.

I hold too much company stock and cash, and I don’t have the recommended allowance of bonds for a person my age. My record on curbing taxes hasn’t been perfect. I’ve held tax-inefficient funds in a taxable account and have been slow to move money into IRAs each year.

But despite these missteps, my husband and I have managed to do just fine from a big-picture standpoint. Here’s what has worked for us.

We maintained a high savings rate

Luck played a starring role in our ability to save: My husband and I had the good fortune of emerging from college debt-free, which enabled us to buy a house and start saving for retirement early in our careers.

We’ve also both been employed for three-plus decades, meaning that we’ve been able to sock away a good share of our incomes and benefit from employer-matching contributions, tax-deferred growth, and a long runway of investment compounding. We don’t have a budget, but automating our investment contributions has helped us be disciplined about saving.

That’s not to say we haven’t made sacrifices. We spent many a weekend working on our old house when we were just starting out, and I’ve always driven my husband’s hand-me-down cars. The home renovations were fun and I’m not into cars, so it’s a stretch to call either of those things a big sacrifice.

Stocks delivered

We’ve also lucked out in terms of market performance. There have been some bad spots, but over our 35-year investing horizon thus far, stocks have returned about 11% on an annualized basis. That’s a fabulous rate of return by any measure.

Of course, stock market returns over any specific time horizon are mainly luck of the draw, but I’m giving us a few skill points here, because we haven’t pulled back from stocks during times of market duress. We’ve kept investing and even added extra to them, above and beyond our automatic contributions, when we’ve had extra cash on hand.

It has helped that we’re too busy to think much about our investments, and we understand that stocks invariably shake off their periodic swoons.

We curbed investment costs

Limiting investment costs has been another important tailwind, one that enabled us to receive our fair share of the market’s returns.

I quickly got religion on the importance of limiting costs early in my career. And as an analyst, I learned that expense ratios were much more predictive of a fund’s future prospects than its past returns. My employer’s 401(k) investment menu skews toward low-cost investments, and my husband and I gravitated to cheap funds for the rest of our portfolio.

We kept it ‘basic’

My preferences in the realm of investing products are definitely basic.

We dabbled in individual stocks in the late 1990s when everyone seemed to be opening a brokerage account. But our portfolio was always largely anchored in core stock funds.

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My cynicism about the investment industry grew as I observed the pattern of firms launching products only after an asset class had enjoyed a strong runup in the market. While we have maintained a healthy allocation to non-US stocks, which has certainly held back our results relative to a US 60/40 allocation, that’s about as exotic as it gets for us.

Just as important is what we’ve avoided: alternative investment products, cryptocurrency, thematic funds, and the other investment fads that have come and gone over the years. I haven’t run the numbers, but I know ignoring the fads has redounded to the benefit of our long-term results.

This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance.

Christine Benz is the director of personal finance and retirement planning at Morningstar.

My 18-month-old grandson doesn’t have the biggest vocabulary, but like most toddlers, he makes what he wants known pretty clearly.

That’s especially true when it comes to his favorite foods, which these days is pretty much anything he can stuff into his mouth unassisted.

His most practiced phrase is “Eat, eat!” followed by a gesture he learned at daycare — tapping his thumbs and fingers together in a flat “O” to make the American Sign Language sign for “more.”

All kids love cookies, crackers and string cheese, of course. Their parents do, too. But perhaps none is more beloved among the rugrat set than goldfish crackers, which Pepperidge Farm launched in the U.S. in 1962 — surprisingly — as a bar snack for adults.

The fish-shaped crackers were invented in 1958 by Swiss manufacturer Oscar J. Kambly as a birthday present for his wife, whose zodiac sign was Pisces. After the smiley face was added in 1997, It didn’t take long for the crunchy treats to become a children’s favorite. Today, The Campbell’s Company production line in Willard, Ohio, produces some 50 million of the cheerful little whole-grain fishies every day — more than 785 miles if you lined them all up head to tail.

Kids tend to find animal crackers, which are even older, just as addictive. Nabisco first tucked the tiny zoo- and circus-animal shaped cookies into its iconic red-and-yellow circus wagon box in 1902.

Bakers have been shaping cookies to resemble animals since at least the 6th or 7th century, when they were used for a pre-Christian Germanic/Nordic midwinter festival known as Julfest. Poor people couldn’t afford to sacrifice animals to the gods, so they made biscuits or cookies shaped like them as offerings. The practice of eating animal crackers gained popularity in Victorian England, and in the 1870s, Stauffer’s Biscuit Company started producing a menagerie of lion, giraffe and other animal shapes for commercial sale in York, Pa. Nabisco followed in 1902, and over the years has created at least 50 playful shapes.

Kids love them because they’re tasty; parents appreciate the fact they are easy to portion, relatively wholesome when compared to other sugary treats and easy to find at grocery stores and big club warehouses in a variety of flavors.

As I discovered when my three other grandkids were in town earlier this month, animal- and fish-shaped crackers are also incredibly easy to make at home with just a few simple ingredients.

If little hands pitch in with the rolling and cutting, making them is a fun way to spend quality time together in the kitchen while developing fine motor skills. Baking also teaches practical skills every child should know like measuring, counting and following instructions.

And when the last tray of cookies has cooled and is ready to be gobbled, do you eat head or tail first? Both treats are perfect for anytime snacking and also can be packed into lunch boxes or scooped into bags as party favors.

Theo couldn’t get enough of them. Plenty of grown-ups will like ’em, too.

Homemade Goldfish Crackers

To make gluten-free goldfish, substitute an equal amount of your favorite gluten-free flour blend in place of the all-purpose flour. Be sure to chill the dough (it makes the crackers flaky) and flour the work surface. (The dough will roll easier.)

I found a mini goldfish cutter on Amazon, but they’re also available at baking supply stores and Walmart.

INGREDIENTS

3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (about 8 ounces)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 kosher salt

6 tablespoons cold salted butter, cut into 1/2 -inch pieces

1-2 tablespoons cold water

Flaky sea salt, optional

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a food processor, combine cheese, flour, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder and salt.

Pulse until the cheese mixes into the flour. Add butter and pulse until the mix clumps together to form pea-size balls. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together and forms a ball.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and form into a ball. Divide the dough in half.

Working with one section at a time, roll the dough as thin as you can, about a 1/4 -inch thick. Cut into “goldfish” or 1/2 -inch squares. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Carefully transfer the cutouts to the prepared baking sheet, spacing them a 1/2 inch apart. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt, if desired.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden. Let cool completely, then store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Makes about 5 cups of goldfish.

— halfbakedharvest.com

Homemade Animal Crackers

The thinner you roll the dough, the crisper the cracker; aim for between 1/8 – and 1/4 -inch thick. You can reroll the scraps as you go, but you’ll need to chill it again if it gets too soft.

Cookie cutters with plunger stamps provide the best detail. Whether or not to glaze the finished crackers after cooling depends on personal preference; I left mine naked.

INGREDIENTS

9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons honey

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar and honey until well combined.

Add egg and vanilla, and continue to whisk until smooth.

In a separate bowl, combine all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder and cinnamon, then mix this into your butter mixture. You might need to get in there with your hands and knead it just until it comes together.

Shape the dough into a flattened disc, wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. (You can use it right away, but it’s a little easier to roll when it has chilled for a bit.)

On a lightly floured surface, roll half of the dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. (Keep the remaining dough covered and in the refrigerator to stay cold until you are ready to roll it.)

Use animal cookie cutters (or any cookie cutters) to cut out the dough into shapes. Place the crackers 1/2 inch apart onto the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 14-15 minutes, or until lightly golden brown around the edges.

Let cool for at least 5 minutes on the baking sheets before enjoying. Stored cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 7 days.

— adapted from biggerbolderbaking.com

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You and your kids can make goldfish and animal crackers at home