by Kathy Hamman Miller
Mmmm — Remembering the smells of walking through Grandma’s kitchen! Depending on the time of day, there was always the smell of bacon, a pot of freshly brewed coffee, and, of course, that loaf of bread that just had come out of the oven.
Ingredients:
12 slices bacon
1/2 cup bacon grease from just fried bacon, or olive oil
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/3 cup water
1/4 vinegar
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
Raisins
Walnuts chopped
Baby Spinach
Optional:
Hard boiled eggs diced, craisins, cut up apple pieces are really good in this too.
Directions:
In a medium skillet, fry the bacon until tender crisp, set aside. Now, of course, Grandma would keep the bacon grease from the bacon she had just fried up, but I’ve been taking the grease out, your choice of oils of course, removing all but that good crispy brown bacon flavor at the bottom of the pan. Return to skillet, 6 pieces of the bacon, crumbled, your choice of oil or the bacon grease, onions, water, vinegar, brown and white sugar, continuously stirring over medium heat until onions are tender and the dressing is thickened. Set aside while you get your salad put together, this will allow the dressing to cool down just a bit, it should still be hot, but not enough to wilt the salad.
Add the raisins or craisins, chopped walnuts, the rest of the bacon cut or broke into squares, the optional apple chunks, hard boiled egg pieces, to a bowl of baby spinach. Serve with hot dressing. Enjoy!
My grandma had a similar recipe that was called Wilted Lettuce. Heated dressing consisting of bacon fat, sugar, vinegar, salt, pepper and water poured over hot boiled potatoes, fried bacon bits, Romain lettuce and chopped green onions. Not an appetizing name for the dish but good especially if you like vinegar.