It’s that time of year again. This salad makes me think of my mom. She grew the lettuce, spinach and onions in her very large garden that I was privileged to help with. At the time, I didn’t think so, but I learned a lot from that great teacher by being at her side. At times she had fresh eggs to hard-boil, too. (I liked gardening a little better than gathering eggs.) She loved this spring/summer fresh salad. The warm sweet and tangy dressing filled with an abundance of flavor made everyone at the table smile. Homegrown food is the best. Why? Because it tastes that much better knowing a driving effort makes everything better.
Dear, dear mother-in-law, Maxine, planted winter onions decades ago. I ran down to the pasture fence a little bit ago in order to fetch a winter green onion for this dinner salad. All I can say is, “yum”. She would’ve said the same thing. She and my mom both ate onion sandwiches. Yes, that’s what I said. Onion sandwiches! Homemade bread and butter with a fresh green onion from the garden probably did taste delicious. Again, made from scratch with a little elbow grease creates deliciousness. 🙂 I miss those wonderful, wonderful hard-working women. They loved God. They loved their families and they worked very hard.
I LOVE the warm sweet bacon dressing. You will, too!
Wilted Spinach/Lettuce Salad
Ingredients
- 4 C fresh spinach stems off
- 4 C Spring lettuce mix
- 4-6 slices bacon fried; reserve all bacon drippings
- 2 hard-cooked eggs cooled and sliced
- 1-2 green onions sliced
- Dressing:
- 1/4 C sugar
- 1/4 C vinegar
- 1/4 C Sherry cooking wine or whatever flavor you have on hand
- 1/4 C bacon drippings
Instructions
- Rinse and spin greens. Arrange on a platter or salad bowl. Add sliced onion, sliced eggs, and bacon bites atop the greens.
- Dressing:
- Place all ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer until sugar is dissolved. Whisk together and pour over salad. Salt and pepper to taste. I usually pour half of the dressing atop salad and place the rest in a small pitcher.
- Enjoy!
For this meal, I paired the wilted spinach/lettuce salad with some homemade soup and biscuits. We enjoyed it. Hope you do, too.
Following are some other Spring-type green salads:
And we find that in the book of Ruth, she was a hard-working woman, too. “She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.” Ruth 2:7
