If you need a refreshing salad – with greens of all kinds, and some lovely basil leaves – this may be one you’ll want to try. It’s loaded with goodness, and the star of the show are the little crumbles of baked Parmesan. Ever made them before? Easy. And it will make the salad very special.

I just posted about a trip I took in May (no, not the Europe trip, this was one to Northern California), one I will write up one of these days. There were lots of photos to share of the California coastline, wildlife, flowers at a Botanical Garden in Ft. Bragg (way up north) and my older granddaughter’s graduation from high school.

Anyway, while visiting in the Bay Area I went to see old friends I’d not seen for some years. The last time was several years ago when they were living in Pennsylvania and Dave and I stayed with them. Now Karen, Phil and their 2 sons, Cameron and Ryan are back on home (California) turf again and Phil’s got a new very high-powered job in the tech industry. Phil used to work for Intel, my DH’s employer. When Phil was almost fresh out of MBA school and came to work for Intel, he spent some weeks shadowing Dave in outside sales. Most of the new kids on the block did that when they were first sent to this local SoCal office.

Phil & Karen invited me to their home in Pleasanton – a gorgeous house set amongst a winery enclave. They grilled thick halibut steaks (and we talked about what a real treat halibut is these days at upwards of $20/pound). And their son Cameron (pictured at right) made this marvelous salad. Cameron likes to cook – isn’t it wonderful when your kids take an interest and really want to help in the kitchen?

The recipe came from Chef Michael Smith’s Kitchen: 100 of My Favorite Easy Recipes.

A few hours before you want to serve the salad (or even a day or so ahead) you need to make the Parmesan crisps. Click here if you want to see Ina Garten’s video of how to make the crisps. Super easy. But do start with the good stuff, Parmigiano-Reggiano or maybe a very good Pecorino. Nothing less will do. Once baked and cooled, keep them in an airtight container.

The dressing is very easy – it’s the usual salad dressing stuff with a tetch of honey to give it some sweetness. I liked that about this recipe, and not one you often see in an Italian dressing. Usually they’re acid-heavy and consequently, very tart. This one is lovely – smooth and nice. And truly, the Parm crisps make it. Thank you, Cameron, for sharing your recipe with me!

What’s GOOD: the Parmesan crisps are the best part about the salad, no question. They add texture and wonderful deep flavor, so don’t under any circumstances skip that part of it. Have everything else all ready to go and the salad is done in a flash.

What’s NOT: really nothing, unless you can’t set aside the time to make the crisps – that would make this salad very ordinary!

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Need a refreshing salad for a warm/hot summer night? The humidity in our neck of the woods has been pretty much in the 70s and 80s in recent weeks, which is very unusual for California. Perhaps you folks in the East scoff at 70% humidity. At any rate, if you want a cold salad that’s filling and delicious, and really simple, just have on hand some canned tuna, green beans, some eggs, mint, basil and some kind of pasta.

I’ve been reading a new blog – well, it’s not a new blog, but it’s new to me. It’s called Manger, written by Mimi Thorisson. Among other things, her photographs are stunning. She lives in Médoc, France with her husband and 2 children. She’s written a cookbook too. I haven’t gone back into her recipe archives much, but I noticed a recipe she made that looked really nice for a warm summer evening. I cooked the green beans earlier in the day when it was cool in the kitchen. I did cook the pasta right before dinner, but that’s because I decided to add it. Mimi didn’t have pasta in her salad, nor did she include basil, or any mayo in the dressing. Or lemon juice, either So, I kind of improvised. I’d been hankering to make my favorite tuna salad, one that’s been in my recipe archive for a long time, credited to Joanne Weir, but Joanne says it’s not really her recipe. I swear it came from a cooking class I took decades ago at Sur la Table, and it was a compilation of some of the favorites from the Sur la Table kitchen school pros, recipes from a variety of different instructors, Joanne being one of them. You can find that recipe here on my blog too. It’s a pasta and tuna mixture, Sicilian Tuna Salad –  that’s been a long time favorite. So I’d gathered up some of the ingredients, because I was going to make it, and then this salad stepped in front of my view, and it became my dinner.

I guess I should say – has it supplanted the Sicilian salad? No, I still like the Sicilian one better, but it’s definitely a pasta salad, whereas this one is more veggies and tuna with a few little pieces of pasta thrown in for texture. This one is very simple to make – prepare the dressing, but add some lemon juice – either in the dressing or drizzle some on the finished salad. Cook the green beans. Chop up the eggs, crumble the canned tuna, chop up some mint and basil and kind of layer the whole thing on a plate then drizzle the dressing on top. Done. Easy.

What’s GOOD: I liked how simple it was to make, and the addition of the green beans put it way up there in my estimation. You can leave out the pasta if you don’t want it. You’ve got protein and vegetables, then, and a drizzle of dressing and some powerful herbs (mint and basil) to give it tons of flavor. I put on lots of black pepper, and it needed some salt at the end also. But you could put this dinner together in less than 20 minutes including cooking the pasta and the green beans.

What’s NOT: It’s not a wow salad – not everything can be a wow. It was good. It was flavorful. It had lots of texture, and it was satisfying. All good enough reasons to make it.

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Oh my gracious! This salad. This salad is going to knock your socks off! Trust me. Bread salad with lots of nice greens, some pine nuts, a few chopped raisins, a tart vinaigrette, and on top – well, just the most delicious chicken I think I’ve ever had. Bar none.

Having guests over for dinner a week before I left on my trip was maybe not the best idea I’ve ever had – I was kind of frantic getting everything done, items packed, friends and neighbors notified, bills paid, taxes done and paid for, and yet, I’d been wanting to have these friends over, and figured oh well, a week before my trip I’ll be fine. And really, it was. Joan brought marinated tomatoes. Jackie brought a delicious blueberry custard dessert. I made the main dish and an appetizer. I brought out one of Dave’s favorite wines from the cellar, an Amavi Syrah, which was wonderful with the chicken. Also served a Zaca Mesa Viognier for two of the guests who preferred white wine. I set the table, of course, chilled the water, made the appetizer the day before, and did the shopping 3 days before.

There is a caveat, however, about this recipe. You absolutely MUST start this at least 24 hours before you want to serve it. And 48 hours are still okay too. It’s not hard to do that step, but it’s imperative you do it. The whole chicken is drained, dried off, salted and peppered and a few sprigs of fresh herbs gently slid underneath the breast skin and the thigh skin. Then it’s left to sit in the refrigerator with just a paper towel over the top. It’s like dry brining. It just sits. See, I said that part was easy. It probably took about 10 minutes of prep to find the right dish to hold 2 chickens that would fit in my garage refrigerator. And 4-5 minutes to dry off the birds and pat the salt all over them. The cold air in the frig helps dry out the skin, but then the salt helps protect it and hug in the juices. Such a chemical term – hug in the juices. I don’t know how else to describe it.

It’s a recipe I’ve been wanting to try for a long time. I’d heard, many years ago, about the fame of Judy Rodgers’ roasted chicken. It was epic to her San Francisco restaurant fans when she published her cookbook with the beloved recipe contained within for her roast chicken. Judy Rodgers died a couple of years ago. Chefs and fans mourned grievously. She was a rock star in the chef world. I don’t own her cookbook – The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco’s Beloved Restaurant [Hardcover] [2002] First Edition Ed. Judy Rodgers, Gerald Asher. The link just provided goes to an older edition that isn’t available for purchase, but you can find it in hardback. Amazon’s link is broken, somehow. Her cookbook is noteworthy for chefs, and very experienced home cooks. It’s not meant for the weeknight family dinner. You can find Rodgers’ roasted chicken full recipe online.  I copied it off from the ‘net, but wasn’t so sure I’d ever make it, as it’s an extremely complex masterpiece.

But, when I found an easy version of Rodgers’ famous chicken and bread salad, I downloaded it in a jiffy from a blog called NW Edible. It’s been in my to-try file for several years. Gosh, what a shame I hadn’t made it before since it’s such a winner!

Here’s what’s involved. Once you have done the dry brine, and a couple hours before you want to eat, bring out the bird(s) to reach room temp. Chop and oil the rustic bread and broil or bake until crispy but not hard. Make the vinaigrette. Get all the other ingredients ready. NW Edible used cast iron frying pans for her chickens. I don’t own 2 of them, so I opted to use my big Teflon coated turkey roasting pan, which was a perfect fit for 2 Costco chickens I’d prepared. I pre-heated the pan to 475°F. Now, that’s not a typo. The chicken IS roasted at 475°. Really. Once the pan was heated, I took it out and plopped the 2 chickies in the pan and they did sizzle. Probably not as much as in a cast iron skillet, but it worked fine in my book.

Into the oven the birdies went and I set the timer for 80 minutes. Meanwhile, I served an appetizer and wine and we would occasionally catch a whiff of the chicken roasting away. Once out of the oven, right on time – the chicken breast was at 170°, a little high, but it was fine. With help from Joan, we each poked a utensil into each end of the chicken and allowed the juices and fat to drain out into the pan. You also slice the skin near the legs to allow all those juices to drain. Then the chickens went onto a big carving board while I worked on the salad. The big roasting pan was drained (and saved) for of all its juices. I used a fat-separator, as I didn’t want the fat, just the juices. For the 2 birds, I think there was about 1/2 cup of juices and fat. That was set aside to do it’s separating and I went back to the pan. It went onto a stovetop burner and once heated up, with the residual fat in the pan, I added fresh garlic and pine nuts and they took a minute or two to get barely golden. Then 1/4 cup of the juices were poured in. That got poured over the top of the bread croutons in a big bowl. They are allowed to just sit for a minute or two – you want those pan juices to soak into the bread. The raisins were added (currants are called for, but I didn’t have any, so I used regular raisins chopped up fine) into the vinaigrette. A couple of huge wads of salad greens were added. The recipe calls for arugula, but Trader Joe’s was all out of arugula (gosh, that stuff is popular), so I used a multi-colored greens mixture that contains quite a bit of arugula anyway.

Meanwhile, I asked one of the guys to carve, which Don did, very kindly. I could have done it, but I thought I’d ask for help. Tom was the sommelier, we decided to call him and he kept our wine glasses filled. The two husbands handily stepped in to fill Dave’s shoes. Once the salad was tossed – the greens and the soaked bread, it was all on the big white platter you can see up top, and then Don put the chicken pieces – some thick breast slices, some dark meat and a drumstick or two on top, and it was ready. Done.

Almost always when I serve dinner, I serve it buffet style in the kitchen. On my huge island. Then everyone takes their plate into the dining room. We had a lively conversation about a variety of things. Travel, politics, religion. Two of those somewhat no-no subjects. We talked about our families, grandchildren and their busy schedules, travel destinations, etc. Anyway, it was just great fun, and the chicken was magnificent.

What’s GOOD: there is absolutely nothing that isn’t GREAT about this recipe. It takes a bit more prep than some, and you do have to start at least a day in advance. The vinaigrette is fabulous. The salad and slightly soaked crispy bread is magnificent. And the chicken. Well, it’s in a league of its own. Make this. It’s going onto my Carolyn’s Favs list, if that tells you how good it is.

What’s NOT: only the part about needing to start it at least a day ahead.

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 It seems like most green salads, these days, are filled with all kinds of non-vegetable goodies. In this case, instead of tomatoes, or sugar snap peas, celery and carrots, this one has crumbles of blue cheese, peppered walnuts, some orange slices, and it’s tossed in a sweet honey and apple cider vinegar dressing.

A few weeks ago I needed to take a salad to a church event (a ladies luncheon). Most everyone brought a salad, a couple made dessert. I went through all kinds of salad recipes looking for one that interested me. Finally found one in a relatively newer cookbook I have called From Terra’s Table, featuring recipes from the author’s restaurant and some other San Diego restaurateurs. But I changed it all around. It called for arugula and radicchio. I couldn’t find the radicchio, so had to substitute greens that contained some radicchio and colorful red greenery. The recipe called for walnuts that were coated in a spice egg white mixture and baked. I decided to make my favorite Peppered Pecans, but instead of pecans (the way I usually make it) I used walnuts instead. I had mostly walnut oil for the dressing, but not enough to make this, so had to substitute hazelnut oil for part of it. I had some good Humboldt Fog blue which I did crumble in the salad, and just because I had a nice, big juicy orange in my kitchen, I decided to add that as well.

Hence, this recipe is not true (much) to the original recipe. I altered the dressing a little bit. I altered the greens. And I made different nuts. So, really, it’s almost a new recipe. I’m sorry my photo isn’t better above – I used my cell phone at the event and didn’t have the best light.

What’s GOOD: I really liked the dressing, but it is on the sweet side. I also enjoyed the orange in this, and the texture from the peppered pecans for sure. I used less of the blue cheese since I think blue can overpower a salad. I’d have liked some sturdier greens in this (maybe some Romaine, but not a lot) because those multi-colored greens are so very tender. I’ve changed that in the recipe below, but you can use your own judgment when you make it yourself. It’s very pretty – especially with the orange slices visible.

What’s NOT: nothing really, other than you do have to prepare the walnuts, the dressing, and at the last minute toss it all and peel & slice the orange. Not something I’d make for a weeknight dinner, but great to take to someone else’s home if this is all you’re making.

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It’s been about a month ago that my friend Cherrie and I went to a cooking class at someone’s home, and Tarla Fallgatter prepared a whole bunch of appetizers and a dessert. This was the salad, and it’s a stunner. The addition of fruit to a green salad is finally coming into its own, and this one’s a really delicious rendition. Because Tarla had some cooked quinoa on hand, she tossed that into the salad as well, although that isn’t in the recipe. She also added a little bit of poached chicken to each serving, so it can be made into a complete meal.

Although there aren’t exactly a lot of ingredients in this salad, it does take a bit of preparation. The vinaigrette comes together quite easily (rice vinegar and raspberry vinegar in combo with olive oil and honey mustard) and could be made in advance, for sure. I’d recommend you do the prep of the salad next – this does have Belgian endive, and instead of whole leaves or chopped, they’re cut into lengthwise slivers. If you can find mache, do use it – if not, use a spring greens mixture and the baby spinach (do not use regular – large – spinach leaves). Try to find ricotta salata (it’s a specialized kind of medium-hard ricotta cheese, grate-able) or substitute Feta. Trader Joe’s sells the marcona almonds that are all ready to toss in this, since they’ve been baked with salt and rosemary.

Next would be finding fresh, ripe plums. The Asian pear is usually available year ‘round. The recipe calls for dark red grapes – if you’re lucky you might find large grapes that are seedless. If not, you’ll want to cut them in half and remove the seeds – do cut the grapes in half anyway – easier to eat. This may take a little bit of time.

The last thing you’ll do is slice the fresh fruits, then dress the salad and try to artfully arrange the fruits. You can serve this on a large platter, or on individual plates. It’s a beautiful plate either way.

What’s GOOD: the vinaigrette is really good – a bit of sweet from the raspberry vinegar and sweet from the honey mustard, but certainly counterbalanced by the rice vinegar (not the sweeter seasoned rice vinegar). The fruit is what made it for me – it was a lovely combination of them, alongside the marcona almonds and the crumbly, salty, ricotta salata cheese.

What’s NOT: only the prep time – the fruit does take some effort – especially if you must halve and de-seed the grapes. But don’t eliminate the grapes as they add a really nice balance of texture and taste.

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See that little piece of persimmon hiding behind the orange? How fun this salad was – greens, but with a dressing made with persimmon as well. I’d have never thought to make a dressing using the persimmon pulp in it. But oh, was it ever good.

If you’re lucky enough to have a persimmon tree, perhaps this is a recipe you’ve not made before. This is persimmon season, so do pick up 3 Fuyu persimmons, The Fuyu is the Asian, firm fleshed type, the one you can even eat the skin. The other type, Hachiya has ultra-soft flesh (or at least you should ripen it until it is that way) and the skin is bitter, gag-worthy. My parents had a Hachiya tree in our backyard as I was growing up. It didn’t produce all that much fruit, but we never did cut it down because of that. My mom preferred to make persimmon pudding (not my fav) and persimmon cookies (ultra-soft and also not a fav of mine) or persimmon bread (that was okay). Or, we just ate them out of hand or on a cottage cheese salad.

Some of you, reading that, probably gag just because of the cottage cheese – I don’t know how long ago cottage cheese was mass produced, but my mom liked to make a quick salad with some canned fruit on top, a ring of pineapple, for instance, and that was a whole lot easier than cutting up greens and veggies for a green salad. Not something I ever – ever – make today. My DH disliked cottage cheese – he remembers many a salad made when he was growing up, same thing, a mound with a piece or two of canned fruit on top. He simply wouldn’t eat cottage cheese in any way, shape or form. I might have been able to hide it in a jello salad, but I rarely made those for him anyway, even with sugar-free jello!

Anyway, the dressing is made in a food processor or blender, has the usual ingredients but with added pine nuts, orange zest, some orange juice, and then it’s got one persimmon mixed in it. It’s kind of thick. It will keep for 3 days. If you’re not sure about this, make a half a recipe of the dressing.

The salad part has the yield from a whole pomegranate, arugula, Romaine, green onions and sliced oranges, as you can see from the photo. If you aren’t a fan of persimmons, you could use mango instead.

What’s GOOD: everything about this was good, but you can’t quite figure out the dressing (a good thing). It’s not cloyingly sweet. Trust me. I liked this a LOT. On my cooking class sheet (this was made by Phillis Carey) I wrote “fab.” That’s my highest rating.

What’s NOT: maybe the prep of the persimmon (peeling it – not hard, just a bit tedious) and prepping the orange. The dressing takes a bit of time, but hey, you’ll be glad you made it when you taste it.

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Of all the recipes from this last class I went to, I think this was one of the best. What made it special were the roasted apples, and the vinaigrette. Both are different – unusual – and very, very tasty.

If you look at the apple that’s nestled at the top (center) you can see that it’s different – you can barely discern that it’s been roasted. Hard to tell with the others. And, you certainly can’t see anything about the salad dressing except that the spinach leaves glisten with it. And oh, was this good. This isn’t anything close to an easy salad to make. It has 3 prep components: the dressing, the candied pecans, and the roasted apples. But you’ll be in heaven when you taste it. The roasted apples have a wonderful sweetness, but not overly so, and the dressing contains a bit of brown sugar and is made with a reduction of apple juice, so it does have more than a little bit of sweet to it. It would have been perfect with Thanksgiving dinner. But it would be delicious any time of year. Truly.

When I make this – and I will be making it – I’m going to figure out how to use apple juice concentrate so I don’t have to boil down the juice to get a reduction. I think – and I’d have to double check the frozen can directions – but I think if you used 1 T. of apple juice concentrate you’d be all done with that step! A tablespoon of concentrate mixed with 3 parts water would = 1/4 cup apple juice, right? So you’ve saved a bit of time right there.

The spiced nuts – oh gosh were they ever good. Very easy. The only ingredient I don’t have in my kitchen is Lawry’s garlic salt. I’ll have to make do with something else as I’m not going to buy that just for this recipe. When I make this I’ll probably make more than this recipe because the nuts would be so tasty to serve to guests. Probably not in the same meal, but as an casual appetizer. The recipe makes 2 cups, and 1 cup goes into the salad, so you’ll have a cup left over anyway. You’re going to like them, I assure you!

Do buy baby spinach for this – or you could mix some field greens with spinach, which would be fine. But you don’t want regular (big) spinach leaves. And the only other comment is that you must add the poppy seeds at the last minute – on top of the salad. If you add it to the dressing, the poppy seeds clump together. Not appetizing, for sure. So just have those sitting by your bowl when you’re tossing and sprinkle them on top when you add the nuts and apples. Ideally, you’ll want to plate this salad so everyone gets an equal amount of apples and nuts, but it would be beautiful on a big platter. If you wanted to serve this as a main course, I’d add some goat cheese to it and you’d be set.

What’s GOOD: every single, solitary thing about this salad is wonderful. The apples (so different to be roasted), and the apple juice/cider vinaigrette. Oh, and the spiced pecans. Everything good.

What’s NOT: this will take you awhile to make – don’t make the day of – if you’re doing a full-on dinner yourself, although you can make the dressing ahead and the nuts. The apples can also be made ahead – so if you do make this for a dinner party, do all those steps the day before. You’ll be glad you did.

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Kale Salad with butternut squash and a warm cider vinaigrette. Delicious!

Has kale salad reached its zenith? Perhaps. And waning? Or not? I really don’t know. We realize, because it’s shouted from the magazine rooftops, that it’s one of those super foods, so very good for us. And there are recipes by the gazillion on the internet for it. So, here’s one more!

There are 4 couples of us – oh, see, there I go – I still think of myself as part of a couple – probably always will – so there are 3 couples and me, the widow, who meet for a gourmet dinner, lunch or brunch every few months. We have plenty of good laughter, conversation about food, travel, sports, etc. You know, the usual, when any group gathers. Except that this group says a prayer before every dinner, which is really nice. And we have wonderful food. So I’m sharing the recipes for a couple of the dishes from that last gathering. It was a brunch. This salad is served cold, not hot. Hence it’s a salad, of course, not a hot side dish. Silly me! Anyway, Dianne made this salad and we all loved it. It’s a slight riff on an Ina Garten recipe. Ina’s called for arugula, and her version is tossed with the dressing just before serving.

This riff on Ina’s salad is made with baby kale (if you can find it – it’s a bit softer and not quite so chewy) and Dianne allowed the dressing to sit on the greens for awhile (so technically it’s no longer a “warm” salad dressing) to help soften up the kale, then she added in the other ingredients and garnished with shaved Parm.

What’s GOOD: loved the color, for sure. The slightly bitter, from the kale, and sweet, from the squash, made a lovely taste in the mouth. A different side dish. Very nice. I liked it.

What’s NOT: nothing really – finding baby kale can sometimes be a challenge (I’d  use arugula if you can’t find the baby kale, but if you really like the regular kale, go for it).

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I’m a sucker for anything “bread salad” or “panzanella” which means bread salad in Italian. And add bacon to it? Well, I’m in. Because it’s so carb-centric, I try not to give in to eating them very often, but salad was what I wanted for a hot summer night, and this recipe just jumped out at me. And it was ever-so good and pretty on the plate, besides!

My girlfriend Donna was coming over. We had talked about going out to eat dinner, but I decided on a Friday night, a hot Friday night, maybe we should eat in instead, and not battle the restaurant crowds. Besides, we’d have more fun conversing here at my house.

The recipe started out from one at Food52 – called Pea and Bacon Panzanella with Warm Vinaigrette. Well, I decided to improvise a little. I love the addition of fresh corn, cut off the cob, to panzanella. And how can you have a panzanella without any tomatoes? The juice from the tomatoes is also what flavors a panzanella. So I added a couple of small tomatoes too. And I always like some greens. I could have used some Romaine, but arugula sounded good to me, so that’s what I added.

A week or so ago I bought some fresh English peas at Trader Joe’s. We just hardly ever see fresh peas in our markets. They’d been in my refrigerator for over a week and some of them had begun to sprout roots (ya think I let them sit too long?). I dug those out and tossed them away, but I still had plenty left. Yet I wasn’t sure how they were going to taste. I had some peas in the freezer, so I knew if these fresh ones never got tender, I’d toss out the whole thing and use the frozen. The fresh ones  took way too long to get tender, but eventually – after about 10-12 minutes of slowly cooking in butter and then steaming with some water added, they got mostly soft. But I actually think they’d turned to starch. Like corn used to do in the old days – every day you didn’t cook them they got more firm and sometimes you could never get them tender. But the peas were definitely edible and added a different texture component to the salad. Next time I’d just use the frozen.

I had defrosted 4 thick slices of apple-smoked bacon and they were probably the star of the dish. What’s the phrase? Everything tastes better with bacon. Yup! I bought a small sourdough boule and cut it up for the bread. I sprinkled the cubes with seasoned garlic salt and sprayed them with olive oil spray and baked them for about 10 minutes in the oven until they were quite dark on the toasted side. But it was still tender enough in the middle. You don’t want to use bread that gets so hard that you feel like you’re chomping down on a jawbreaker. Better to toast the outsides of the bread and still have it slightly soft in the center.

The dressing was easy enough – it uses just a tiny bit of the bacon fat (what’s left in the pan after you cook up the bacon and pour out any puddles of grease, so there’s just a “slick” of bacon fat(. You add a shallot and later some garlic, then sherry vinegar (stand back and don’t breathe it in – you literally can’t breathe), then you pour it into a jar and whisk in the Poupon mustard and lastly olive oil. I didn’t use EVOO on this because I was convinced you couldn’t tell the difference with all the other flavors hitting your mouth sensors – like the bacon, the corn, the crunchy bread, or even the astringency of the vinegar in the dressing.

With everything ready ahead of time, I didn’t re-warm the salad dressing. Why? I didn’t think the dressing would be all that warm anyway (in the original recipe) since you added a bunch of oil to it and that would have cooled it off to about room temp. I doubt the dressing was even “warm” when poured on the salad.

Anyway, toss everything together and pour in 1/4 cup of dressing first – mostly on the bread if you can do it, then taste. Mine required another 1/4 cup, and it might have been able to handle just a little bit more, but not much. The bacon is put on top along with some fresh mint. Serve immediately! No lollygagging around – put it right on the table and dig in.

What’s GOOD: loved the salad. Be careful and don’t use too much bread – gauge your own appetite – both Donna and I left bread on the plate. I think for an average appetite you’d want to eat about 1 1/2 cups of bread per person. But if you have a husky man eating this, maybe more. Loved all the textures and the bacon was the star. I’d have liked more in it, but there was enough to flavor it all. I might have left a bit more bacon grease in the frying pan to help flavor the dressing some more, but that’s up to you. The dressing makes way more than you’ll use – if you don’t want leftovers, cut the dressing recipe in half.

What’s NOT: only that there is some prep work, but not a whole lot, really. Cut the corn off the cob at the last minute. Don’t overcook the peas. Don’t forget the mint!

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A couple of days ago I decided I needed to do some administrative housekeeping for the blog. There were a lots of photos from the last couple of months. Some I’d meant to update on the blog – photos from a long time ago (pictures that were barely worthy of posting). I keep all the photos (the ones you see and the ones that I start with, the mega-pixel ones that I crop and adjust to fit within this blog width, etc.) but every few months I transfer them off to CDs.

Anyway, I’d taken a photo of this salad and was going to update it here on the blog and realized that technically speaking I’d never actually posted the RECIPE. I’d included a link to a Martha Stewart page, which I discovered isn’t even THERE anymore. So, obviously I needed to give you this post because this salad is one of my Favs. It’s so incredibly easy. It’s seriously delish and off the charts when watermelon is in season. My DH adored this salad – it has the sweet (watermelon) and the savory (feta cheese) and the hint of mint. Do use fresh mint. I mentioned it last week when I told you about what I’ve eaten lately. I don’t even use a recipe – you can adjust it to  your tastes – it’s just watermelon, feta crumbled up and some mint. That’s IT.

So, how am I? The last week has been pretty good. I’ve been very, very busy, and as a widow, that’s a good thing. It doesn’t leave me much time to mope around. I’m definitely still grieving, and by saying that it doesn’t mean that I don’t still have plenty of time to consider my new single-ness, my widowhood. I think about that every day. I’m writing this on Monday. Yesterday (Sunday) I was invited to my/our son’s home (actually his sister-in-law’s) for dinner. I had a lovely evening with them and a delicious dinner of Pasta Bolognese. And when I got in the car to drive home, well, it was dark, of course, and I just remembered all the times Dave and I had driven home from their home. It made me cry. Sometimes the car is where I cry. There was no one to hear me. I wasn’t crying so hard I couldn’t drive, but I just re-lived good memories, but they still, at this point in my healing, make me sad. I wanted Dave to be beside me in the car.

I’d taken a bottle of Chianti for the dinner. Before I went, I’d gone down into the wine cellar and looked over the choices in the Italian section. There weren’t a lot, actually, but one was a gift and I knew Darci, who had given it to us in 2006, wouldn’t have chosen a blah or cheap wine. It was wonderful. Dave had written notes on the back label – the fact that it was a gift from Darci in 2006. I enjoyed it and had some with dinner. I wished Dave had been there at the table. He’d have been all-over that wine, talking about it. It had no harsh edges at all. It was 11 years old, which is probably OLD for a Chianti. In the car, he and I would have been talking about the dinner, about the antics of our grandson, Vaughan, and his cousin Sebastian, about Julian’s Bolognese and Janice’s fabulous beet salad that often graces their dinner table. The two boys have just started school, so there was some discussion about that. Vaughan has just lost two teeth (his first) and was visited by the international tooth fairy. He’s received Bermuda dollars and Israeli shekels. He feels quite special that he’s being visited by an international tooth fairy. Dave and I would have chuckled over that part. I’ve promised Karen I’ll dig around in my travel drawer and find the big envelope of international money I have so she can be prepared when he loses his next tooth. I know I have some Egyptian money, some Turkish too.

So, I cried. And felt sorry for myself. Which is altogether normal. But I just tried to change the subject in my head. Thinking about this week. About the things I need to do today. I’m having cataract surgery this week, and again a month from now on the other eye. My friend Cherrie has broken a bone in her foot. She was going to take care of me, maybe with me even staying at their house overnight, but she can barely get around, so my friend Joan is taking me. These days cataract surgery is so easy – a few hours after the surgery (back at home) I will remove the patch (to use special drops) and at that point I can leave the patch off, except at night (so I don’t accidentally nudge my eye somehow). I’m participating in a clinical trial for eye drops that are supposed to enhance healing. I’m using these drops every day, twice a day. Then I have 3 other drops that must be used 4x a day. I may be receiving the placebo – I’ll never know. But for the participation, I get $800. I have to make 4 extra visits to the eye clinic to do this. But hey, that’s many really nice dinners out. And once I’m done with both surgeries, I may be able to not wear glasses the rest of my life! Since I’ve worn them since I was about 18, that’s pretty darned special. I may have to wear readers.

My weekend was spent at our church nearly the entire time at a choir retreat. It was grueling. I don’t know exactly how many hours we rehearsed music – probably about 11 hours, I think. My voice is still raspy today. It started Friday night at 5:30 and ended on Sunday at 1:30. Food was provided for Friday dinner, 2 lunches, plus snacks. I’m just glad it’s over with!

So, back to this salad. Do make it. Do use really tasty, ripe watermelon. If you open the watermelon and it’s somewhat blah, don’t bother – this salad won’t be all that good. The recipe is already listed on my Favs list, but I’ll now update the link so it actually comes to THIS post. And I’m giving you the MasterCook files and a pdf.

printer-friendly CutePDF

Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click on link to open recipe in MC)

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