Spinach Salad

Today I'm Making... Spinach Salad

I had a birthday brunch last weekend, my mother brought LOTS of food to make sure we had enough. I barreling through lots of it, it was a major hardship eating cafe latte cupcakes, quiche and fresh squeezed OJ :), but midweek I took a look at everything that was left.. mainly eggs, bacon and spinach (and lemons but I couldn't fit them into this particular recipe). The obvious choice was spinach salad, and since it is one of those recipes I order at restaurants because I had it in my head it was going to be too hard to make at home, I thought I would challenge myself and make it happen. I'm glad I did, it tasted just like the restaurant version and I could enjoy it in the comfort of my own home (meaning wearing PJ's instead of nice clothes).

Ingredients:

• 3 salad bowls worth of spinach
• 2 large eggs
• 5 pieces thick-sliced bacon, chopped
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 4 white mushrooms
• 1/4 red onion

Recipe: (Makes 3 salads)

1. Take the stems off enough spinach (I used baby spinach) to fill up about 3 bowls, makes sure it's washed and dried then put it all into one big bowl.
2. Cut up 4 white mushrooms, and 1/4 of a red onion (make sure to slice the onion really thin since it is eaten raw). Add them to the big bowl of spinach.
3. Make 2 hard boiled eggs, thinly slice them and put them aside (after cooking them shock them in ice cold water to make them easier to peel).
4. Fry 5 strips of bacon- you need the real stuff- turkey bacon won't produce enough oil that will be needed for the dressing. I used a peppered bacon and it was amazing. You also need to cook it stove top so you can collect all the oil (Don't microwave). When the bacon is cooked, set it aside on paper towels but save all the "drippings"
5. In a small sauce pan on medium low heat combine 3 tablespoons of the bacon grease, 3 tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard and 1 teaspoon Sugar, whisk it all together then turn down the heat until ready to use.
6. Add the dressing (the contents of the small sauce pan) to the big bowl of spinach also add the cooked bacon either crumbled or chopped), mix it all together well.
7. Divide the salad into the serving portions, add the sliced egg on top and serve.

Review:

Yeah this was great, just like the restaurants make and you can customize it to your taste (without worrying about a waiter spitting in your food for being difficult). I wouldn't change anything about the way I made it. My husband said I should throw a dinner party to show off the recipe. I'm convinced if I had doubled the recipe he would have just continued eating until it was gone. To top it all off, I didn't even have to go out and buy anything to make it. I would say this is a winning first recipe of 2011.