Warm Bacon Spinach Salad

We adore bacon in our house! I keep a package in the fridge and a package in the freezer and use it in so many different recipes. Typical dinners at our house include a mixed salad of baby greens with my standard balsamic vinaigrette (search sidebar for recipe). I wanted to switch things up a little bit one night when I was making barbecue, and I thought that a warm bacon spinach salad would be perfect. It's also a great lunch or dinner salad and pairs really well with a crusty baguette. Not only is this salad really tasty, but it's a surefire way to get your family to eat raw spinach and, yikes, enjoy it! Even if you're not a big fan of raw mushrooms, give this one a try. The mushrooms soak up the dressing and are so tasty. This vinaigrette is simple to prepare, and the salad sweet and tangy with the smokiness of the bacon perfectly contrasting with the freshness of the vegetables. This is one of my new favorites!
Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
4 strips of uncooked bacon
1/4 cup diced red pepper
1 package (5oz.) of washed baby spinach
2 tbsp. thinly sliced red onion
6 diced mushrooms

Dressing:
rendered fat from 4 strips of bacon
2 tbsp. cider vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar
salt
black pepper
a little splash of olive oil (opt.)

Assembly:
Arrange spinach and vegetables on salad plates. Cook bacon and reserve the fat. Crumble the bacon over the spinach and vegetables. Once the bacon fat has cooled a bit, whisk in cider vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper (and olive oil, if you choose). Taste it and adjust by adding more cider vinegar (if you like it tangier) or sugar (if you like it sweeter). Pour the warm dressing over the salad and allow it to wilt the spinach for a minute or two before serving.

Creamy Garlic Dressing

The other day I ran out of the spring mix lettuce I regularly use to make our dinner salads. I managed to find a head of iceberg in the drawer and decided to make a quick salad using this refreshing, crisp lettuce instead. Unfortunately, my honey-dijon balsamic vinaigrette doesn't work particularly well with iceberg lettuce. I've found that iceberg lettuce begs for a more substantial dressing like a french or ranch. I decided to make homemade creamy garlic dressing and top the salad with green onions and mushrooms. It was creamy and garlicky against the snap of the lettuce. Best of all, it was made with ingredients that I always have on hand in the house. My husband and biggest food critic approved!

Ingredients:
3 cloves of finely minced garlic (use the salting method in my earlier post to make sure you don't get big bites of garlic)
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tbsp. milk (to thin the dressing)
salt

Assembly:
Whisk ingredients together and pour over salad. It's that simple!
pepper