I'm so happy that I met my husband not only because I love him (duh!), but because through Jay I was introduced to a whole new world of foods that I'd never had or heard of before. My husband's family is Pennsylvania Dutch and they are the reason that I've fallen in love with the goodness that is warm bacon salad dressing.

Those who know me know that two of my greatest food loves are bacon and spinach, so what could be better than a big spinach salad with warm bacon dressing drizzled on the top? The answer is pretty much nothing. If a big salad with warm bacon dressing sounds heavenly, I think you're really going to like my mother-in-law's recipe for this dressing.

But first, here's what you'll need for the salad:

  1. Spinach with the ends trimmed off.  If you're making salad for a whole group of people, your best bet is to go with about a pound of spinach, but if it's just for a few people about 8 ounces will do.
  2. 1 small red onion, sliced thinly.
  3. 1 container of pre-sliced white mushrooms, cleaned.
  4. 3-5 hard-boiled eggs, sliced- the number of eggs you use is completely up to you and how much you like eggs.

Now, here's what you'll need for the warm bacon dressing:

  1. 1 package of bacon
  2. 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
  3. 1 teaspoon of sugar
  4. 1/2 a teaspoon of Dijon mustard
  5. A pinch of salt and pinch of pepper

Salad directions:

  1. Trim the stems from the spinach (if you haven't already)and wash.  Pat the spinach dry and place it in a big bowl.
  2. Add to the bowl, mushrooms, onions, and eggs.  Toss everything together lightly
  3. If you want to kick the salad up a notch, toss in a few leaves of fresh basil.

Dressing directions:

  1. Pan cook the bacon and then drain, but make sure to hold on to the bacon fat.
  2. Place the bacon on a paper towel to soak up the extra fat. Once the extra fat is soaked into a paper towel, crumble the bacon and add to the salad mixture in the bowl.
  3. In a small saucepan add all the ingredients for the dressing from the list above PLUS 3 tablespoons of the reserved bacon fat.  Whisk together and heat on low heat until bubbling.

Plate salad and spoon warm bacon dressing over the top.  So delicious! If you want to make a whole meal out of this, I suggest adding some cooked chicken to the salad.  I didn't have time to marinate meat so I picked up a package of pre-marinated garlic and fennel chicken breasts from Wegmans and the garlic and fennel actually work really well with the salad and bacon dressing.

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