Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Salad with Thousand Island Dressing

Ole Sweetie-Pi and I went out to dinner a while back and one of the salad offerings was a wedge of lettuce with bacon and tomato with a choice of dressing.  It was such a delicious and simple idea that I decided to recreate it at home.

My salad wedge was bathed in bleu cheese, but Ole Sweetie-Pi fell back on his favorite, thousand island.  I've only had the bottled stuff, and while it's okay, I'm pretty happy to pass it up for something more piquant.  However, there's no way on this planet he's going to even try bleu cheese dressing (he can't stand that gorgeous aroma that draws me in), so I begrudgingly went with the thousand island.

Man, there is absolutely no comparison!  This dressing is full bodied, tangy, and just plain delicious.  I didn't know what I was missing.  Every now and again I make a  cooking discovery that makes me sit up and take notice and this was one of those times.

The salad part is easy enough.  Just a head of lettuce, outer leaves discarded if they look iffy, and then the head cut into half (cut from top to bottom, not across the middle) and then at least into half again, depending on the size of the head.  I think I ended up cutting my head of lettuce into six wedges.  Rinse under cold running water, and set on paper towels to absorb the moisture. 

Fry up several pieces of bacon; if you like a lot of bacon, figure two slices each.  After thoroughly cooked,  set on a couple of paper towels to drain off the excess fat, and then crumble and set aside. 

Dice up some firm ripe tomatoes.  I removed the pulp and seeds from mine because I don't like my salad all mushy, but it's personal choice.  If it doesn't offend you, there's no harm in leaving it.

Put your salad wedge on a plate, pour a generous amount of dressing over the wedge.  Sprinkle with reserved bacon crumbles and diced tomatoes. 

Thousand Island Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup chili sauce **
1/4 cup minced pimiento-stuffed green olives
1 tablespoon minced green bell pepper
1 tablespoon minced onion
1 hard-cooked, boiled egg, peeled and then finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper sauce (like Tabasco)

Mix all ingredients, cover, and chill several hours.

**Too late I discovered I did not have any chili sauce in the house (it's something we rarely use) so I had to stop and make my own.  I wrote down the ingredients on a scrap piece of a paper but now that I want to find the link to credit the recipe, I can't find it, so my apologies to the originator.  Let me give you what I have, and my assurances that this chili sauce is good!  Man, it would make a terrific base for shrimp cocktail sauce. 

No picture, alas, as it was just a red sauce in a pan.

Chili Sauce

1 32-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
1 medium onion, diced
1/4 cup diced green pepper
1 garlic clove, diced
1 small red pepper, seeds removed, diced**
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

Add all in a medium sized sauce pan.  Boil 30 minutes.  Best after its allowed to sit and ripen for a bit, I think.

**The recipe just said red pepper, and I'm assuming it was a sweet red bell pepper, which I used, not a red chili pepper. 

Perfection Salad

What do you think of gelatin molds?  Are they something better left to our cooking past or should they be brought to today's table?  Did you know that one version or another of Perfection Salad has been around for almost 80 years?  From what I read, the good folks at Knox and the good folks at Jello had a bit of a competition going on for their gelatin products, and in all fairness some pretty forgettable gelatin molds were created.  But Perfection Salad is one that should be remembered.  Fairly low calorie, veggie good, with a little creamy tartness from the mayonnaise.  It reminds me of a cole slaw in a way, just in a gelatin mold.  And I love the colors; it adds a little sparkle and shimmer to the plate.

I brought this to a family outing a while back, knowing full well the Sweetie-Pi's grandsons wouldn't go near this gelatin if their life depended on it (and I was right), I wasn't too sure about his young adult daughters (there were good sports and ate polite nibbles, smiles), but I figured we "older" folks would certainly reminensce and enjoy this old fashioned Perfection Salad. 

As it turned out, I was the only one who liked this, and I liked this a lot.  Sweetie-Pi's sister, Susan, was honest and said she didn't like this even when their mother made it, and that's fine. I'm sure, without my mentioning it, you know that Sweetie-Pi couldn't even look at it (even though green is his favorite color!).  I brought most of the salad back home, and yes, I polished it off all by myself. At the next to the last minute, as I was about to eat the last slice, I decided to throw it on a bed of lettuce and photograph it, just in case I decided to post it. Hence, it's not beautiful, but I can assure you its lack of aesthetics didn't stop me from enjoying it to the laste bite.

I may as well tell you, if you come to my house and we're having a ladies' luncheon, I want to make this for you.  I'll try not to go too Donna Reed with the pearl necklace, high heeled pumps, and shirt waist dress, but you never know.  This recipe is an inspiration.

Perfection Salad
(http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Perfection-Salad)

2 tablespoons unflavored powdered gelatin, softened in 1⁄2 cup cold water

1⁄2 cup sugar
1⁄3 cup rice vinegar
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon. kosher salt
 
2 cups chopped celery
1 cup finely shredded cabbage
2 jarred pimentos, minced
1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and minced

Canola oil, for greasing

In a  custard cup or other similar small bowl, soften the gelatin in the water.

Add the sugar, rice vinegar, lemon juice, salt and softened gelatin to a small sauce pan.  Heat over medium heat until the gelatin dissolves.  Remove from heat and chill for 30 minutes (gelatin will be thick, but not thoroughly set).  Stir in remaining prepared vegetables.

Grease a 12" x 4 1/2" x 2" pan (or use individual custard cups, etc.) and transfer gelatin mix to the mold.  Chill until set, about 6 hours.

When it comes time to unmold the salad, take a thin-bladed knife and gently slide it along the edge of the mold.  Set the mold in a pan of hot water for about 5 seconds.  Remove from pan from the water and turn the mold onto the serving plate. 

Served 1, but really is intended to serve 12
**My Notes:  I used an 8" x 5" bread loaf pan and it worked fine.  I would love to make this salad in individual custard cups just because the presentation would be prettier.  I rarely have success unmolding gelatin, so I would hesitate to use a mold that is too intricate.  Even  using the loaf pan, the first attempt at unmolding was unsuccessful.  I returned the pan to the hot water for another five seconds, and it was a tad too long because the unmolded gelatin had started to melt.  I put everything in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so and it set up fine.

Laura's Spinach, Pear, Gorgonzola, Cranberry, Pecan Salad

I know I've mentioned that my beautiful and intelligent (am I gushing too much in Aunty pride) niece Laura is a foodie.  She's taken it one step further and has earned a Bachelors in Health and Nutrition, so you know she's serious about good food and food that's good for you.  What I didn't know that she has this flair for presenting good food beautifully, and she sent me an email with the above photograph suggesting that perhaps I'd like to share this with all of you.  Would I?  Absolutely!

There's no recipe, just some ingredients she threw together. She says... "Today I made spinach, pear, gorgonzola salad with glazed pecans and dried cranberries.  Really delicious!!" 

No recipe.  Just kitchen courageous. (Hey, that would be a great name for a new Food Network TV show.  I always said she'd be a star!)