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. 

Bourbon Whiskey Barbecue Sauce

Lawsy Mercy!  This is good!  I'm not keen on barbecue sauce or barbecue flavor as a rule, but this will have you'll be wanting to eat this sauce out of a jar with a spoon.  Ole Sweetie-Pi really liked this, and his sister Susan has asked me for the recipe.  Now that's an endorsement!

The original recipe was found on Allrecipes.com.  This is my personal adaptation. 

Bourbon Whiskey Barbecue Sauce

1/2 onion, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 sweet red pepper, minced

3/4 cup bourbon whiskey (I used 1/2 cup whiskey, 1/4 cup cognac as I didn't have the full amount of whiskey)

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tablespoon salt

2 cups ketchup

1/4 cup tomato paste

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon liquid smoke flavoring

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/8 to 1/4 cup molasses

1/3 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, or to taste

Put all the ingredients together in a slow cooker.  Cook on low heat for about 4 hours. Taste for seasoning part way through.   Strain if you prefer a smoother sauce (I didn't).  The sauce is good the first day, better if used the second. 

For our tastes I reduced the vinegar and liquid smoke flavoring in the original recipe, and added the molasses and sweet red pepper.

I used this sauce to make pulled pork, but Susan says she uses the jar I gave her for grilled steaks, and she loves it!

Cranberry Chutney

I truly do like that well-known cranberry jelly that comes out in a big whoosh from the can. That ruby-colored jelled cylinder has been a Thanksgiving tradition in the familial home for as long as I can remember and there is still, on different occasions, a time and a place for it in my pantry.

However, this is now one of my cranberry traditions at Thanksgiving and New Years. Do not confuse cranberry chutney with cranberry jelly or cranberry sauce. It would be akin to comparing lightening with a lightening bug. Really~it's that big of a difference in flavor. This chutney has big flavor and texture. There's tart from the cranberries, sweet from the sugar, heat from the ginger and cayenne, and lots of texture from the walnuts and the few whole remaining cranberries. As I said, there's a lot going on here.

This is a good keeper; it will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator if stored in an air-tight container. This makes a fair amount, maybe 2 1/2 to 3 cups or so, so if you wanted this would make a terrific little hostess gift in those adorable half pint canning jars.

And do you want to talk about turkey sandwich?! Oh my. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry chutney, maybe a little mayo, and we're talking something good!

This is easy to do, simply put all the ingredients in a medium sized pan, cook on low, stir occasionally. Let it cook, allow the flavors to meld and you're loving this.

Cranberry Chutney
(from Best of the Best from New England)

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup nuts (almonds or walnuts, medium to finely chopped)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt (I used finely minced fresh garlic)
2 cups cranberries (rinsed and sorted)

Combine all your ingredients in a medium-sized sauce pan. The cranberries will burst as they are cooking so you may want to use a long-handled spoon to stir to avoid being splattered. Sugar burns hurt (believe me!). Cook over low heat or until thick, stirring occasionally. Let cool completely before serving, storing any extra in an air tight container. Will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator.



This is how mine looked after only 20 minutes of cooking. The chutney held its shape well in the spoon, and from experience I knew it would thicken even further after it cooled. It's possible that the low heat on my stove may not be as low as the heat on yours so you'll have to use some judgment as to when to take it off the heat.