October 10, 2008: End of the Garden Recipes

The weather man can't quite make up his mind when we're getting our first killing frost. It was supposed to be tonight, but now the AccuWeather forecast says tomorrow night. Oh well, we took a couple of tarps out to the garden and covered two of the boxes.....the bunny greens and the Granny greens. We must save those greens!

I had the large container of baby spinach that I'd picked yesterday, so tonight we had a delicious wilted spinach salad with our broiled sirloin steak and baked potatoes. I can remember, as a child, my grandmother and mother making wilted lettuce and I hated it! It wasn't until after I was married that I learned to like it, when my mother-in-law made it and added sugar to the vinegar and bacon grease for a delicious sweet-sour flavor.

This is the artery-clogging bacon fat version which, of course, is the most flavorful. For a healthier, and almost as good tasting version, see the *Note at the end of the recipe.

Wilted Lettuce (or Spinach) Salad

2 large bunches of leaf lettuce (I prefer the red variety) or baby spinach
6 slices bacon
1/4 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons sugar
salt and pepper to taste
4-6 green onions, slice and separate the white from the green stems

Wash, drain and tear lettuce into large, bite-sized pieces in a large bowl. Add the sliced green onion tops, reserving the white bottom part for the dressing.

Cook the bacon in a skillet until crisp. Remove bacon from the pan and drain on a paper towel. To the *bacon drippings, stir in the vinegar, water, sugar, salt and pepper. Add the sliced white part of the onions. Bring to a boil, stirring. Pour the hot dressing over the lettuce and toss well. Crumble the bacon over the top of the salad and serve immediately.

*Note: For a healthier version, discard the bacon drippings and, to the same pan, replace with 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil. Continue as above.

I had to do something with all the green peppers from yesterday, too. Plus I still had a huge red bell pepper and a jalapeno that I didn't use in last week's hot pepper jelly, and the last of the green onions from the garden. I made a few changes to the corn and black bean salad that I usually make, and ended up with.......

Granny's Confetti Corn Salad

2 cups fresh or frozen sweet white corn
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup sliced green onion, with tops
1 cup diced red bell pepper
1 cup red bell pepper
1 jalapeno pepper, finely minced
3 Tbsp. Olive oil
2 Tbsp. Balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar or Splenda

Combine all ingredients in a bowl with a tight fitting lid. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight, turning and shaking the ingredients occasionally.

Usually when I make this salad I use half that amount of peppers, no jalapenos and 1/4 cup onion and only 2 Tbsp. oil. This version was pretty strong, but it was good.