B is for Warm Bacon Vinaigrette

Let's begin gently, shall we? The first time I encountered a warm bacon salad dressing was having dinner with/meeting Mr. Husband's (Mr. Fiance at the time) parents. I'm usually just as happy to skip the salad and get straight to the entree, but I wasn't in charge of the flow of the meal. And I fully admit, I don't actually remember what we ate for the main course that night. What I remember is the magical combination of spinach and bacon. Mmmmm.

But I had never made it for myself at home. I consulted the interweb, particularly this recipe from Chow before starting, but (of course) jumped off a bit to adjust for personal taste and ingredients not at hand.

Here's what I did:
3 slices of bacon
1/2-ish of a small shallot, chopped
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 Tblspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 pound fresh spinach,
1/4 cup almonds, walnuts and macadamia nuts coarsely chopped
1 hard boiled egg

- I cut the bacon into small pieces (a rustic dice, if you want something to call it. aka, unskilled knifery)
- Then I put the bacon in a medium frying pan over medium heat and cooked, stirring once in awhile, until crispy.
- While the bacon was cooking, I washed the spinach, cut off the stems (snacked on those; they are tasty) and tore the spinach into bite-size pieces. I seperated that into two bowls.
- Added the nuts on top of the spinach.
- I also sliced a hard boiled egg and put it on my salad (Mr. Husband doesn't like hard boiled egg, so that leaves more for me)
- Spooned the finished bacon onto a paper towel-lined plate.
- Kept the pan with bacon fat over the heat, added the shallot, and cooked about 30 seconds.
- Then I whisked in the vinegar, brown sugar, and Dijon mustard
- IF YOU WANT YOUR SPINACH WILTED: Keep the vinaigrette on the heat and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- And then pour it directly over the salad.
- IF YOU DO NOT WANT YOUR SPINACH WILTED: Remove from heat to season. (I did the second of these, following the recipe too far, but would rather have gone the Wilted route)
- And then I sprinkled 1/2 of the bacon over the top of each salad.

What I would change:
Very little. Just would've made sure it was still hot when it encountered the spinach. Next time.