Wilted Salad Greens

Traditionally known as "wilted lettuce," this tangy and deeply satisfying salad was commonly served back in the Day.  Generally speaking, I refer to the Day when people did not consume processed carbohydrates in the volumes and concentrations found in Big Gulps and giant Venti frappuccinos, unless they were hoisting bales of hay onto trucks all day, or suchlike.  And no one fueled themselves on chemical stews of fractured transfats, because they were not concocted yet. 

Thus, real fat (butter and such) wasn't cause for any hand-wringing.  In fact, our (mostly long-lived) forebears would probably have prepared significantly more of the hot dressing for this salad, hence the "wilted" moniker.  But the amounts I use here won't take down your lettuce volume by much.

As we further reduce the amount of processed carbohydrates we consume, and prepare more fresh vegetables, we find that adding real fat becomes appropriate.

Options for additions and variations are many:  hard boiled eggs, green onions, herbs, cream in the dressing ... personalize it your way, or find your grandma's recipe for wilted lettuce and find out just how good the Good Old Days really could be!
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WILTED SALAD GREENS

If you use bacon you have already cut up, fried, and frozen, just heat it in a little skillet to crisp it and release some of the fat, then use olive oil to reach the 2 tablespoons of fat amount.

A medium sized bowl of fresh, CSA salad greens
Natural bacon
Olive oil
Vinegar
Sucanat or agave syrup
Salt

In a little skillet, fry about a cup of bacon pieces (about 4-5 slices).  Remove bacon to drain.  To the bacon fat, add enough olive oil to reach a volume of about
2 tablespoons.  Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar (any kind, really), and  2 teaspoons of your chosen sweetener.  Sprinkle on some salt.  Whisk and cook a little, until the sweetener is dissolved and the liquid is hot.

Spoon the hot dressing in a swirl over your salad greens.  Scatter the bacon pieces atop.

Makes 4 hearty servings

Party Mix, Remixed

Who doesn't remember the moment they learned how to pronounce "Worcestershire?" Every year around Christmas or New Year's when I was a kid, we'd make a batch of Chex party mix, baking it in the bottoms of our oven broiler trays, and faithfully stirring it every 15 minutes for an hour.  The salty-sour-crunchy effect was unique back in the day, and you had to make it.  Today, you can buy preservative- and color-laden bags of the stuff.  No thanks!  Herewith, my redux version.

"Redux" actually means "brought back" or "restored."  In this case, I'm bringing back the memorable taste but none of the preservatives that, alas, Chex brand cereals contain.  To complete the feel-good theme I used organic butter and a bunch of other cool things.

I don't keep onion powder (!) or that item the Chex people call "seasoned salt" on hand, and my garlic powder is rather ancient, so a little creativity was called for.  You can use your creativity, too.  But this recipe will get you started.

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PARTY MIX, REMIXED
Adapted from the Chex Original Recipe

Yes, you should double this.  It makes a lot, but you can give it away or even freeze it and surprise yourself later!  Plus, it has a tendency to vanish.  If you're a pretzel fan, substitute those in for some of the dry ingredients.

9 cups total of square, chex-ish cereals  (I used Health Valley Crunch-Ems and Cascadian Farms Multigrain squares from our local health food store)
1/2 cup dry roasted almonds
1/2 cup dry roasted cashews
1/2 cup Alexia onion strips, broken up a bit
1/2 cup Annie's cheddar bunnies

4 tablespoons organic butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Heat oven to 250 degrees.  In a large roasting pan, combine the cereals, nuts, onion strips and cheddar bunnies.  

In small saucepan, melt the butter.  Stir in the olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, salt and spices.  Mix well.  Drizzle over the dry ingredients, tossing well until combined. 

Bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.  Cool thoroughly before storing.

RELATED REDUX POST:  Tater Tot Casserole, Remixed

Tater Tot Casserole, Remixed

Remember back in the day when we packed raw ground beef into a loaf pan, doused it with cream of mushroom soup, studded it with those ghastly, chopped, formed and extruded plastic potato nuggets, then baked the whole shebang? I know. Tater Tot Casserole was delicious! Admit it! The stuff was dripping with fat, and sodium-laden beyond belief. But oh-so-satisfying!

What if we were to aim for a healthier version? Yes, these are the things that I think about when waking up at sparrow twit on these lovely summer mornings.

As luck (or excellent intuitive marketing skills) would have it, my fridge contained a greedy haul of organic local potatoes, the freezer held grass-fed, Pat 'n Tam's ground beef, and in the pantry was a can of organic cream of mushroom soup.

Maybe you don't want me messin' with your childhood casserole ... if so, just think of it as something else, like 'Gratin of Minced Beef with Porcini Mushrooms and Baby Potatoes' or something. But I think it appropriate to hark back to this dish's modest, middle-American roots, and its Ore-Ida namesake, the tater tot!
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TATER TOT CASSEROLE, REMIXED

One 0.5-ounce package Oregon Mycological or other brand dried porcini mushrooms

2 pounds Pat 'n Tam's ground beef
1/2 of a Walla Walla sweet onion, chopped
1 can Amy's (or other natural brand) organic cream of mushroom soup
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

About 10 small, organic potatoes, scrubbed and sliced 1/4-inch thick
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Fresh chives

Place the dried mushrooms in a bowl, pour over boiling water just to cover, place a smaller bowl on top of the mushrooms to hold them in the liquid, and let sit at least half an hour. Chop the mushrooms and strain the broth through a fine strainer into a small bowl. (Porcini sometimes have grit in them.)

In a large-ish bowl, mix the chopped mushrooms, ground beef, onion, soup, thyme, salt and pepper. Stir well, so everything is mixed evenly. You may at this point saute the beef mixture and drain the fat; I drained it after the casserole was baked.

Press beef mixture into a shallow casserole. Clean bowl well with spatula. To the bowl, add the sliced potatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss well, then spread the potatoes over the ground beef mixture. Drizzle mushroom broth over all, and run a grind or two of fresh pepper over it.

Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. Uncover, and bake about 20 minutes more or until potatoes are browned and done, and beef is no longer pink.

There will be juices. I slightly tipped the hot dish and poured the juices from a corner of the dish into a Pyrex measuring cup. You don't need to drain all of them.

Sprinkle top of casserole with snipped chives. And dig in!

Makes six hearty servings.