WILTED LETTUCE SALAD

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bacon, Boiled Eggs, cider vinegar, Cream, Homemade Cream Salad Dressing, leaf lettuce, Mennonite Cooking, Onion, Recipes from a Country Kitchen, sugar, Wilted Lettuce Salad

Wilted Lettuce Salad is a family favorite, a simple and easily made salad. It can be made with loose leaf lettuce, dandelion greens, however in more recent years I have started using Romaine Lettuce cut into shreds. This is really a simple salad and will keep a couple of days in the fridge so that you can easily have some with every meal.

Basically it is yet another one of those dishes for which no real recipe was made, it consists of Lettuce or tender young greens, boiled eggs, onions, spring green, fresh garden or a simple onion from the store. and if you have it fried bacon is good in it as well. Mix all these together (of course you coarsely chop or slice the boiled eggs, the yolks will dissolve into the dressing, adding another layer of flavor and texture to the salad.

The dressing is easy, you can use cream, however I always use half & half, put a teaspoon of sugar in and stir it with the cream or half and half, taste it to see if it the sweetness you like, add more if you like it a bit sweeter, then add several tablespoons Cider Vinegar to the mixture, stir and the dressing becomes smooth and thick, you can also add dry mustard to the mixture is you wish, when I do this I always use Coleman’s Dry Mustard Powder (British) it is a bit hotter than American dry mustard and has more flavor. (a little Coleman’s goes a long way)

 

HOMEMADE WILTED LETTUCE SALAD DRESSING

Like many old country recipes you can make this to suit whatever size you want from an individual serving to a bowl full

The following is the amount I used for 1 1/2 heads of romaine and 3 boiled eggs and 1 medium onion chopped.

1 Cup Half & Half

2 tsp. Sugar

3-4 Tablespoons Cider Vinegar

Stir and pour over the salad and mix around (toss) until well coated, it is best to cover and refrigerate for at least and hour or longer before serving, and as you might have guessed by now you are waiting for the vinegar dressing to wilt the lettuce and the flavors to blend and marry. You will notice as you eat this and it sets for a day or so the vinegar flavor will be less as time goes by, simply add another tablespoon of vinegar and or less as you wish and stir. perhaps a bit more sugar to taste.

As I said this is one of those recipes for which there is no recipe you just whip it up, you can have more or less of any ingredient in it just how you like to make it.

CREAMY BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP

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Apples, Butternut Squash, Chicken Broth, Chicken Thighs, Cream, Creamy Butternut Squash Soup, Savory, Soups, Spices, Stews

 

 

Usually at least in our home, we have been used to making pies from Butternut Squash, however I did not want anything sweet but was in the mood for a savory soup, while waiting for this latest winter storm, as cold night and a savory bowl of soup.

First I do not like store bought chicken broth, so I needed to make some chicken broth, out comes the pressure cooker to speed the process, I put 4 frozen chicken thighs in the pan with a bay leaf, thyme crushed red pepper, black pepper, salt, celery flakes, smoked paprika and a sprinkle of garlic granules and one small Fuji apple(cored ad quartered. along with a quart of water and a teaspoon of chicken base. put the lid on and processed it for 1 hours at 15 lbs. pressure.  I let the pressure drop naturally about 15 minutes.

 

Then removed the thighs and had 2 cups of broth, to this broth I added 2 cups of water. and put in a bowl  Now it was time to cook the squash. I cut into large chunks and scooped out the seeds in the cavity. I cooked the squash on the pressure cooker rack at 15lbs pressure for 10 minutes, took the pan from the stove and put it in the sink and drew cold water over it to drop the pressure. Squash done in this manner makes peeling very easy, the skin will peel off in sheets.

Returned all to the pan along with the broth and 1/2 of an extra large yellow onion, simmered it for 15 minutes. then took the stick blender and pureed all of it. and added 1/3 cup half and half and blended again, now it was ready to serve.

NOTE: I found that a 3 1/2 lb butternut squash makes a hearty amount of soup, when I make this again and I will, I will freeze 2/3rds of it in containers before adding the cream or 1/2 and 1/2, and add the cream to what I unthaw each time.

Recipes  from the blog over the past 6 years.

Butternut Sour Cream Biscuits

Savory Bacon Browned Butternut Squash Soup

Zucchini Squash Pie

This recipe can easily be made with Winter Squash (Butternut) as well, use the same amounts of squash regardless of type used.