French Friday with Dorie: Bacon and Eggs and Asparagus Salad

SIMPLY DELICIOUS SPRING SALAD

This week's recipe is a exceptional spring salad that is both satisfying and delicious.  One of Hubby’s favorite vegetables is asparagus; always requested as an important part of his special springtime birthday meal.  Bacon  adds great flavor and crunch, the nuts and nut oil vinaigrette were a great alternative to our usual salad ingredients, and an added boiled egg helped make this salad, with its lovely greens, on its own,  a satisfying meal.

Stephy-Wephy and her precious little Honey also came to try this salad meal which seemed perfect after a long work day.



HONEY'S FAVORITE PART IS THE ASPARAGUS...CARRIED IT AROUND FOR AN HOUR



We followed the recipe with minor exceptions, and for the nuts we chose walnuts with the complementing walnut oil for the vinaigrette...it was delicious.  Our exception to the recipe was to hard boil the egg where Dorie chooses to have a softer yolk.

One of my favorite childhood memories is picking fresh asparagus from my great-grandmother's garden or along the nearby irrigation ditch banks.  Grandma lived alone in her farmhouse where she tended her amazing vegetable garden which ran along the entire south side of her house.  Every spring the tender asparagus shoots immerged after the winter snows and we anxiously waited for them to become mature enough to snap off for dinner.   Grandma always wore a dress, usually black, and nylon hose, an apron, and black grandma shoes with heels, and she also wore a hairnet which protected her hair-do through all the day's chores.  And she wore this attire when she mowed her expansive lawn with a push mower and even when she watered and weeded her garden. 

The farmer sun had wrinkled her skin so badly that I could pinch the loose skin on her old arms and it would stay in pinched position for ten or fifteen seconds.  Grandmother laughed with me when I made this happen, but I knew I would never get so old that I would have wrinkles that could stay pinched on my arms like hers.  After several pickings through the spring we tired of this vegetable and went on to her garden's other offerings, however, the asparagus continued to mature through the summer.  I remember often skipping  through the garden and being struck by the whipsy, fairylike, feathery, slender branches that actually formed airy as-tall-as-me-shrubs that did not resemble the asparagus at all.  How did the tender shoots that we loved to eat transform into these fluffy bushes?  And now, every time I eat asparagus I have these memories:  Grandma, her welcoming home, her garden, and laughing at things that seemed so funny with one of my very favorite people.

Back to our salad:  Hubby was surprised by how substantial our salad meal was, and Honey especially loves patio dining...her favorite part was also the asparagus...must be in the genes.

GOOD GIRL...ASPARAGUS IS FINALLY EATEN AND ENJOYED

This salad would also be great with additional veges, a variety of nuts, dried fruits, or small cheese pieces...did I mention that Stephy-Wephy wanted more flavor so she added feta cheese...and when she made the addition, we all followed her lead, and highly recommend feta cheese as another tasty add-in for this salad.

DELICIOUS SPRING MEAL

Very nice to have a healthy, easy, and beautiful meal on a perfect Spring day.  We'll do this again soon.