Our vegetable garden has been somewhat hit or miss this year, the tomatoes and butter crunch lettuce are growing really well while peppers and eggplant, meh. It’s been unusually cool this summer so that might be a factor. The tomatoes are just starting to ripen, we’ve had a few here and there over the past few weeks but now we’re getting more and more each day. We planted six tomato plants, and three are ripening, sun peach tomato, black cherry tomato and a mystery tomato! It was supposed to be chef’s choice which is a large orange tomato, but that’s not what is growing, they’re small, oval-shaped orange tomatoes, not quite sure what we have here. In any case they taste fine, but I was looking forward to those large orange tomatoes.

Oh, and this bacon! It was my birthday a couple weeks ago and my sister sent me this incredible smoked bacon from Vermont. I’ve had so many kinds of bacon but I gotta say this smoked bacon from Singleton’s General Store is amazing. I worked it into a vinaigrette, this isn’t a warm vinaigrette like most recipes, and I opted out of using the bacon fat in the dressing. Whenever I’ve tried to incorporate bacon fat into a dish it always tastes too greasy, so I changed it up a bit and I’m happy with the results.

So I put together our butter crunch lettuce, tomatoes and the bacon for, well, a BLT salad. Heh. Hope you’re having a great summer. Enjoy.

Garden Salad with Bacon Vinaigrette

4 slices bacon
2 tablespoons chopped onion (or shallots)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
Butter crunch lettuce
About 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered

Cut the bacon into 1/2” pieces and place in cast iron skillet. Cook over medium heat until crisp, using a slotted spoon transfer bacon pieces to a plate lined with paper towel and set aside. Add the onions and garlic to the same pan and cook over medium heat for a few minutes until onions are soft and translucent. Remove onions and garlic with slotted spoon to a small bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl whisk together the mustard and vinegar, add the olive oil and whisk until well combined. Mix in the cooked onion mixture to the vinaigrette. Plate the greens, tomatoes and bacon, then drizzle some of the vinaigrette over the two salads. (you will have extra dressing that can be refrigerated for later)