salad with crispy bacon + poached egg

i was inspired to make this salad from one i ate at the red wagon recently. the lardon frisee salad. typically its made with curly endives, crispy bacon, and a poached egg on top.

i don't know what i used, but it was some kind of curly lettuce i got at the farmer's market.

what i did:

• i tossed my lettuce with some chopped tomatoes + a homemade mustard vinaigrette, and sprinkled some fresh thyme leaves (from my garden!) on top.
• i chopped up some bacon from moccia's, and fried it crispy. sprinkled on top of salad.
• poached an egg (though 2 eggs would have been even better)
• set egg(s) on top of salad, sprinkle with sea salt + freshly ground pepper, and enjoy.

seriously. amazing salad. light + flavorful + filling all at the same time.

for my vinaigrette i whisked together olive oil, vinegar, dijon mustard, honey (or maple syrup), chopped fresh thyme leaves, salt,+ pepper. i don't measure, i just make it to taste. for some better information about making vinaigrettes, go here.

and here's a recipe from epicurious for a traditional frisee salad with lardons and poached eggs.

a weekend of lovely breakfast

breakfast on the weekend is the absolute, most fantastic breakfast of all. if you work for the man at a 9-5 job, its the breakfast you have time to be creative with, the one you can sit down & really savor. if you work for yourself, its the breakfast you don't have to feel guilty about being creative with, and really enjoy the time spent devouring your delicious morning meal.

i had two quite lovely breakfasts this past weekend.

on saturday, i had a tasty open-faced sandwich. home-made bread - lightly toasted, mayo, fried zuchinni, fried egg, and a sprinkle of fresh parsley.

on sunday, i took a little more time in prepping. i even cooked potatoes the night before and shredded them (in retrospect i should not have pre-cooked them and just shredded them raw). we don't eat a lot of meat around here (contrary to what you may think. i post about meat a lot, because its usually a special occasion), and i needed some bacon for a meal i'm making this week (trying to get into meal-planning), so i bought a whole pack of natural wood-smoked bacon from moccia urbani foods. so i fried up some bacon, then used the bacon grease to fry my hashbrowns,
and fry my eggs. it was a rich, fattening, wholesome meal. just what we needed.

on a note of thriftiness, i used the leftover bacon grease in a biscuit recipe. it was enough for half the shortening i needed. instead of throwing away your bacon grease, use it in baking, or for frying grease.