Senior Prom

Abigail is graduating next week and her prom was Sunday night. These are very bittersweet times for me and I remembered a favorite salad to cheer me up while she went to the prom. I served it with wild Coho salmon from Alaska which is alittle stronger tasting than wild King salmon so I added a sauce. It turned out very well.

The salad is from Cottage Living magazine several years ago. One of my friends who went to Mexico with me made it one year when we rented a house in Palm Springs. She thought it was from Cooking Light but you will see that it is not! I could not find the link to the original salad recipe that I had printed out but it is attributed to Sara Foster and then I found it on another site:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1585411

The sauce idea for the salmon came from wanting to serve red wine with the fish. I reduced some Cabernet with balsamic and butter. Yummy!

Spinach Salad with bacon and sweet potatoes my way:

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch slices
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons cider vinegar, divided
kosher salt, to taste
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 bacon slices
5 ounces baby spinach leaves, washed and stems removed

Preheat oven to 400°. Toss sweet potato with olive oil and 1 tablespoon vinegar; add salt and pepper. Spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Place bacon along edges of sheet. Bake at 400° for 10 to 12 minutes, turn bacon over and continue to cook until bacon is crisp, approximately 3-5 minutes. Remove bacon, and drain on a paper towel; let cool, and chop into bite-size pieces. Flip over sweet potatoes slices so that they brown evenly on both sides. Bake potatoes 15 to 20 more minutes or until tender and golden brown on both sides.

Place spinach in a large bowl; add warm potato, scraping drippings from pan into bowl. Add remaining vinegar, and gently toss to mix. Add bacon and toss. If the spinach seems alittle dry add 1-2 tablespoons olive oil. This will depend on your bacon. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Red wine sauce

2/3 cup dry red wine
1/3 balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons butter
1 garlic clove, pressed

Bring wine and vinegar to a boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer. Add garlic. Simmer until reduced in half. Add butter and melt. Sauce should cover the back of a spoon and be reduced to about 1/3 of it's original amount. Drizzle over fish. Season with kosher salt and pepper.

Enjoy!