Wilted Lettuce

This was always a summer favorite. We always had a garden when I was a kid. Mom and dad would “rent” garden space from a fella named Fred Jones out on Chain Bridge Road just outside Fairfax City. (I ended up working with his nephew, Jim Jones, many years later in the Fire Department.)

ingredients

Cut-up fresh leaf lettuce
Spring Onions, chopped
Sm. pieces bacon, fried
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar (or 2-3 1/4 grain saccharin tabs, or to your taste)
1/2 teaspoon salt

directions

Put the lettuce and onions into a large bowl. Fry up bacon that you’ve cut into small pieces, DO NOT DRAIN. Put the vinegar, water and sugar mixture into the bacon and grease, then boil, then pour over top of the lettuce and onions.

notes

Mom would substitute 1/4 grain tablets of saccharin to sweeten because Grandmaw Winne and Paw Woody were diabetic. Make sure you thoroughly drain the lettuce on paper towels. Too much moisture will make the dressing too soupy.

Source: Nina Woodrum