Summer Salads

I love eating salads, but I'm pretty lazy about making them. I have often told my sister Lindsey, who makes awesome salads with lots of interesting, finely chopped ingredients, that I would gladly scrub her bathroom for her if she came over once a week and made me a massive salad. Sadly, she did not think the commute from Alaska was really worth it.

These are two salads that are not that difficult to throw together, and even if they were, they would be worth the effort. The strawberry romaine salad was a recipe from Evan's side of the family, as many of my yummy recipes are. The Farmer's salad was one Bet made last week, and I've already had to make a huge one for me and Evan to plow through. Alas, Evan isn't crazy over it, so I've had to eat lots of it myself-- bummer!

Strawberry Romaine Salad

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 T red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 T poppyseeds
• Honey-roasted peanuts
• Romaine lettuce
• Strawberries

Combine dressing and pour over chopped peanuts, lettuce and strawberries.

Farmer's Salad (originally from All Recipes)

• 1 head iceberg lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1 head fresh broccoli florets, cut into small pieces
  
• 4 oz. shredded cheddar cheese (Bet's addition, so optional, but oh-so-yummy!)
  
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 3 T white sugar
• 1 T distilled white vinegar
• 1 pound bacon

Fry bacon until lightly crisp. Crumble into bits, and measure one cup. Or throw the whole shebang in, as I do. In a large bowl, combine lettuce, broccoli and cheese. Prepare the dressing. Now, if you've got a large crowd to eat this right away, mix all the dressing in. Otherwise, I'd divide the salad and only dress half of it. It's a big salad, and it doesn't keep well with the dressing on it. I waited three days to dress the other half, and it was still very fresh. Oh, and throw the bacon on. It is SO good, I had to dig the leftovers out of the fridge at 10:00 the next morning for a morning snack.