Vietnamese Spinach Salad Recipe

Yesterday, I had a craving for an Ervin family favorite recipe: Vietnamese Spinach Salad.

I have fabulous memories of this salad, and it still brings back such great happiness in food form whenever I think about it, and especially eat it.

Here's how you make this delectable salad:

Salad Ingredients:

• Baby spinach
• Mushrooms (optional...but would be really good sautéed)
• Crumbled bacon
• Hard boiled eggs
• Grated parmesan
• Seasoned croutons

Dressing Ingredients:

• 1 T poppyseeds
• 1 T worcestershire sauce (I can never pronounce that word correctly!)
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (I dry heave and gag any time I cook with any sort of vinegar...sick me out! But what a great addition to salad dressings!)
• 1 cup veggie oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup ketchup (or catsup for you crazies out there)
• dash of diced minced onions
• dash of seasoned salt

Blend everything in a blender and build your salad!! Put the remainder of the dressing in a jar or shaker thing so that you can shake it up to keep using over a few days if it lasts that long. I take the yolks out of my eggs, but it's up to you if you want to keep it in the salad for more flavor. Totally your call. And the bacon is just divine in this salad! Who am I kidding? Bacon is divine in any dish! Also, this is truly delicious served warm. I like to build my salad and then nuke it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds. It really makes it! And speaking of making it...I hope you make this salad asap! More than likely you've already got all the ingredients, so what are you waiting for! So good! 

In other news, I've been catching up on So You Think You Can Dance, and I forget how much I love this show. I rarely watch shows like that beginning to end, but I think I might this season. Also SYTYCD makes me sad to watch, because I wish I were that talented. One can dream, right? 

Tonight, I watched the 3rd episode where the auditions were in Atlanta and this one guy, Boris, brought me to tears. I am so my mother's child...crying at a moving dance routine. And I need to tell you something that makes my tears truly absurd...this was a hip hop routine. And I cried. Like a little girl. He choreographed a hip hop dance to piano music, and it was absolutely breathtakingly beautifully done. But what really stole my heart was this guy's humility. He didn't dork around on stage like everyone else. He was gracious and thankful and well deserving. I love him already. 

Take a look for yourself:

Incredible, right? I think I'll watch it again and again until I can perform that exact routine myself.

Okay, maybe not. Love you, Boris!

Anyways, I am now sitting here, listening to the rain outside (which is never ending here in southwest Louisiana), watching SMASH reruns and eating watermelon balls. Yum.

I'm outa here, my dears! Love ya'll!