recipecommunity | Mandarin Orange Tossed salad (Reply)

1 head of leaf lettuce - torn (this means NOT ICEBERG!!! Use romaine, boston or some fancy smancy leaf - very PRETTY lettuce.

3 stalks of celery - thinly sliced
4 green onions, sliced
1 11 ounce can of manarin oranges - drained

Vinaigrete Dressing - YES, I have the recipe, gimme a minute... you will want to make it either the night before or EARLY the morning you use this.

Caramelized Pecans (original recipe calls for almonds - I prefer Pecans!)
Several slices of bacon (get the cheapest kind you can find - it crumbles better!)

Oh, for those who don't know, to caramelize, meant to cook them with sugar until the sugar liquefies and coats the pecan like a syrup. Rule of thumb - 2 Tablespoons of sugar to every 1/2 cup of crushed nut.

Combine the first 4 ingredients in a bowl; ocover and chill up to 3 hours. Just before serving, toss with Vinaigrette and sprinkle with Carmalized pecans and well-done crispy bacon.

Serves 6 to 8. Sockpuppets take note - as you should know, my family is huge and we double everything.

Also - this salad actually tastes BETTER after it has sat a day and looks positively disgusting!

Vinaigrette Dressing
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tables sugar
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
5 drops of hot sauce

Combine all ingredients in a jar. If you are from the south - get a mason jar. Cover tightly and shake vigorously. Get that hip action going with it - Chacha, Rumba, whatever Latin dance hoochies your coochie! Chill for several hours. Shake it every 30 minutes -

I use splenda in the vinaigrette dressing. Tastes just wonderful. But you can't carmelize the pecans/almonds in splenda. it doesnt' work. Bleh.