Pea shoot-spinach salad with bacon and morels, page 187

Farmer's market basket (with a thai basil plant for another
Cooking Wild recipe yet to come)

So, now that I have generously been sent dehydrated morels (for two recipes), I figured it was my turn to step up to bat and complete the morel section by getting fresh morels for the third recipe. Enough looking. From what I understand, morel season is at its end. Hopefully, the morel vendor at the Columbia Farmer's Market would be selling them one last time on Saturday and I'd be able simultaneously pry the $15 for half that number of morels from my clenched, sweaty hand.

After one or two bouts of giddy small talk mixed with nervous pacing mixed with "Are you sure we should do this, Fred?" I finally squeezed the trigger and bought the morels. The fresh morel recipe also calls for pea shoots which would have been fun to grow but since I haven't, I needed those at the same time as the morels. Fortunately, I have spotted one vendor selling pea sprouts at the market before I purchased the morels, sealing the fate of me making the most expensive salad I've ever produced (by about 10 fold). Fred teased me after I bought the morels and had made a fast track to the pea shoot vendor by telling the vendor he might as well charge me $25 for the pea shoots because money was no object with making this recipe, apparently.

Happy birthday to my mom!

Fresh, robust spinach was available at the market, also, and I had in great parmesan cheese, so we were set to go.

I made the salad with steak from the farm, crusty fresh french bread, braised carrots and steamed artichokes for a birthday present for by mom. Yowzers, it was a good meal.

The salad recipe is so fantasic. The dressing, made with lemon, mustard, olive oil, vinegar, etc. was tasty and light. Pea shoots and spinach together were gorgeous and tasty as well, and sauted morels, fried bacon and large curls of parmesan really did make for an absolutely outstanding affair. It was a birthday-type gift.

My folks thought it was the best salad they had ever had . . . as Ashley Judd would say . . . in all their born days. It was so beautiful, special and rich in a flavorful way. If you want to eat like a king, this salad would be a good way to get it done.