Summertime means 9pm cocktails on the deck because the sun has yet to go down. It means grilling. It means buying 4lbs of peaches at the farmer’s market and existing on them for days at a time. It means questionable fashion decisions because, heck, it’s hot. It means letting the dog get wet while you water your plants because she must be ever hotter in that fur suit of hers. It means let’s not turn on our oven tonight. It means berry picking and cucumber pickling. It means walking to the park in the evening and feeling the warm breeze hit your skin. It means waking up with approximately six mosquito bites on your backside even though you were totally wearing pants last night on that walk. What? That’s uncomfortable. Oh, well. It means you’re now having an intense relationship with Calamine lotion. Excellent.

Summer totally means SALAD. You know what I’m talking about. It means the kind of salads that can pass as a whole meal. The kind of salad that your husband will ogle because it has bacon and fruit and is topped with a runny soft-boiled egg. This salad is serious and meaty and summery. It’s a total win. I could actually put this in my face for breakfast. I will do it. Don’t dare me. Someone get me a fork. I mean… can we just look at this pretty little thing for a minute? Ugh. Now. Gimme.

Ok, we can get to salad prepping now. I will try to contain myself.

When I start seeing cherries show up in our markets, I know we’re turning the corner into full-fledged summery goodness. Naturally, I like to put them in almost everything until they disappear. Do you know what happens when you put cherries and bacon together? It is a thing of sweet and savory dreams. It’s worth the time it takes to sit there and remove all those cherry pits. Promise.

If you have a food processor you are going to want to break it out and stick on your slicing attachment. This will do all of the crazy chopping for you when it comes to your brussels sprouts. As someone who has totally sat there and sliced up sprout after sprout by hand, this little chopping vacation feels luxurious. Next, we’re going to cook up some bacon. I opted to make mine in the oven. It seemed less painstaking. Walnuts are toasted in a pan and set aside. We are also going to throw all of the ingredients for a honey dijon balsamic vinaigrette into a mason jar and give it a good shake.

You are going to dress your sprouts and toss them really well before layering your cherries, walnuts and bacon on top. Brussels sprouts handle dressing really well. I had leftovers of this salad and Peter took it to work the next day and said it was still amazing.

Do you have six minutes to spare and the patience to boil a pot of water? Please say yes. If you top your serving of this sweet and savory salad with a soft-boiled egg, you get something really special. Ooey-Gooey beautiful breakfast-y savory sweet sprout-y mayhem in your mouth.  Overly descriptive? Maybe. Starting a sentence with Ooey? Unorthodox. Using the term mayhem? Chaos.

Can you tell I’m blogging hungry? I need to go eat something before I refer to this salad as beautiful again (even though it really is the prettiest girl at the dance). Enjoy! xo

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