Salad..sweet and sour

Some of you may remember the Machus Restaurant Group that thrived in the metro Detroit area from the mid sixties to the mid nineties. There was the Red Fox, the Sly Fox, Foxy's, the Machus Bakery, etc. It was the Red Fox where Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa was last seen. The food was  classic American, but I think their claim to fame was the wonderful salad that was basically lettuce, bacon, red onion, and blue cheese with a sweet and sour dressing.  I make it here with a few extra ingredients:

For the dressing:
1/3 cup white wine, champagne, or rice vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 Tbl. sugar or Splenda
2 tsp. dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper
Shake all ingredients together in a salad cruet or jar and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the salad:
Toss together the following
5 cups lettuce ( iceberg was used in the original, but romaine is good too)
5-6 strips crisply cooked and crumbled bacon
1 cup thinly sliced red onion
1 cup crumbled roquefort or blue cheese
15 ripe California olives, halved
1/2 cup chickpeas
a few cherry tomatoes, halved if large
Croutons for garnish, if you like


This is dinner for two  or 4 or 5 side salads