Spinach salad with warm bacon dressing AKA: Mom's fave salad of the month

You know when you crave a certain taste and once you get it, you can't get enough?  That's how I've been feeling lately about this spinach salad with warm bacon dressing.  I never, ever, ever thought about warm bacon dressing before because honestly?  It sounded disgusting.  WARM salad dressing?  Ew. 

But because I am now 40, I seriously think my entire physical being has changed.  I crave things I never even LIKED before.  Coconut.  Peanut butter.  Cake.  And apparently warm bacon dressing.

Even though I had never eaten it before, I had this idea of what I thought it should or would taste like if I ever did have it...and I then NEEDED to have it.  I looked around the internet to get a basic idea and came up with this:

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

• 1/2 pound of sliced bacon
• 5-6 small white mushrooms sliced 
• 1/2 red onion sliced
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp brown mustard
• salt
• 11 oz fresh baby spinach washed and dried throughly

Cook the bacon in a pan until it is crispy and then remove it to a paper towel lined plate to cool.  Once cool, crumble the bacon and place it into a large salad bowl.  Save about 4 Tbsp of the bacon fat in a glass bowl.  In a fresh pan, add about 1 Tbsp of the reserved bacon fat and saute the mushrooms and onions together on medium high heat until they are slightly browned. Once they are done, add them to the crumbled bacon bits in the large salad bowl.

For the dressing, add the remaining bacon fat to the pan you just cooked the mushrooms and onions in.  Turn it down to medium low.  You do not want the heat too high or it will splatter when you add the ingredients.  Stir in the sugar until it is fully incorporated.  Stir in the vinegar.  Let the mixture cook down a bit and then stir in the mustard.  Give it a taste and add salt as needed.

Add your washed/dried spinach to the salad bowl with the bacon, mushrooms and onions and drizzle with the warm dressing.  Toss it lightly altogether and serve it immediately.

Traditionally, hard boiled eggs are added to this salad, but not everyone in our family likes them so I left them out.  

Hope you like it!