Cool Melon Salad with Hot Bacon

This recipe is courtesy of The Kitchn blog.

Cool Melon Salad with Hot Bacon
Serves 2 to 4

Salad Ingredients:
4 to 5 strips bacon, cut into 3-inch pieces
1 small, sweet melon, such as canary melon or cantaloupe
several small mint leaves, torn if big
a small handful of arugula or spicy cress, washed and dried well (optional)

Dressing Ingredients:
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1 large lemon)

Garnish Ingredients:
freshly ground pepper a few mint springs

Directions
1. Slice the melon in half, scoop out the seeds and cut into wedges. Cut the skin off the flesh and the flesh into large cubes. Place the cubes in a bowl and chill in the fridge.
2. Whisk together dressing ingredients and reserve.
3. Cook and drain the bacon. Toss the melon, arugula/cress (if desired) and mint with a drizzle of dressing. Serve immediately.

Arugula and Carrot with Pumpkin Dressing

I think the stars of this show are the amazing baby arugula that we got last week and, yum, puree of pumpkin. One of the fun things, ahem challenges, of a CSA are working with things that stretch you. This salad came about when I realized that I needed to use up a large bag of arugula and several root vegetables. My wife had a can of pumpkin puree open to make some cupcakes. After going back and forth a bit I ended up with this perfect salad for a crisp autumn day.

Dressing
2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon salt

Salad
1 large handful of fresh young peppery arugula
1 medium sized carrot (about 4 inches)
Optional: 1/4 small apple and 1/4 red bell pepper
Pumpkin seeds for crunch. Can substitute home made croutons.

Toss the salad with the dressing and serve immediately. The carrots we had happened to be purple carrots so I had a wonderful and unexpected contrast of colors. Other contrast are the sweetness of the dressing with the pepperiness of the arugula and the textures of velvet pumpkin and crisp arugula and crunch of carrots.