Okay, you are seriously amazing AJ! How the heck did you make your cider vinegar?

Thanks, all. I just happen to have had some Prather Ranch Beef Beer Brats in the fridge, so that's what we had. I roasted some sliced Yukon golds (plus some broccoli), served the brats with pear Mostarda Mantovana I made a few weeks ago, and we washed it all down with some Bavarian Weissbier. Great dinner, especially the salad . . . . oh, and I used my own cider vinegar, which I made last year about this time. It is really exceptional -- the best cider vinegar I've ever tasted. It made the salad all the more delicious. ;o)

Fabulous with roast chicken or a grilled steak - and, ohmigosh, try it with a simple herbed pork chop - pan-fried or grilled - delicious.

Amanda's salad riffs on a classic, frisee aux lardons. Myself I'd be thinking along the lines of charcuterie as in perhaps grilled sausages and maybe some cold local beer (it is October now). If it's not too hot to heat up your oven perhaps a quiche with leeks. If it is too hot, maybe vichyssoisse. Pretty easy to knock out and serve cold.

I didn't note this in the post, but I now remember my mother serving it with German wursts.