Fire & Wine: The salad chronicles – The Cobby

Once upon a time there were three fantastically hot young ladies who liked to get together once a week to cook, eat and drink wine. Did I mention how hot they were?

But when summer came and outside temperatures rose, the idea of slow cooked meats, piping pasta and simmering soups just didn’t seem as exciting as they had earlier in the year.

So began the salad chronicles. Which to these fine ladies wasn’t as much about leafy greans as it was piles of delicious food on a plate.

Bacon & eggs, anyone?

A classic Cobb salad was a must for these aspiring foodies. And with a few modifications, a borrowed dressing recipe and just a little bit of prep work, the Fire & Wine Cobby was born.

Let’s talk dressing.

Traditional Cobb Salad calls for a Brown Derby (the restaurant that first created the salad) Old-Fashioned French. It is essentially a vinaigrette.

Blah, I say.

I want ranch. (said with the flattest Midwestern accent I could muster.)

To me, chicken, bacon, eggs, avacados, tomatoes and bleu cheese taste better when smothered with a creamy, savory ranch.

That’s my story. And I’m sticking to it.

I’m also not ashamed to admit I used turkey bacon.

Gasp!!

A travesty in Mr. Quirky’s world, but for DD Girl and myself, turkey bacon = less fat and calories =more bacon to be enjoyed. 

Finally, let’s talk cheese. Frankly, a Cobb isn’t very Cobby without the true bleu. But I understand that some people don’t like mold on their salad.

(Pishaw. Crazy talk.)

But I enable my friends (DD Girl) and their non-bleu cheese eating habits. She got feta.

She says it was good.

You’ll have to take her word on that.

So, it meant that the good cheese could not touch the salad until it was far away from her serving. Also, I promise there were avacados in this salad, but the lettuce covered them up.

Fire & Wine Night Cobby

Low-Fat Herbed Ranch Dressing (see recipe from Epicurious below)

The breast of a rotisserie chicken, diced into 1/2 inch pieces

1 tomato diced

2 heads of romaine lettuce, finely chopped

2 hard boiled eggs, diced

2 avacados, diced

6 pieces of bacon (turkey), chopped

1/4 cup of bleu cheese (or feta if you are mold-o-phobic)

On a large plate, pile each ingredient and serve passed with dressing on the side.

Low-Fat Herbed Ranch Dressing (From Epicurious)

  • 3/4 cup well-shaken low-fat (1 1/2%) buttermilk
  • 2 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons nonfat sour cream
  • 1 tablespoon packed fresh basil leaves, minced
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives
  • 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon dry mustard
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • Combine ingredients in a blender or food processor, chill. Makes 1 cup. (Warning – if you have some the next day, the garlic is extra strong!)

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    A Day In the Life

    It was a typical day in Liz Carey’s life.

     She slept until 10. Watched an episode of Degrassi. Drove her Honda Civic  to her retail sales job at noon. Stopped by Target for a late lunch where she grabbed a Caesar salad, queso dip and chips and a hard boiled egg. (Look, we don’t judge these things in Quirkyville.)

    Then, she wrapped her workday around 8 p.m. in time to zip down the Westport Flea Market to join her friends and family (lots of them) to watch her brother’s improv comedy troupe, the Stitchtactics perform a 10 p.m. show.

    And when she was selected from the audience to have this entire day reenacted in front of the audience, she thought nothing of it.

    She honked her little horn when the comedians got her day grossly wrong (No, she didn’t take a shower in bed. Just because she didn’t say the shower was in the bathroom means she literally showered in the bed.)

    The team used wigs, props and live people to play innate objects (Liz’s brother, Joe played her Honda Civic.) And it was all very, very funny.

    But we weren’t laughing at the skit, as much as we were laughing at what we knew.

    Because despite the fact that Liz had been on the phone for the past day, texting and calling people to come see Joe’s show, that’s not why they were there.

    They let her think that she invited them. We let her think that we all came to support Joe’s show.

    Quite frankly, we were all a little stunned that she honestly believed her parents, her sibblings (both of the two not in the show), their spouses (one 8.5 months pregnant) , their neighborhood friends, her boyfriend’s parents, her boyfriend’s aunt, her best friend and her co-workers all came to show their support for her brother. (At the same time.)

    But she did.

    As the Day in the Life Skit wrapped up, Liz started to head off stage…

    But Joe announced that there was more and he needed her to close her eyes so he could spin her around.

    She has probably seen this act a handful of times and no one has ever gotten spun around at the end.

    But she didn’t question that either.

    Oh, that crazy Joe! He must be up to something new.

    When she opened her eyes, she saw this…

    And then she made this face (as she quickly slipped off a fashion ring she was wearing that night on that finger.)

    She said, “yes!”

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    F&W: Mediterranean Portabella Mushroom Pizzas and a Chunky Monkey ice cream run

    It was a quiet Fire & Wine night this week. Mr. Quirky met the boys to hang out and do nerd things. And we had no special guests.

    Just the three of us girls….

    and the fun guys.

    The Mediterranean portabella pizzas were the bomb diggity. Yes. Diggity.

    I blatantly stole the concept from one of my favorite pizzas over at Kansas City Minksy’s Pizza. Their Mediterranean pizza sports lamb sausage, pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach and a mix of feta and mozzarella cheeses.

    Well Minsky’s, love you and all, but I’ll take your doughy crust and raise you portabella mushrooms as the vessel for delicious toppings.

    My mushrooms were dressed up in their Sunday best: walnut pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, turkey Italian sausage and a mix of feta and mozzarella cheeses.

    More please.

    And as if these decadent pizzas weren’t enough for our spoiled little tummies, we decided to make an ice cream run to a local Quick Trip to pick up my favorite pint of Ben & Jerry’s.

    But if you dare call me a chunky monkey…no recipes for you!

    Thank you. You may now have your recipes:

    Walnut Pesto

    2 large bunches of basil, torn

    1/2 cup walnuts

    3 cloves of garlic

    1/4 cup of olive oil (may need more or less depending on thickness desired)

    Kosher salt to taste

    Pulse basil leaves to chop. Then add walnuts and garlic. Pulse until ground. Pour in olive oil, pulsing to blend until desired texture has been reached. Salt to taste.

    Greek Portabella Mushroom Pizzas

    1/2 cup of dry white wine

    1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (dried, not in oil)

    3 links Italian sausage (I used turkey)

    6 large portabella mushrooms, stems and gills removed, washed

    Olive oil for brushing

    Walnut Pesto (see recipe)

    3 cups fresh spinach

    1/2 cup mozzarella cheese shreds

    1/2 cup feta cheese

    If your sun-dried tomatoes aren’t already chopped (I purchased mine that way), you’ll want to cut into strips. Heat wine in microwave for 30-45 seconds. Add the tomatoes to wine to rehydrate and allow 30 minutes to an hour for them to soak. Preheat oven to 350.

    Remove sausage from casing and brown in a pan, crumbling. Once sausage is browned, set aside. (If you used traditional sausage, wipe pan of excess grease.)

    Brush mushrooms with oil and bake for 10 minutes.

    While mushrooms are cooking, pour tomatoes and wine into warm pan from sausage. Cook off most of the liquid and then add spinach and wilt.

    Remove mushrooms from oven.  Top as follows: spoonful of pesto, spinach and tomatoes, sausage, sprinkle of mozzarella and finish with feta.

    Place mushrooms into oven and turn on broil for 5-7 minutes.

    Do your monkey mushroom happy dance!

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    A bumpy wagon ride

    In college I made a mental rule for myself – once I put a sports bra on, a workout or run must take place before I can remove the sports bra.

    It’s worked pretty well for me, forcing me into workouts when unmotivated, or perhaps I would have otherwise “opted out.”

    Tuesday, I found myself climbing back on the running wagon after recently falling off. (I fall off that doggone wagon so often, you’d think they’d put a recall out for it.) Apparently it had been so long since I’d even put on a sports bra that I had forgotten how to get into it.

    I found myself flaying about my room like a drunk octopus, sticking my head into holes that didn’t fit it, trying to find my arms and in general very confused about where everything was going to fit once the arms/head were free. It turns out, it was on backwards.

    FYI, the back side of the sports bra does not cover much.

    Lest this blog turn into the bra blog, I digress on this matter. But not the run I was suiting up for.

    I have another pre-running ritual.

    Gertie, my running partner, must do ALL her business prior to departing.

    Because nothing will ruin a run faster than having to carry with you a swinging  bag of your dog’s poo.

    That’s what home is for.

    But this day, I didn’t monitor her goings outside, so I found myself having one of those really awkward moments.

    My dog was doing her #2 and I didn’t have a bag.

    I HATE that.

    Gertie, no! Fumble. Party Foul. Running Fail.

    So we did the only thing I could do in that moment.

    Ran away. Faster.

    And now I have blogged about bras and dog poo today. Do not fear. This blog is not going to turn into Dooce. (I mean, the book deal and popularity would be nice, but it’s not really my shtick.)

    What I really wanted to share was, I ran. Despite a few fumbles. No more excuses for not running. At least not this week…. I’m hanging onto that stupid wagon for dear life.

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