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)
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!)
3 Comments
Liking the new header! The title of the post is coming up funny in my Chrome browser still. Kinda smooshy.
Great. Now I want boiled eggs. And maybe bacon.
Love love love salads, and this one looks and sounds delicious! Tonight, however, we had your Funky Funghi Quesadillas for dinner, only I didn’t reduce the size of the taco tortillas. They were a hit with all of us! Yummy!
I should really stop reading food posts in the morning. LOVE cobb salad, and wishing it was lunch time.
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[...] or food group each week. Sometimes it’s as “simple” as learning to put together a classic salad . Other times it requires leaving your comfort zone [...]