Elaine’s Big Salad

 It has been my experience that “Seinfeld” is a lot like cilantro, you either like it or you don’t. I happen to like both, so when I learned of the publication of Seinfeld: The Official Cookbook I had to have a copy. I tried two recipes from the cookbook, and both were very good, so that bodes well for the rest of them. The first that I tried was this one for Elaine’s Big Salad. Essentially, it’s a Cobb salad, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t delicious. I liked the way that the avocado was sliced in the salad so that you get big bites of it. I also liked the quartered rather than chopped egg, and halved cherry tomatoes. It was a delicious combination. In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that I added a pinch of sugar and a pinch of oregano to the salad dressing to suit my own personal taste. Be sure to keep a watch on this page. Next week I’m going to share a recipe from The Soup Nazi.

 Elaine’s Big Salad

 For the dressing:

Juice of 1 small lemon
1½ T. Dijon mustard 
¼ c. extra-virgin olive oil
¾ t. sea salt
½ t. pepper

 For the salad:

1 large head iceberg lettuce, shredded
1 ripe avocado
2 hard-boiled eggs
4 strips cooked bacon, crumbled 
1 c. shredded cooked chicken 
½ c. grape tomatoes, halved 
½ c. crumbled blue cheese

To make the dressing: Combine all ingredients into a small mixing bowl and whisk vigorously to emulsify. Adjust the seasonings to taste. You may want to add more lemon juice depending on how flavorful your olive oil is. Set aside.

Using a paring knife, make a vertical cut all the way around the outside of the avocado, stopping when you hit the large pit inside. Pull the halves apart and discard the pit. While the flesh is still inside the skin, score the avocado meat into slices, and then scoop out using a large spoon. Set aside.

Peel the hard-boiled eggs and slice into quarters. Set aside.

Divide the salad toppings in half and arrange them in the two salads so that each one is displayed individually on the lettuce: Designate separate areas for the avocado slices, bacon crumbles, shredded chicken, eggs, tomatoes, and blue cheese.

 Top each salad with dressing and serve.

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Meal Plan Monday #5

My plan is to be home all week working on my office/studio. Currently it is just not working for me, so I need a new perspective. I plan to clean it up, flip flop the furniture from one side of the room to the other, to see if finally, FINALLY, it appeals. That’s the plan. We’ll see. 

Because I plan to be home all week, I will be doing some cooking. On the days that I do cook, I’ll be trying new recipes from my new favorite cookbook (review coming), The Southern Living Party Cookbook. Here’s the plan:

Sunday — Crustless Quiche, Green Salad, Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies (To enjoy all week, naturally)

Monday — Chicken Salad in Pastry Shells, fruit

 
Tuesday — Charcuterie appetizer, Cobb Salad

Wednesday — Fried Pork Chops, Rice pilaf, Broccoli

Thursday — Pecan Chicken Tenders, crudités, apple dumpling

Friday — Something from the freezer

Saturday — Pancakes and Bacon

Breakfast for dinner is a long-time favorite. How about you? Do you enjoy breakfast for dinner? What do you serve?

This week’s place setting. To see more of this table, click here.

This post contains affiliate links.

May is National Salad Month

May is National Salad Month, and before it gets away (Can you believe that June is next week?), I wanted to share some of my favorite salads with you. This is a tasty and diverse group. Some are hearty, some are light, all are unique and satisfying, and sure to earn you lots of compliments. To get to the recipe, click on the name of the salad beneath each picture.

Chickpea, Avocado and Feta Salad

Fava Bean and Cherry Tomato Salad

 Pear and Walnut Salad

 Muffaletta Pasta Salad

 Tarragon Chicken Salad with Champagne Grapes

 Baby Greens, Beet, Walnut, and Blue Cheese Salad

 Mexican Cobb Salad

 Waldorf Salad

 Sorrel & Watermelon Salad with Feta

This post is linked to:

Merry Monday

Art of Homemaking

Amaze Me Monday

Busy Mondays

What’s for Dinner?

Inspiration Monday

Cooking & Crafting Monday

Mosaic Monday

Mexican Cobb Salad

There are some nights when I just don’t feel like cooking (a lot of them actually), and last night was one. On such nights when leftovers are not left over, I tend to turn to salads. During the winter months a salad seems so cold, unless it is kicked up with some spice and a bit of zing. Enter the Mexican Cobb Salad, a zippy take on a traditional favorite. You really don’t need a recipe to put this together, just envision all of the things that you like about Mexican food, plus what suits you in a salad, and layer it in rows across the top of the bed of lettuce (or lettuces) of your choice.

Mexican Cobb Salad

½ pound ground chuck
1/2 packet of taco seasoning
1 head Romaine Lettuce, torn

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup corn
1 avocado, cubed
1 tomato, cubed
1 hard-boiled egg, sliced

¼ cup chopped cilantro

Pinch of cumin

In a 9-inch saute pan over medium heat, cook ground chuck, crumbling as you do, until done; drain. Put meat back into pan and add half a packet of taco seasoning (or use your own, as I did), and half a cup of water and simmer until the liquid has absorbed; set aside.

Assemble your salad with a bed of chopped romaine lettuce on the bottom, and then each topping, in whatever order you see fit, laid out in rows: egg, tomato, cheese, avocado, taco meat, corn.  Sprinkle the hardboiled eggs with cumin (chili powder or cayenne), and the corn with the cilantro.

Drizzle with your favorite dressing or salsa. I used a cilantro ranch dressing, made from my own mixture (recipe coming soon), but you can use plain ranch, or blend a half of an avocado into your ranch dressing for an avocado ranch. Season it with cumin, cilantro, lime juice, avocado, cayenne pepper, whatever you see fit and in any amount that suits you. It is very forgiving.

Makes 2 main dish salads.

PRINT RECIPE

 This post is linked to:

Five Star Frou-Frou,

Simple and Sweet Fridays

Foodie Friday & Everything Else

Fridays Flash Blog

THE COBB SALAD

The Cobb salad (Not to be confused with "The Big Salad"* the 88th episode (2nd episode; 6th season) of Seinfeld that originally aired on September 29, 1994.), invented in the 1930's at the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant is named for the restaurant's owner, Robert Howard Cobb.  A main-dish salad, its major components are chopped salad greens, tomato, crispy bacon, chicken breast, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, chives, and Roquefort cheese.  Variations of the salad are served in restaurants worldwide (I personally add large-dice cucumber), but to me if there is no avocado, then it's not a Cobb Salad.  I think the Cobb Salad is one of the prettiest to serve.  One of the things I particularly like about it is the artistry involved in putting it together.  Here I've done it rather simply so you can see each ingredient, but in the past I've placed them in circles, swirls, and wedges.  We used Bamboo flatware to eat this one, which added to the fun!

All of the lettuce is from my AEROGARDEN. I used three varieties here: red leaf, romaine, and butter crunch.

It's week THREE! I had to move the Aerogarden from the guest room into my studio in order to be able to raise the light two notches to accommodate the lettuce's rapid growth this past week. (There will be a future blog post about this.)

This is linked to:

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*Elaine must find a special mechanical pencil, the Rolamech 1000, for her boss, Mr. Pitt (Ian Abercrombie) and soon finds herself dealing with the romantic advances of the stationery store clerk (Jerry Levine). The clerk asks for her telephone number to call her when he receives the pencil but Elaine gives him Jerry's number instead. At Elaine's request, George purchases a "big salad" for her from Monk's. But his girlfriend Julie (Michelle Forbes) appears to take credit for the purchase when she hands Elaine the salad in Jerry's apartment. George is displeased over the fact that Elaine thanked Julie for buying the salad, and casually mentions to Elaine that he was responsible for the purchase. George's revelation eventually leads to a rift between him and Julie when the truth comes out, but she simply justifies her actions by saying, "George, all I did was hand someone a bag." Semi-humiliated, George vows never to buy Elaine lunch ever again. Jerry learns that his current girlfriend, Margaret (Marita Geraghty), formerly dated Newman, who ended the relationship. Jerry cannot comprehend why Newman dumped someone so clearly "out of his league" in terms of beauty, so he attempts to find any fault in his girlfriend. Kramer plays golf with an ex-Major League Baseball player, who washes his ball on the second shot (not on the green), breaking the rules and causing an altercation with Kramer.The man is later suspected in the murder of a dry cleaner, and Kramer helps the man to see his pet fish by driving in his white Ford Bronco in a low speed chase down the New Jersey Turnpike.  (from Wikipedia)