Classic Cobb Salad

Hi there everybody!  Gosh, I know you all think I've dropped off of the face of the Earth. How do I know?  Because my mother keeps reminding me.  I'm terribly sorry that I've neglected you recently, but my... ahem... plate has been even more full than normal in the last couple of months.  You want to know what's been going on?  Well... In the middle of September, I opened a cafe called Asiago!  YES!  You heard that right, folks!  All of this hard work on the blog for the last 5 and half years was bound to lead to something, right?  And then to throw the cookbook in the mix.  So I've been working my tushie off lately and haven't had time to really put new things on the blog.  If any of you are bloggers, you know that each post requires hours of shooting, editing photos, writing the blog, etc., and I just haven't had it available.  I hope you will understand.  

Here's one of the salads we do at the cafe.  It's a Classic Cobb Salad.  The cobb has been around since the depression era mid-1930's, so I definitely think that classifies it as an enduring "classic."  We serve it with our house made Creamy Peppercorn Ranch that everyone really loves.   I hope you'll enjoy it, as well.  It's full of great protein and will definitely leave you feeling satisfied.   Please forgive the lack of step-by-step photos, but all you do is assemble the salad.  The recipe link for the dressing is embedded and does come with full photos.  :)  

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Ingredients:

• Romaine lettuce, chopped
• Avocados, sliced or diced
• Grape tomatoes, sliced 
• Crumbled blue cheese
• Crumbled crispy bacon
• Hard boiled eggs, sliced or diced
• Grilled chicken, in bite sized pieces  
• Creamy Peppercorn Ranch

Creamy peppercorn ranch dressing

• 1/2 c mayonnaise
• 1/2 c sour cream
• 1/3 c freshly grated Parmigiano reggiano
• (or Romano)
• 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• ~ 1 medium lemon
• 2 Tbsp milk (full fat)
• 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 medium garlic cloves, rough chopped
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

*For the step-by-step photos of making the dressing, please click the link provided.   But all you do is throw everything into a food processor or blender to combine.  You can do this ahead of time and have the dressing refrigerated.   For the salad, put the Romaine first, then add everything else in pretty rows, or however you would like to present it.  

*Food Nerd Notes - The Cobb Salad was named for its creator, Robert Cobb, the manager of the Brown Derby restaurant in LA.  It was a hit with all of the figure-conscious starlets, who just wanted something to pick at.  Being that it was during the depression, the salad ingredients would have all been something that could have come from the backyard (the chicken, the eggs, the produce, etc), and the blue cheese would have given it a touch of something glamorous and may have been locally produced, or something the hostess could have splurged on. 

Bye for now, my friends.  I do hope things will normalize soon and get into a better pattern so that I can get back to a better routine.  

Here's a glimpse of how it was just before we opened.  I hesitated to put all this on here, but again, my mother said, "Your readers want to know what the heck you've been up to!"  So here it is.  It's an intimate little place that seats only about 20 customers at a time, with tables made from repurposed wood (from old barges that once floated down the mighty Mississippi River) on one side, wine barrel tables on the other side.  You might notice our cute cheese grater lights hanging up in the corner of the photo.  :)  And everything seems to have an Old World feel to it.  We have cheeses from all over the world as well as domestic cheese from all around the US; and we have a limited lunch menu of gourmet salads, sandwiches, soups... that sort of thing.  

Okay.  I'm done with boring you about the cafe.  Thanks for giving me the leeway to do it.  Check y'all later!  

I hope you enjoyed this fabulous and easy recipe!

There are hundreds more in my Recipe Index, just waiting to be chosen and cooked!  You can also visit my Film strips for pinning page, to see whole recipes at a glance, and to click-and-go right to the recipe.

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