Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

I’m finally starting to feel like my self again after a pretty fun weekend away with some couple friends. We really showed the world we can still throw them back even though some of our members now come with babies. Even if some of us (me) fell asleep at seven-thirty in the evening on Saturday.  We also proved we are WAY too old to hang.

A really wonderful weekend culminated in me getting on the only freeway that was jam packed coming home early Monday morning on a holiday that I did not have off from work. Then getting lost after getting off said freeway and then proceeding to irrationally losing it on Wes.

Real nice Ange. Real nice.

But all is right with the world again. I’m home and back in the kitchen. Where I belong.

When I wanted to do a little remix on a night at a steakhouse for mom and pop, I was SHOCKED that I had never made one of my all time favorite indulgences. The wedge salad.

How have I not made myself some of this blue cheese and bacony goodness?

Well don’t worry. I made up for it. This thing was decadently delicious.

You will need…

1 head iceberg lettuce

1 shallot, halved and thinly sliced

3 slices of your favorite thick cut bacon

8 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

¼ cup buttermilk

¼ cup Greek yogurt

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

½ lemon, juiced

Start by cooking your bacon over medium heat in a large pan until crispy. About 7 minutes a side. 

Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate to remove the grease.

Roughly chop the bacon and set aside.

Removing the more damaged outer leaves, quarter the head of lettuce  and lay it on the platter.

Top the lettuce with the shallots, ½ the blue cheese and the bacon.

In a mason jar or food processor, combine the remaining blue cheese, yogurt, buttermilk, vinegar, salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Blend or shake until completely combined.

Drizzle the dressing over the salad and serve.

Love and Beer Floats

Angela  

Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

1 head iceberg lettuce

1 shallot, halved and thinly sliced

3 slices of your favorite thick cut bacon

8 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

¼ cup buttermilk

¼ cup Greek yogurt

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

½ lemon, juiced

Start by cooking your bacon over medium heat in a large pan until crispy. About 7 minutes a side. Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate to remove the grease.

Roughly chop the bacon and set aside.

Removing the more damaged outer leaves, quarter the head of lettuce  and lay it on the platter.

Top the lettuce with the shallots, ½ the blue cheese and the bacon.

In a mason jar or food processor, combine the remaining blue cheese, yogurt, buttermilk, vinegar, salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Blend or shake until completely combined.

Drizzle the dressing over the salad and serve. 

Apple, Grape and Endive Salad with Tangy Buttermilk Vinaigrette

It is that dreaded time of the year. No, not the holidays. Flu season.

The last couple of weeks I had been hearing mumblings about various illnesses around the building at work and now it is no longer mumblings. It is full blown screaming.

Both Lindsey B and I have running noses, and tickling coughs and I highly suggest that if you see us coming, you run the other way.

Tonight, I’m going to try and sweat it out, drink lots of liquids (alcohol free of course) and try to get a good night’s sleep.

No cooking for this little nugget until conditions improve.

Good thing I have a couple of gems stockpiled away for such an occasion.

You will need…

2 honeycrisp or fuji apples cored and thinly sliced

1 ½ pounds Belgian endives, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces

2 cups green grapes (preferably seedless) halved

½ cup toasted pecans, broken into pieces

¼ cup goat cheese crumbles

½ cup reduced-fat sour cream

¼ cup low-fat buttermilk

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Salt and pepper

Start by combining everything but the wet ingredients in a salad bowl.

In a bowl or food processor, whisk together the sour cream, buttermilk and vinegar.

Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste.

Toss the salad with the creamy dressing and serve.

Love and Beer Floats

Angela

Fried Chicken and Watermelon Salad

For months now my youngest brother Joshua has been nagging me to take a crack at fried chicken. Week after week that he attended NFT’z I brushed it off. “Sure, I’ll do fried chicken. Next week for sure.” Of course my fingers were crossed behind my back the whole time. Then I would conveniently have a reason that he couldn’t come to dinner so I wouldn’t have actually make fried chicken.

It wasn’t because I do not like fried chicken, or because I think my fried wouldn’t be good.

I kept avoiding fried chicken night because I have a serious fear of a deep pot of hot, bubbling oil.

Just stop and think for a second about all the things that can go wrong in a scenario where a huge pot of boiling oil is involved. I can think of 5 of the top of my head.

1. Oil bubbles over, catches flame and burns condo complex down.

2. Oil bubbles over, catches flame and burns hair/skin of me or people around me.

3. Oil is too hot and melts important cooking tools.

4. Oil is too hot mixes with water and splashes up and burns my face/skin.

5. Oil is too hot and splatters on face/skin leaving scars that horrify little children

Ok… 4 and 5 are similar, but one involves water and the other just needs super hot oil. But, the bottom line is that all of these result in some sort of destruction.

Regardless of my intense fear of the scalding oil, I decided to go for it this week. I have to admit, even though I would have much preferred to have an actual fryer with a basket with a very very long handle that insured I would be no where near the oil, it was not as bad as I thought it would be.

Of course, I couldn’t just serve fried chicken. So I racked by brain for all the things that I have been served a long with fried chicken. I couldn’t do mashed potatoes because I made those last week. No waffles because I don’t really like waffles. I have no idea where to get okra or what to do with it. I decided to go with corn and watermelon. Two tired and true favorites. But I couldn’t just grill corn and slice up a watermelon. Why on earth would I do something SO EASY. Seriously, heaven forbid I decide to do something easy.

So, I went with heirloom tomato carpaccio (they were calling my name at whole foods)...

a watermelon, arugula, pancetta salad with feta and a citrus vinaigrette…

Grilled summer corn with garlic and thyme butter (which might have been the biggest hit of the night)…

And of course I had to add some garlic bread in there because once again I somehow ended up with 10 people over on a Tuesday night and I had to make sure everyone was full.

Everything ended up being absolutely crispy and delicious. And, I now have some great tips for cooking fried chicken.

1. All the recipes will tell you to shake off the excess breading. DON’T. Pile on that breading!!! It will be way more delicious.

2. When the recipe tells you to use oil, they really mean go buy a freaking humongous vat of oil because 2 bottles will barely be enough to fry 4 pieces at a time.

3. Fill up the that biggest pot you can pretty high with oil or you will end up cooking the chicken for hours since it takes about twenty minutes a batch.

4. Do not make the oil to hot are you will have very very burnt fried chicken.

We live and we learn right? Right.

Love and Beer Floats

Angela

P.S. There were too many awesome photos of the chicken. Enjoy!

If that was not enjoyable enough for you... hopefully this is!

Fried Chicken

Ingredients

1 quart buttermilk, plus 2 cups

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

2 teaspoons chile de arbol powder, or 2 tablespoons hot sauce, plus 2 teaspoons chile de arbol powder, or cayenne pepper

2 chickens (3 to 4 pounds each), each cut up into 8 pieces

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

4 green onions finely chopped

Peanut oil, for deep-frying (a lot a lot a lot of oil)

Directions

In a large bowl or baking dish, whisk together 1 quart of the buttermilk, 2 tablespoons salt, 2 teaspoons of chile de arbol powder, or hot sauce, and a little bit of pepper, if desired. Add the chicken pieces, turn to coat, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. *** bloggers note... I only let it sit for an hour and it was still yummy.

Place the remaining 2 cups of buttermilk in a bowl. In a second bowl, stir together the flour, garlic and onion powders, green onions, paprika, and 2 teaspoons chile de arbol powder (or cayenne) in a large bowl. Divide flour mixture among 2 shallow platters and season generously with salt and pepper. Drain the chicken in a colander and pat it dry. Dredge the pieces a few at a time in the flour mixture and pat off excess, then dip in the buttermilk and allow excess to drain off. Dredge in the second plate of flour and pat off the excess. Put the chicken pieces on a piece of waxed paper or on a clean platter while you heat the oil.

Pour about 3 inches of oil into a deep cast iron skillet; the oil should not come more than halfway up the sides of the pot. Put the pot over medium-high heat and heat the oil to 375 degrees F on a deep-fry thermometer. Working in batches, add the chicken pieces to the hot oil, 3 or 4 at a time and fry, turning the pieces occasionally, until evenly golden brown and cooked through, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and transfer to a rack to drain; repeat to cook the remaining pieces. Serve hot.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Watermelon Salad

Ingredients

For the vinaigrette:

1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)

1/4 cup minced shallots (1 large)

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup good olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

6 cups baby arugula, washed and spun dry

1/8th seedless watermelon, rind removed, and cut in 1-inch cubes

12 ounces good feta cheese, 1/2-inch diced

1 cup (4 ounces) whole fresh mint leaves, julienned

8 oz pancetta

Directions

In a skillet, brown the pancetta with one tablespoon olive oil. Remove and let cool.

Whisk together the orange juice, lemon juice, shallots, honey, salt, and pepper. Slowly pour in the olive oil, whisking constantly, to form an emulsion. If not using within an hour, store the vinaigrette covered in the refrigerator.

Place the arugula, watermelon, feta, pancetta and mint in a large bowl. Drizzle with enough vinaigrette to coat the greens lightly and toss well. Taste for seasonings and serve immediately.