It feels like I haven't blogged in quite a while, but don't worry I'll keep the posts coming. Once again let me know if there's any dish I should try to make, and I will give it a shot.
The most recent opportunity I had to cook something new was yesterday for my Mom's birthday. One of the perks about being able to cook is that you can share that gift with people for special occasions. I did contribute to a gift with my sister & her boyfriend, but I also had the chance to make my Mom a birthday dinner. The appetizer & entree came out awesome, but the dessert in my opinion left a lot to be desired. The entree was the white bean chicken chili I posted about a while back so I won't share that recipe again (but still check it out!). However, the appetizer was something I created for the first time. It was a hit, and very simple to make. Let me share with you how I made my
Ice Berg Wedge Salad with Homemade French& Ranch Dressings
The recipe can be found at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/iceberg-lettuce-chopped-salad-with-french-dressing-recipe/index.html & I followed the recipe almost exactly.
*Note: You can use any variety of vegetables for this dish.
Ingredients (for salad component)
1 head of ice berg lettuce
4 radishes
3 scallions
1/3 of a cucumber
3 carrots
* Wash lettuce, cut into quarters, and then cut those quarters in half to create 8 wedges
*Chop scallions, and carrots
*Using a mandolin, or V slicer, slice the cucumbers & radishes
*Set Aside
Ingredients (for French Dressing)
6 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 C ketchup
1/2 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tsp garlic powder
4 tsp worcestershire sauce
*Whisk all ingredients until combined
Ingredients (for the ranch dressing)
can be found at http://www.foodess.com/2012/01/homemade-ranch-dressing/
1/3 C mayo
1/2 C sour cream
1 lg garlic clove
1 tbsp fresh minced dill
1 tbsp fresh minced parsley
1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
*Combine all ingredients until thoroughly mixed
Putting the dish together: The way that I put together this dish was similar to a create your own salad bar. On one side of a plate I stacked ice berg wedges, and next to that I placed the variety of vegetables. Next to the plate were the 2 variety of dressings. Setting the dish up this way allowed everyone to take a salad wedge and as much (or little) of each veggie as they liked. Also, everyone was able to choose the salad dressing they preferred. To me, this was a fun & different way to set up a dish & I liked the way it worked out.
Thoughts on the recipe: I absolutely loved the salad . The real standouts of the dish were the two homemade salad dressings. The french dressing had a nice balance of vinegar from the white wine vinegar and sweetness from the ketchup. The ranch dressing beat out the bottled stuff by a mile. What really made the ranch dressing special was the use of fresh herbs. The parsley was a nice touch, while the dill brought a really nice flavor to the dish. Many times bottled salad dressings contain lots of high fructose along with ingredients you can't even name. Don't believe me, go look at the back of your salad dressings now. These homemade salad dressings took less then 10 minutes to make combined, and provided so much flavor. Make these dressings, and you'll never want the bottled stuff again.
The way I set up the salad & veggies.
Ranch & French Dressings that were
much better then the bottled stuff.
It's like I was a real chef.
sour cream, and parsley.
Now onto the dessert: In my head I had an awesome idea to make homemade miniature donuts tossed in cinnamon sugar. However, that idea didn't translate well when executed. First off, I couldn't figure out what consistency the donut dough should have been so I ended up making two batches with varying amounts of flour. Let's just say that my experience with frying food is very low (aka I have none) so I also played around with the oil temperature. This lead to the donuts being undercooked but golden brown or overcooked and overly browned. Also, they weren't looking like the mini donuts I had pictured in my head. Basically they were fried pieces of overcooked dough. When you completely doused them in cinnamon sugar they didn't taste half bad, but it was not the awesome birthday dessert I was going for. In the future, I'll make these successfully and share the triumph with all my readers.
Thanks for taking the time to read this post & to check out my blog. I'll make sure to keep on blogging more consistently, and hope you enjoy reading about my experiences in the kitchen. But most importantly I want to wish another happy birthday to my Mom who is a faithful reader of this blog. Happy Birthday!
See ya all later!
No comments:
Post a Comment