Foodie

This weekend when I was at home I got to chow down on some GREAT meals prepared by a fantastic chef.  My Mom.

She was raised in Louisiana and picked up all sorts of great recipes throughout her life that I have the benefit of learning. However, I am someone who HATES spending more than 20 minutes on a making a meal and having to do grocery store runs throughout the week to make sure I have all the right ingredients.  I prefer to hit the store 2x a month, picking up the necessities (milk, bread, cereal, pasta, frozen dinners), and then running there again in between if I ABSOLUTELY need something for a meal I am dying to have. Are you the same way, or am I just that lazy?

Getting back to my point, I love Caesar salads.  I especially love the Caesar salads my mom concocts when I go home.  This time however, Walt and I got in at 8:15 for a late dinner, and she didn't have the time to put one together. Sad.... right?

I wasn't going to visit home without getting a great Caesar salad in my belly, so I opted to make my own.  Turned out pretty great if I do say so myself, and the family loved it! Shocker! I ended up making it three times this weekend believe it or not.  One of the times being a trial period where I didn't coddle my egg and just threw the whole thing in the batch and ruined it. Oops.

I decided that BECAUSE  it was so delicious (not sure if it is very healthy, I'd assume not), that I'd share my steps with you.

Want to know how to make it?

You will need:

• Hearts of romaine lettuce (packaged or make fresh like I did)
• 3/4 cup of olive oil
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp of worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard (you can find this in the spice section in the grocery store)
• 1 clove of garlic crushed 
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (I freshly grated it above)
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 egg (yolk after coddling)
• Freshly ground pepper
• Anchovy paste (optional)
• Garlic Croutons

Now for the directions:

1. Break up the lettuce if did not buy packaged
2. Pour olive oil, red wine vinegar, dry mustard, worcestershire sauce, salt into a large salad bowl
3. Add crushed garlic clove and a squeeze lemon 1/2 (stick a fork in the center and squeeze to get the most juice - see above)
4. Coddle your egg (not cuddle like I initially thought), boil water and place egg in the water for 1-2 minutes.  Remove with a spoon and run under cold water. Break the egg and put yolk in a separate bowl to avoid dropping the yolk in the sink or egg shell in the salad (see above).  Add the yolk into the dressing bowl with other ingredients
5. Add anchovy paste if you want
6. Stir ingredients and add romaine lettuce.  
7. Add remaining ingredients (pepper, parmesan cheese, and garlic croutons)
8. EAT!!!