Wedge Salad with Homemade Bleu Cheese Dressing

My husband and I went out to a nice restaurant last week to celebrate 12 years of marriage.  Oh what a great time we have had.  Many ups and downs but 4 kids later we are still very much in love.  

Back to the salad, I noticed at this restaurant that they had a wedge salad on the menu for $9.

Seriously!

It's a piece of iceberg lettuce sprinkled with a few toppings.  I am not paying 9 buck for that.  But of course I had to come home and make myself one.

I wanted to know what was so special about a wedge salad.  We rarely eat iceberg lettuce, my husband thinks it is quite revolting, but I had to give it a try.  

After searching several blogs I found this recipe with homemade bleu cheese dressing.  I do not like bleu cheese dressing but that's what the restaurant served it with so of course I had to do it too.

Oh my.

I think I love iceberg lettuce, at least if I can eat it like this.

And I think I like bleu cheese dressing--I know gross, but after this it's true.

My husband does too actually--this was amazing.  I'm sure what made it good was the bacon and dressing but I wow, the combination was amazing.

You might be skeptical like me but this is a must.  I seriously ate this for dinner one night, nothing else, it was that fabulous!

Wedge Salad with Homemade Bleu Cheese Dressing

(click here for printable version)

Dressing:

3 ounces blue cheese or blue cheese crumbles

3 Tbsp. buttermilk

3 Tbsp. sour cream

2 Tbsp. mayonnaise

2 tsp. white wine vinegar

1/4 tsp. sugar

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1.  To make dressing, in a small bowl, mash blue cheese and buttermilk together with a fork until mixture resembles large-curd cottage cheese. Stir in sour cream, mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, and garlic until well blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2.  Recipe makes 6- 2 tablespoon servings.  Whole milk may be used in place of buttermilk for a milder flavor but don't use anything thinner than that. Dressing may be refrigerated in an air-tight container for up to two weeks. 

Salad:

1 head of iceberg lettuce

6 slices bacon, cooked and chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1.  Cut lettuce into wedges.  One head will be enough for 4 - 6 nice size salads.  Top lettuce with tomatoes and bacon.  Spoon dressing over top and top with additional blue cheese crumbles, if desired.  Serve immediately.  Enjoy!

Source:  33 Shades of Green

Cafe Rio Dressing

Okay so you all know I live in Idaho...and I love it!

Even after traveling other places I am always so excited to come back to Idaho (if you've never been you are sure missing out I promise!).  

One thing I always notice when I come back is a lot of my fellow Idahoans don't drive the speed limit.  I get a little upset following them because I am a speed limit kind of girl.  It's especially bad after I come back from driving in Seattle where no one ever does the speed limit, in fact is there a speed limit in Seattle Jenny (just kidding I know there is)? I coast along with traffic and it's great.  I never get upset with anyone driving too slow there!

Anyway...so I'm getting off topic...but one part of living in a fairly small town (hey we almost doubled our population in the last 10 years--that's exciting) is that we don't have a lot of restaurants to choose from.

About a year ago Cafe Rio came to town.  Oh man you should of seen the lines.  I'm not kidding!  For days the line would got out the doors and you would have to wait quite a while to get your food BUT that was totally worth it because we got a new restaurant in town.  So exciting!!!

I have to admit though, I had never eaten at Cafe Rio before. After one dinner I was hooked, at least to the Pork Salad.  I never have anything else there.  I always say I am going to branch out and nope when it's time to order I get...yep..you guessed it, the Pork Salad.  Part of the reason is because I love the dressing.

So after trying several recipes, this is my favorite so far.  It is excellent on salad and excellent on tacos--beef or chicken. We love it at our house, hope you will too.

Cafe Rio Dressing

(click here for printable version)

1 packet regular Hidden Valley Ranch mix (not BUTTERMILK)

1 c. mayonnaise

1 c. buttermilk

2 tomatillos, remove husk, diced

1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro, washed and chopped

1 clove garlic

juice of 1 lime

1 jalepeno (if you like it spicy leave the seeds in, other wise remove the seeds)

Mix all ingredients together in the blender until smooth.  Refrigerate until ready to use, we'll thick as it gets colder.  Enjoy!

Source: Favorite Family Recipes

Sharing this with: Alli-n-Son, Choochmagooz, Whipperberry, Tidy Mom, Paisley Passions, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Be Different Act Normal, Quit Eating Out.

Homemade Ranch Dressing

We are major ranch fans at our house.  Everything has to be dipped in ranch (especially for my 3 year old) and we go through a large bottle every couple weeks, sometimes more depending on how many times we have pizza (sick! none for me--but my husband grew up dipping his pizza in ranch and now my kids have picked up on it).  I decided to start making my own and maybe save a few bucks.  This one is a mixture of lots of recipes all over the internet.  I just put what sounded and went for it.  The kids loved it and hopefully you will too.

2 c. mayo (the real stuff)

1 1/2 c. buttermilk

1/2 c. sour cream

2 t. parsley

2 t. kosher salt

1 t. cracked black pepper

1 t. garlic salt

1 t. onion salt

1.  Whisk all ingredients together until smooth.  Refrigerate several hours before serving.  Store in airtight container in fridge.