Wedge Salad

I love a wedge salad. They are simple and delicious. Ice burg salads were popular in the 1950s and 60s but have begun to resurface on menus. I had a similiar salad to this recipe at a resturant recently, which made me go home and recreate it. Mr. T also enjoys this type of salad because he thinks it is a manly way to eat a salad. I have made some "girly" salads in the past and he always has to comment on them. The conversation usually is as follows:
Mr. T -"Why did you go and ruin a perfectly good salad with those things?"
Me - "What things? The chopped pecans?"
Mr. T - "No, those other things. The oranges."
Me - "Oh, they are mandarin oranges. It's good, I promise"
Mr. T - "Num num num."

Ingredients:

Salad-
head of ice burg lettuce
4 strips of bacon
1 roma tomatoes
blue cheese dressing (see below)

Dressing-

1 c. mayonnaise

1/2 c. sour cream

1/4 c. milk

1 T. white vinegar

1/4 t. sugar

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. onion powder

1/4 t. garlic powder

1/4 t. dry mustard

1/4 t. pepper

1/4 t. Worcestershire sauce

5 oz. container crumbled blue cheese

So, lets start by making the blue cheese dressing. Begin by adding the milk, mayonnaise, and sour cream to a dish. I like to make the dressing in this pampered chef measuring cup because it has a lid. I don't use it because of the spout. This dressing is way to thick to actually pour. Any dish that you can seal would work great to make the dressing.

Mayonnaise is an emulsion. An emulsion is the mixture of two immiscible liquids. In the case of mayonnaise the immiscible liquids are oil and lemon juice or vinegar and water. To make an emulsion there must be an emulsifying agent, which acts to combine the two liquids. Egg yolk is the emulsifying agent in mayonnaise and has both an end similar in structure to oil and a water soluble end. When mayonnaise is made the oil is added to the vinegar and egg yolk. The mixture is then beat until the oil is broken into small spherical particles. These particles are surrounded by the egg yolk with the oil end facing the oil and the water soluble end facing outward.

Whisk ingredients together. This is the base to a creamy salad dressing. From here you could add in fresh herbs, seasonings, or heck a package of ranch mix and make it ranch dressing.

To the base of the dressing add the seasonings. This is an easy recipe to remember because everything is measuring to a 1/4t. Although it is not labeled on the picture, add one tablespoon of vinegar to the dressing as well.

Yummy! I am sure that this would taste great on a salad, but it is still missing one key ingredient. THE BLUE CHEESE!

Add in the entire package of blue cheese. I buy the crumbled blue cheese found near the deli in my grocery store. Does this picture look similar to the one before it? Because it is. I can't believe that I didn't get a picture adding the blue cheese in. Please excuse this HUGE mistake. It is actually killing me that I don't have it.

I could add in some chemistry about how blue cheese is made or what it really is, but I will spare you from it. I want you to actually try this recipe.

Place the dressing in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve your salad. A couple of hours would be best. I think the dressing becomes better over time so the longer you can store it before using it the better.

Now, to finish off the salad. Place four strips of bacon into a cold skillet. Placing the bacon in the skillet and then turning on the heat will keep the bacon from shriveling. Cook over medium heat.

The bacon could also be cooked in a broiler pan in the oven. I prefer that method but cannot find the top to my broiler pan.
While the bacon is cooking, turn your attention to the lettuce. The salad is called a wedge salad because we are going to cut the head of lettuce into just that, a wedge. I usually don't like ice burg lettuce for a salad by itself, it is very bland and boring. I tend to go for romaine or add spinach to a bag of ice burg lettuce. I vaguely remember hearing somewhere that there is no nutritional value to ice burg and that it is mainly water. Hope that isn't true or, well never mind a salad is a salad...

Don't worry about the brown spot, I will take care of it.

Before cutting the head of lettuce we need to remove the base. Start by banging the base of the head of lettuce on the chopping block. It feels good, trust me! Then rip the base out. This step feels good too! This is actually very easy and not as gruesome as it sounds. See, brown spot was taken care.

1/8 of a head of lettuce will be used as one serving for this salad. For the mathematically challenged. Take the head of lettuce and cut it in half. Take the first half of lettuce and cut that in half, now you have a 1/4. Finally, cut the 1/4 of a piece in half. There now you have 1/8 of a head of lettuce and I have a head ache. I knew there was a reason I didn't become a math teacher.

Deseed and dice the roma tomatoes.

Next it is time for the bacon. Look at those beautiful long strips of bacon.

Chop the bacon.

On a plate, place the wedge of ice burg lettuce topped with blue cheese dressing, bacon and tomatoes. This is a great salad to serve along side a steak and baked potato. Which is a perfect meal for a Sunday night.