Cobb Salad - 5 stars

before i met tony, i had no idea there was such a thing as "cobb salad dressing." every restaurant i'd ever ordered it at served it with either vinaigrette, bleu cheese, or ranch. a few months after we started dating, tony suggested i make cobb salad with "REAL cobb dressing." i did some research, and i found a fantastic recipe for cobb salad dressing. mmmmm.

this is a simple dish to assemble - for the salad, i used green leaf this time. i normally use romaine, but i had just used it for caesar, and i wanted to have a good lettuce variety in the week. :-) i topped it with sections of crisp bacon, chunks of avocado, halved cherry tomatos, slices of hardboiled eggs, red onion slivers, and grilled chicken breast. tony's is on the left - i put a pile of gorgonzola crumbles in the center of his.

the dressing is super easy! i minced one shallot and whisked it together with 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard, three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and one tablespoon of sherry vinegar. in a separate measuring cup, i combined 1/3c walnut oil & 1/2c vegetable oil. i slowly whisked the oil mixture into the shallot/mustard/vinegar mixture, and seasoned it with some sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper. it has a dark tone from all the balsamic vinegar - see below. the dressing is thick and has a fantastic tang, and it tastes really decadent to me - it's the walnut oil that gives it that extra rich flavor. yum!