This is my inaugural post for the new group Cook the Book Fridays. Many of the participants were part of French Fridays with Dorie over the course of nearly 5 years. That experience kept us cooking and blogging, and ultimately may be best known for the friendships created – both in person and virtually. We’ve kept in touch, and now our friend, and talented (& organized) blogging friend Katie of Prof Who Cooks, has created this latest offering. We will be cooking through My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz.
Our first recipe is Winter Salad. My version is really one of those annoying I made it, but not really because I changed all of the ingredients… Not a fan of endive – bitter not topping my list. And these days, well, I have my mom to think of when I’m cooking – ok, so romaine. Next, as usual, I didn’t read all of the recipe prior to shopping. I did not realize that Roquefort was a necessity. Gorgonzola. But I did add the tart apple, and used the Greek yogurt! I felt like I should get credit!
The salad ingredients are supposed to be cut in a particular way. Um, I didn’t really do that either. But the dressing is easy to put together, and tasted great. A bit thick, so I was a little concerned.
No need to worry however, the dressing did coat the greens and apple nicely.
And what goes better with some blue cheese than a bit of steak? It actually made a very nice meal with the combination of flavors. I even cooked the steak “French Style” on the stovetop (it was snowing that night, I think! no grilling).
I was so happy that I included the apple. It was such a great contrast to the light lettuce and the bold dressing. And certainly, I could see why the addition of a bitter greens element would have been tasty. Maybe another time. Of course, the recipe made a lot of dressing. But I think it will be a good accompanyment with other things. And I thought it might make a nice presentation to have small lettuce spears, and even some apple slices to just dip into the dressing. It’s quite thick and would hold up nicely.
This was a fun start to a new adventure. I hope that I can keep up with the group. I also love my Cottage Cooking Club as well, so I’ll have to find some balance (and then there’s my love of Mexican and Thai food – none in either of these books!). But it’s so worth it to get to spend a little time each week with friends. And many thanks to my blogging friends. Our goal was to stay connected. It seems we have another new way of doing just that!
dulceshome 
I will have to try this salad with apple next time. It was good with the endive (the dressing counteracted the bitter), but I think it would be great with the addition of apple. I’m glad you are cooking along!
Thanks for your kind words, Karen!! It’s fun to be cooking together again!
Sent from my iPhone
>
I love your version of Winter Salad, and that so many friendships (including ours) have endured beyond the end of FFWD. Here’s to new beginnings! I still have lots of extra (and thick) dressing leftover, and some romaine, so I might try it your way, if I don’t make Buffalo wings on Sunday.
Mm mm buffalo chicken salad with that dressing! (I’d still probably do the wings, haha!).
Sent from my iPhone
>
So much fun to cook together again, right?
It really is!!!
Sent from my iPhone
>
This looks so yummy and since we just spent a month in Central America I have been craving salads which I avoided on the trip. I will be making this tomorrow! Also I love David’s blog ! Thanks Candy!
Thanks Nilda! Great reason to crave a salad!! I’m sure you had an amazing time!
Sent from my iPhone
>
Your salad looks great Candy! I think its lovely that your cooking takes your mother into consideration. That is something that will warm your heart for years to come; I can’t begin to express how I miss my mother and what my memories mean to me. Thanks to Katie we are able to continue our cooking adventures! I look forward to seeing what we get up to!
Thanks Guyla! I’m looking forward to it too! Appreciate the kind words!!
I used Romaine, Candy, and didn’t apologize for it at all. Your variations and substitutions have always been darn good so no need for any sorries. In fact, with the added apple, this looked like the perfect salad with a steak. I also have an ample supply of leftover dressing but I am a blue cheese-lover. So I will make a variation or two this week and may even dip some apple slices into the dressing as it gets thicker. I had no problem with the thick dressing as I felt this salad could handle a thin blue cheese coating. I am so happy to be back cooking with you again and hope that we can manage this along with our once-a-month CCC. Thanks for helping Katie with this.
Mary, this is so fun. Though As you know, I put 4 or more boxes of cookbooks into storage and now I’ve bought two more!!! I guess that’s the price I pay for hanging out with my friends!!! I’m so looking forward to it!
You should get credit for using two of the ingredients! I subbed gorgonzola, as well. I didn’t have time to make it to the cheese store today, but the gorgonzola was great, especially with the pears I added. I’m so happy we’re going to be cooking through this book together. It’s like getting the band back together.
Endives are hard to come by over in my neck of the woods, so romaine and apples (or pears or green grapes) sound good too. Happy that we back together on another FF adventure! Thanks!
Right on, Candy! I tried the whole cutting the endive into batons thing and found it tiresome, so who cares if you just chopped the romaine? I didn’t have roquefort, either. 🙂 Ah well, so maybe we didn’t exactly make the recipe, but that’s the point…sort of…right? Thank you so much, Candy, for joining in!! I am so happy to visit your blog and cook some French food together.
I did not do endives either…they were quite sad looking in my grocery…I decided on a butter lettuce mix and it was perfect! I used pears and pecans to top it off, and loved the contrast of flavors with the blue cheese dressing. It is so great to be blogging along with my Dorista friends again. I’m hoping to get back into cooking with CCC too! I love so many of those veggie recipes!
Happy Friday, Candy!
So happy to be back cooking with you again! We had ours with steak as well (it was the perfect pairing, in my opinion).