Cooking with Aunt Flo

My Great Aunt Flo (Florence) has a hoarding problem.  She LOVES recipes, and has them all over the front of her house.  They cover the dining room table, the coffee table in the living room, the card table in the living room (where my Grandma used to do puzzles), and the coffee table in the family room.  She sorts them and looks at them and worries about them.  It is her overwhelming passion and hobby at this stage of her life, when she doesn’t have my Grandma to look after anymore.  It has taken me awhile to figure out that she loves them and wants to keep them.  I had a thought that she was trying to organize them so she can give them away (I thought that because she said it, not because I made it up).  The last two times I was there, I asked her if I could take a few, and she held them to her heart, and she said, “I like having them here!”  So.

So, the recipes will be there until the day she dies.  I told her that I like to cook and I will happily take them when the time comes, but truthfully they will go in the dumpster.  However, last time I was there I was able to get 1 recipe out of her hands, because it looked delicious to me, and I wanted to make it.  She said OK, as long as I promise to bring it back to her.

Did I mention that Aunt Flo does not cook any longer?  Hasn’t cooked anything more complicated than toast or coffee or maybe oatmeal, in years.  Getting old is fun, isn’t it?  And please do not suggest that I cook with her at her house.  It isn’t going to happen.  She is far too controlling and slow and methodical for that to happen.  It took her 1/2 hour once to ‘make’ Maya a bowl of ice cream.  No toppings.  Just ice cream in a bowl with a spoon.  I could, perhaps, bring all of the ingredients ready to go, and assemble them at her house.  Perhaps the next time I go visit, I will do that…

Anyway, here is the recipe that got me going.  It is listed as Healthyish, which I guess makes sense, because there are a lot of healthy ingredients, but I kind of think the bacon and the fact that you use some of rendered bacon fat in the dressing (which makes it DELICIOUS) also cuts down on the healthyness of it.  Oh well.  There’s lots of vitamins, good fats, protein, fiber, and color mixed in there.  Omit the bacon to your own peril.

The recipe is from Bon Apetit magazine (link below the recipe), and I copied it straight from their website, including their comments and notes.  The only changes I made were:

• I do not like frisée, so I used romaine hearts.
• I used 4 tomatoes, because we had 4 very ripe and beautiful tomatoes from the farmers market, and I love tomatoes.
• I used 5 eggs instead of 6, and it was plenty.
• I roasted 2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts in the toaster oven, and used those instead of a rotisserie chicken, because rotisserie chicken from the grocery store is always dry and the quality is somewhat questionable in my book.
• I used 2 avocados instead of 1, because why would you use 1 if you could use 2?

Give it a try if you can get your hands on some good tomatoes…I don’t think I would bother with crappy ones.

Chicken Cobb Salad

Step one: Crisp bacon. Step two: Turn bacon fat into an addictive warm vinaigrette. Boom. Cooks’ Notes: ?We love how the warm dressing clings to tangles of frisée in this Cobb salad recipe, but any crunchy lettuce like romaine or endive would be great. Choose tomatoes that feel heavy for their size. As long as they’re ripe, any type will work. And streaming oil into the already-fatty bacon mixture might cause the vinaigrette to break, but don’t fret! It’ll still be totally delicious.
Ingredients

• 6 large eggs, room temperature
• 4 oz. bacon (about 4 slices)
• 2 Tbsp. sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. sugar
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
• 8 cups coarsely torn frisée
• ½ rotisserie chicken, meat pulled from bones and shredded (about 2 cups)
• 2 large beefsteak and/or heirloom tomatoes, cut into wedges
• 1 ripe avocado, quartered

Directions

• Bring 8 cups water to a boil in a large saucepan. Gently lower eggs into water and boil 7 minutes for medium-set yolks. Immediately transfer eggs to a medium bowl of ice water and chill until cold, about 5 minutes. Peel eggs under running water; set aside.
• Place bacon in a dry medium skillet and set over medium-low heat. Cook, turning occasionally, until brown and crisp, 8–10 minutes. Transfer to paper towels and let drain.
• Add vinegar, mustard, sugar, and 1 Tbsp. water to rendered fat in skillet and whisk until smooth and emulsified. Gradually stream in oil, whisking constantly until a thick dressing forms; season with salt and pepper.
• Arrange frisée on a large platter and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle about half of warm dressing over. Cut eggs in half and arrange over frisée along with shredded chicken, tomato wedges, avocado, and bacon (break up bacon if desired). Season salad with salt and pepper and drizzle remaining dressing over.

Bon Apetit Chicken Cobb Salad