Who doesn’t love a Cobb Salad?  Remember those days when you’d go out to dinner, and were so hungry but didn’t want to be seen ordering the (perish-the-thought!!) cheeseburger with fries, (which is what you really wanted), so you “stuck with a salad”, and not just any salad, but the Cobb salad, complete with loads of bacon, cheese, chicken, a smidge of iceberg lettuce and extra blue-cheese dressing? Yeah, uh, … that.  A little heavy.  But these days, we have a bit more perspective now, don’t we?  Leave it to Martha Stewart, a proper domestic goddess, to lighten it up for us, yet keep the deliciosity (is that a word?) intact. And leave it to Teresa and me to give it a try!  This salad is not only gorgeous, it’s delicious and satisfying!

This salad is not only stunningly beautiful but it’s so easy to prepare.  Serve it up with some sliced bread and it’s a great summertime meal.  One of the best parts of this recipe is that the shrimp is actually cooked in the reserved bacon fat.  Can you imagine?  Sounds so decadent, but totally worth all of that added flavor!

Now we are never ones to shy away from flavor, so as usual, we amped up the dressing a bit, too.  We like our vinaigrette to be ZESTY, so instead of the classic vinegar-to-oil ratio of 1:2, we like to make it 1:1, so the amount of vinegar and oil are about the same.  So if it’s a bit much, you can always add a bit more olive oil.

And just try to resist a bite of salty bacon, mixed with avocado, tomatoes, shrimp and those lovely boiled eggs. We like them to be not-too-hard boiled, so we bring them to a boil, then cover and remove from the heat to set for just about 8 minutes. Then pour them into ice-water until they cool.   Peel and slice for maximum taste and beauty.

You’ll never miss that Cobb Salad from days gone by. And really, if you want that cheeseburger more than this salad, go right ahead.  You don’t know what you’re missing! Enjoy!