The Westover Garden Club Cobb Salad - A Recipe for Mastering Covered Dish Anxiety.
Westover Garden Club Cobb Salad - Bacon, Chicken, Cucumbers, Goat Cheese and Strawberries on Mixed Greens
There are those times when you should be sure, but you’re not quite…Cooking for new people, in a new club, in a new town - it’s the trifecta of covered dish anxiety. Even the seasoned hostess could get a case of the jitters.
Today our garden club, invited everyone to bring a salad to share for the April meeting. Picture a gorgeous home, fragrant blooms scenting the front garden, tasteful antiques and a beautifully arranged dining table filled with Suffolk’s best salads. Oh, and a centerpiece made by the hostess that most brides would envy.
Lovely ladies, most of whom have known each other for years, if not decades, gathered around to visit with one another, waiting for lunch to be served before the meeting. I pictured all of this ahead of time and was full of indecision over what kind of salad to bring. It was, after all, my first time cooking for Westover.
These are certainly inconsequential matters in this day and time, but still, I wanted it to be perfect. Strawberries are in season, so I decided to work around that. All fruit? No, there should be protein. A quick trip to the market for chicken, bacon, a large package of fresh greens and a bottle of fancy balsamic dressing, and the Westover Cobb was born.
It is a well known fact that a salad always tastes better when someone else makes it, so I had that working in my favor. The colors were beautiful and it had all the elements of a successful salad: something sweet, something tart, cheese and a the final ingredient, bacon, to make each bite crunchy.
A note on the chicken - I’m a huge fan of sous vide and cooked the chicken breasts, which I later diced, in fresh lemon juice, really good olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh thyme. Everything was tossed into a freezer zip lock bag and Joule worked its magic. This formula makes perfect chicken every single time!
The chicken and bacon were prepared the night before, so all I had to do this morning was choose a dish and assemble. Some have called me a hoarder of hostessy things. Thanks to my “collection” I pulled the perfect bowl for the salad and a container in which to present the dressing (leaving in question the fact that I actually might have made it).
Native plants and flowers collected for an Early Colonial style arrangement.
To my delight, the members were thoughtful, their company was great and after lunch, the meeting gave way to a tender discussion of this year’s charitable gifts.
Westover Garden Club is a wonderful organization, rich in history and strong in talented women who embrace horticulture, our community, and celebrate the treasures from our garden.
Flower arranging is a cornerstone of every garden club. There is much to learn about arranging and thankfully, members are generous in sharing their knowledge. An experienced member is paired with a new member to teach techniques for a particular arrangement style - they’re called Buddy Arrangements. My buddy was Troy. We gathered native flowers and plants from our gardens (and maybe a few from a neighbor or two) and met up to make them into something pretty. I enjoyed getting to know Troy and learned a lot as we worked through the design. When we were done, Troy delivered the exhibit for judging.
Everything came together today and it was great. Good food, lovely ladies and our Buddy Arrangement got a blue ribbon. And, the Westover Cobb Salad - it was gone.
Westover Garden Club Cobb Salad
Ingredients
1 Large container of mixed greens
1 Seedless cucumber
1 32 oz. Package strawberries
12 oz. Goat cheese
1 Package of applewood smoked bacon
4 Skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Salt
Pepper
6 Sprigs fresh thyme
6 tbsp. Good olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
Directions
Marinate chicken in lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme for up to 24 hours if roasting. If preparing by sous vide, combine the chicken with the marinade and follow the directions on the app. Cool and rough chop.
Cook the bacon on a sheet pan in a 350 degree oven until crispy enough to crumble.
Quarter strawberries.
Peel and half cucumber lengthwise. Cut into 1/4” pieces.
Crumble goat cheese.
In a large bowl, layer salad greens to cover. Add each ingredient in a row until the greens are no longer visible. Serve balsamic dressing on the side.
Serves 20 Garden Club Ladies as a side.
Enjoy!
