I used to blog about recipes that I had tried out from other food blogs, and I’m going to do that again this year and call it “Cooking from Blogs.”  All you food bloggers out there are fonts of culinary inspiration.

In addition to the Iceberg Lettuce Wedges with blue cheese dressing (via Smitten Kitchen), I recently tried King Ranch Casserole from Ezra Poundcake.  Sorry about the poor picture, but if you head over to Rebecca’s, her fabulous photos may inspire you to give this casserole a try. I had heard of this strange beast a couple of years ago, and last year bought a can of Ro-Tel to have on hand should I ever feel inspired to venture into the land of retro American gourmet cooking.  I had never heard of Ro-Tel until a couple years ago, but apparently it is quite the pantry staple in some parts of the country.  In the end, when I threw this together I didn’t have to buy a thing, just used up things  in the pantry and refrigerator.  I love it when I can do that!  You can find Ro-Tel’s original recipe, here.

I’m batting .1000 at this point.  The wedges were a hit, the King Ranch chicken casserole (to which I added some peas for color and extra veggies) is on the repeat list.  I used up different cheeses that I had laying about, and I substituted high fiber, whole wheat tortillas in the casserole, instead of the traditional corn.  Master Chow enjoyed the change from the usual chicken dishes.  Thanks, Rebecca, for passing along an easy recipe that my family enjoyed!  Recipe after the jump . . . .

continue reading "Cooking from Blogs – Ezra Poundcake’s King Ranch Chicken Casserole"

Master Chow and I don’t buy iceberg lettuce, opting for greens with more nutritional bang for the buck.  But about five or six years ago, I ordered and iceberg lettuce wedge with blue cheese dressing in a restaurant, and became a fan.  I love the dish, but rarely order it, and had never made.  I decided to remedy that on New Year’s Day, and Master Chow thoroughly enjoyed it, too.  Apparently, it went well with the prime rib and popovers that I made for dinner (more on those in future posts).

I turned to Deb’s recipe over at Smitten Kitchen.  I used some gorgonzola cheese that I had on hand, and substituted . . . are you ready? . . . soy bacon for the regular stuff.  Master Chow, aka He Who Loves Pork, was delightfully surprised at the result, and announced that the soy bacon worked well in the dish.  Hooray!  I also didn’t have any chives on hand, so I thinly sliced some scallion greens.

Some thoughts:  I will definitely be making this dressing again, and will try it on our usual fare of romaine lettuce.  If you like a thick dressing, this is not the one to try without adjustments – this is a thin, flavorful dressing with a lot of depth to it.