Brown Derby Salad and Hollywood Studios

The whole time we were at Disneyworld, I kept calling Hollywood Studios "MGM." I wasn't sure why, except that maybe I associated Hollywood with the big movie studios? The charges would roll their eyes and correct me everytime. "Moooooooom!" Kids always drag out the vowels when they are exasperated, don't they? I stubbornly insisted on calling it MGM. (Read: Once I get the wrong idea in my mind, it's stuck there for eternity. So let it be written, so let it be done.) The Quiet Man suprised me with a copy of the Disneyworld cookbook last week. It's full of recipes from all around the park-including MGM! Read that again: M.G.M, baby! Not Hollywood Studios, my adolescent aborrigines, but MGM! At least there is a method to my madness. Apparently it is out of vogue to call it MGM now, but once upon a time, whenever this cookbook was published, the place was called MGM. Disney might be able to change names, but I'm keeping to the original. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. So...while we were at MGM (not Hollywood)...we rode the Tower of Terror (scream for me) and the Great Movie Ride and Toy Story Mania.

West built his own lightsaber to become an official Jedi Knight of the highest order.

And we ate the famous Cobb Salad at the Brown Derby. (William Holden wasn't there, in case any I love Lucy fans were wondering.) There's a reason this salad is so famous. It's superb. This is the original Cobb salad that has spawned so many variations and imitations. The original is the best. The dressing is fantastic and the recipe below makes a hefty batch. It's a little taste of MGM (that's right, MGM-ya wanna make something of it?) all the way from Hollywood Studios.

Hollywood Brown Derby Cobb Salad

Estimated Cost: about $10 for for 6 servings

Notes: To save money, buy a bagged mix of spring lettuces and a head of romaine or iceberg for crunch. Chicken can easily be substituted for the turkey. 1/2 head iceberg lettuce

1/2 bunch watercress

1 small bunch chicory

1/2 head romaine lettuce

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 1/2 cups cooked turkey breast, diced

1 avocado

3 eggs, hard-cooked

1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled

6 strips crisp bacon, crumbled

2 tbsp. chopped chives (I used green onions)

Chop all greens very fine (reserve some watercress for presentation) and arrange in salad bowl. Cut tomatoes in half, remove seeds and dice une. Also dice the turkey, avocado and eggs. Arrange the above ingredients, as well as the blue cheese and bacon crumbles, in straight lines across the greens. Arrange the chives diagonally across the above lines. Present the salad at the table, then toss with the dressing (below) and place on chilled plates with a watercress garnish. Serves six.

BROWN DERBY OLD-FASHIONED FRENCH DRESSING

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp. sugar

1 1/4 tbsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 cup red-wine vinegar

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 tbsp. ground black pepper

1/2 tsp. English mustard (I used dijon)

1/2 cup olive oil

1 1/2 cups salad oil

Blend together all ingredients, except oils, then add olive and salad oils and mix well. Blend well again before mixing with salad. This makes a big batch; store in the fridge and use within 3 weeks.

Next Up:

Disney's Carribean Resort with Black Bean Soup and Johnnycakes