Central Market’s Caesar salad dressing, Fried mozzarella

Elise and I went to my parents’ house this past weekend. Elise and I woke up on Saturday and went outside to put the soft top on the Jeep only to realize that we were missing the first part we needed. We left the hard top off and went for a drive in Bellville. Then Mom and Dad went for a drive.

We picked dewberries and blackberries from the roadside fences later that afternoon.

Elise and I came home late on Sunday.

In other news… Elise really wanted tomato basil (bah-zil) soup the other day so I made her some marinara sauce. By the way, I threw (bah-zil) in there so you would know how I like to pronounce basil. But really, I made marinara sauce. I’m really questioning the Barefoot Contessa’s recipes. It seems like most of the stuff that I cook from that book turn out quite ho-hum. I made some hummus a la the BC and it tasted like pasty ocean water. This tomato basil soup that I made tasted like bland marinara.

So I went to Central Market last night to buy mozzarella cheese. I wanted to make fried mozzarella sticks to go with my marinara-sauce-that-was-supposed-to-be-soup. While I was there, I picked up a small container of Central Market’s Caesar salad dressing and a head of romaine. I walked over to the chef’s deli with a big, friendly smile on my face and politely asked if I could have the recipe for their Caesar dressing.

“No”.

I slowly placed my basket on the ground beside me, I then laid flat on my stomach and kicked my feet repeatedly while I cried. I screamed, I turned near purple and snot began streaming from my nose. People stared and one lady actually stopped and started patting me on the back. I cooed for a moment but then remembered that Central Market wasn’t giving up their Caesar salad dressing recipe.

Okay, I didn’t actually cry. I said something polite, walked away and immediately began the mocking: “nyah nyah nyah we don’t give out our recipes nyah nyah nyah”

Now I’m on a mission. I want that recipe. If anyone has (or has “resources”) Central Market’s Caesar salad dressing recipe, let me know. The stuff is just too expensive. See, you have to weigh the dressing at the salad bar. Any weighstation salad bar can’t make money off the weight of lettuce alone. Those scales are really sensitive so any heavy object will, of course, cost significantly more in a relative sort of way. Or something.

Anyway, I figure I’ll wait a while. If nobody contacts me regarding the secret recipe, I might just go back to Central Market and demand to know the ingredients for dietary purposes. I’m a Central Market Caesar salad dressing junky. That’s fun to say. “I’m a Central Market Caesar salad dressing junky”. Now sing it, kind of to the tune of “I wish I were an Oscar Meyer wiener”. Okay, now stop - you’re acting stupid.

I went home and made fried mozzarella sticks for Elise and myself. The trick to making good fried mozz sticks is to dredge them in flour and throw them in the freezer for half an hour or so. Take them out, dredge in well-beaten eggs and then in bread crumbs (mixed with herbs). Fry at no hotter than 375 degrees for a few seconds.

Elise and I watched American Idol and ate our salads and fried cheese. Sometime today I imagine I will begin some sort of constipated, bloated, garlic and anchovy halitosis induced fit from salad dressing withdrawels.