Restaurant Redo

The Columbia's 1905 Salad

My version of the 1905 Salad

Why I love it: An explosion of crisp lettuce, strips of ham and swiss cheese and tomatoes in a light and lemony dressing. And at home, I can make it without the olives, which I usually pick out. It’s my favorite salad in the world - I crave this, although my nearest Columbia is eight hours away in Celebration, Florida.

Prep time: 15 minutes.

Pots and pans: One blender. A bowl for mixing it all together. A cutting board.

Steps and snafus: The key is in the dressing of this salad. Directions to emulsify confused me, so I threw all the ingredients in the blender. The result was better than my previous attempts but still resulted in too much oil and too much lemon juice.

How much I ate: Half a bowl of salad. Unlike at the restaurant, I just got tired of it and thought the salad was too oily.

Who wins: The Columbia - there’s still some secret to this salad that I haven’t figured out.

The recipe:

Salad ingredients

½ head iceberg lettuce
2 ripe tomatoes, cut in eighths
½ cup Swiss cheese, cut in julienne strips
½ cup ham, cut in julienne strips (or turkey or shrimp)
¼ cup green Spanish olives, pitted
2 teaspoons grated Romano cheese

Dressing ingredients

1/8 cup white wine vinegar
½ cup extra-virgin Spanish olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon oregano
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions

Toss together all salad ingredients in a bowl, except Romano Cheese.

Mix garlic, oregano, and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Beat until smooth with a wire whisk. Add olive oil, gradually beating to form an emulsion. Stir in vinegar and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

Add dressing to salad and toss well. Add Romano Cheese and toss one more time. Serves 4.

Going out to eat is our vice. My husband, Andy, and I love the sound of a hostess’ greeting, the rustle of a menu, the clinking of glasses, the explanation of daily specials by our waiter. For breakfast, lunch or dinner, the idea of having someone take our order, make our meal, deliver it hot (or cold) to our table and clean is up is worth every penny we spend on the meal.

But that’s the problem. Pennies are tight these days, and with a 3-year-old in tow, restaurant dining has become impossible at times. Now we sometimes dread the “what’s for dinner” question that we ask each other because we would rather hop in the car and go to one of our local favorites.

So here’s our experiment: Can we fulfill our cravings for certain dishes from our favorite restaurants at home?

While we haven’t completely stopped going out to eat, we are going to tackle some of those appetizers, soups, salads, entrees and desserts in our own kitchen in Watkinsville, Ga.

Along the way, we’ll note how much time, pots and pans and snafus come our way, and of course, if we’ve prevailed over our restaurant favorites.