It has been a little cooler than normal around here, so all the fresh summer veggies I crave have been a bit delayed in making their usual appearance at my farmers market.

But that hasn’t stopped me from whipping up my favorite salad of all time: Cobb Salad inspired by the Hotel Bel-Air’s Cobb Salad in Los Angeles.

What’s not to love about this protein-packed totally indulgent salad? Eggs, avocados, tomatoes, roasted chicken, onion, bacon and blue cheese all in pretty little rows on top of mounds of crisp lettuce. Toss it with a little homemade herb vinaigrette and you’ve got a beautiful (and substantial) meal!

That’s a lot of ingredients, I know, but here’s an easy way to remember what to include:

EAT COBB

E is for egg… A is for Avocados… T is for tomatoes… ah, you get the picture.

Most recipes call for iceberg lettuce but I use romaine lettuce instead because that’s what they use at that fancy-do Hollywood hotel where I learned how to make perfect Cobb Salad!

My Dexas Kitchen Tools really helped pull this recipe together easily!

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Want more great salad ideas? Here are a few:

Crunchy Bacon and Broccoli Salad 

Old School Wedge Salad

Sriracha Potato Salad

We eat fresh broccoli all year, so I honestly didn’t know that it was a seasonal vegetable. Yep… fall to early spring, that’s when it’s at its peak.

I guess I thought that as long as the broccoli wasn’t yellow and limp, it was good to go.

No, no, no. There’s so much more to it.

Something to remember: even if you buy gorgeously green broccoli with tightly packed florets, if you overcook it you’ll loose all the nutrients. Lightly steam or microwave the broccoli until tender-crisp and you’ll preserve the cancer-fighting beta-carotene.

Here are 10 Tips for Buying Perfect Broccoli… at any time of year!

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And when you’re finished… it folds flat for storage. How’s that for efficiency?

Click here to order, or find them at Bed Bath & Beyond, Crate & Barrel, The Container Store, Williams-Sonoma, Macy’s Dillard’s and Sur la Table! Check out Dexas’ website.  They design some pretty cool kitchen tools and gadgets as well as specialty products that will really stimulate your culinary creativity (as well as help you eat healthier!). Oh… and they’ve got some pretty great pet products, too!  

Lilia writes: In your recipe for Pistachio Soup, you say the pistachios should be “shelled, peeled and chopped.” Well, I shelled them, but it took too long to peel them so I gave up and ate them. Is there an easier way?

One of my favorite food stories is when London’s Marks and Spencer department store began selling pistachios for first time in the early 1960’s. As pistachios were new to many customers,  M&S included instructions telling shoppers how to peel pistachios before eating. Many did not read the instructions.

There was a serious lack of instruction in my recipe… apologies. Removing the shell is easy (and seems obvious) compared to getting rid of the pistachio’s thin protective skin. This skin is edible, but it’s usually removed in recipes to make the dish look nicer.

Here’s how to remove the skin:
1. Shell the nuts and place in a bowl.
2. Boil two cups of water for every cup of pistachio.
3. Pour the boiling water over the nuts and let them stand 2 to 3 minutes. Drain.
4. Spoon the nuts onto the top half of a clean dishtowel laid out on a cutting board or counter.
5. Fold the bottom half of the dishtowel over the nuts and give them a good rub. The nut should slip right out of their skins.

I am always happy when I get comments that help make my recipes better. Thanks Lilia!