My sister Kassandra spent last week in New York, attending the Tonys and taking class at Steps. Still raving over The Drowsy Chaperone (the musical awarded five Tonys set in the Roaring Twenties), she returned to Atlanta yesterday, in the middle of a bridal shower I hosted with my mother for a friend I’ve known since we pulled on silver tap shoes at age five. The bride is a bit like a 1920s heroine herself —fabulous red hair, all heart, pluckily certain of her rosy future. And in the tradition of happily ending musicals, she soon marries a wonderful guy who, I think, knows exactly how lucky he is.

I chose angel food for the requisite shower cake, and made a blackberry/raspberry sauce that also worked this morning over Belgian waffles for my father. Later today I’ll fry green tomatoes and top them with leftover green goddess dressing, another 1920s revival, and really a versatile sauce. For the shower, I pieced leaves of butter lettuce onto a tray, shredded roasted chicken onto each, then spooned dressing on top.

The dressing relies on mayonnaise, which I like to make in the food processor: one egg, one tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 tsp mustard, 1/4 tsp Worchestire, salt, pepper, (I add one chopped garlic clove, so this is really an aioli) processed for fifteen seconds. Add one cup of canola oil in a steady stream while processing until desired consistency (about one minute).

For tea sandwiches, I spread the mayonnaise on one side of split focaccia and sun-dried tomato pesto on the other, and piled either mozzarella and prosciutto or rocket, roasted red peppers, and seared flank steak in between.

My Flickr shower set has more images; Kassandra also has some excellent ones of the bride in her Flickr set.

To make green goddess dressing, gather up available green herbs and process with mayonnaise, sour cream or Greek yogurt, and buttermilk. I’ve seen some odd variations on the green goddess, including avocado; my recipe concentrates the allium genus and improves upon overnight refrigeration.

Green Goddess Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream

1/2 cup shaken buttermilk

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 scallions or 2 spring garlic bulbs or 1 young leek (white and green parts)

*Process for half a minute. Thin with additional buttermilk as necessary. Season.

1. Ben:
   June 19th, 2006 at 3:51 pm

   Looks delicious, Kristen. I’m glad everything went well. Can’t wait to hear more!

2. Chris:
   August 14th, 2007 at 7:45 pm

   Yeah! I love the Green Goddess. Really fastish. :D

   x

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Posted Sunday, June 18th, 2006, 11:24 am | Filed in Food. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.