The Masters: A Gamble and A Recipe

Now that we are in the clear, I have to tell you about a crazy gamble we took this week.

Rewind back to August. We were newly, newly pregnant and were one day away from telling our family members. My brother-in-law told Ian that he'd just scored Masters tickets and he wanted them to go together. Ian was SO EXCITED. I knew the tournament would be some time around the new baby's arrival, but when he said April 4th, just two days before my due date, I silently panicked. Of course I wanted Ian to have this awesome opportunity, but there was a definite chance we could be in the hospital!

So, many months later, we've just been playing it by ear, and things were looking promising on Sunday evening for Ian to head down that way. The course is about 2.5 hours away from our home. My mom came up and spent the night and all day Monday with me and Camille. Cell phones are STRICTLY prohibited at the tournament (if you're caught with one, you are banned for life from the tournament -- yes, literally) but they had phone tents where Ian called me every single hour to check in, from 7am until 3pm. Our worst case scenario would that I would go into a quick labor right after we hung up after a check-in, and then that would put him 3.5 hours away from me. But hallelujah! - didn't happen!

The guys had an awesome time together and Ian brought me a pretty sweet shirt from the tournament. So, all's well that ends well, but we definitely took a gamble on this one!

Now, speaking of The Masters tournament -- here's a blog post I shared last year about one of our favorite salads. If you or the man in your life are a big Masters fan, you should definitely plan on making this easy salad that is a Masters staple!

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In college, a sorority sister of mine from Augusta, GA, turned me on to the copycat version of the infamous salad served at the (now closed) Green Jacket Restaurant, which was directly across from the Augusta National, home of the Masters Tournament.

A quick online search for the Green Jacket Salad recipe turns up a few different versions, but here's the one I use.

Green Jacket Salad

1 bag Italian mix salad

Green onion, chopped
Shredded parmesan cheese
Croutons

Dressing: 

2-3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons seasoning salt
2 teaspoons Accent
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon fresh parsley


I like to start by whisking together the dressing ingredients in the bottom of the bowl, then just toss in the lettuce, parmesan cheese, onions and croutons about 20 minutes before serving. This gives it time for the croutons to get just a little soft which is really tasty in this salad.

One of my first questions to my girlfriend was "What in the world is Accent?" The little canister claims to "wake up food flavor" and, to be quite honest, I don't know if I'd miss it if I left it out of the dressing. But at this point, I'm scared to -- I follow the recipe, including the Accent. 

We enjoyed that salad this weekend along with some little pimiento cheese and egg salad finger sandwiches -- a staple of the Augusta National course. I had a chance to visit the tournament back when I was in college and it was such a fun experience!