Flavor of the Week {copy cats}

I LOVE Food Network Magazine! I get so excited when it comes in the mail! The 1st thing I do when I get it is flip to the "copy cat" recipe (usually before I even walk away from the mailbox!). Each issue they publish a recipe that replicates popular chain restaurant specialties, and living in a small town where our dining out options are limited, I live for this recipe each issue! The day I saw Olive Garden's salad dressing and bread sticks, I screamed and RAN to my kitchen to start cooking! Turns out it's a pretty darn close imitation and I make it semi-regularly since all the ingredients are things I keep in the house at all times and the nearest OG is almost 2 hours from us! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

And to go with the salad tonight, we had another "copy cat" recipe for Red Lobster's biscuits! These were also very similar to the real thing, and I will be making these as often as I can go to the gym and run them off ;-) Again with this one, aside from the Crisco, it's all things I keep (and I think most people keep) in the pantry.

Olive Garden "copy cat" salad dressing:

1/4 cup EVOO

2 TBSP white wine vinegar

3 TBSP Miracle Whip

1 TBSP lemon juice

2 TBSP grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

1-2 TBSP water (start with one and add another if you want is thinner)

Mix all the ingredients in a blender and TA DA! You have a super yummy homemade dressing to pour over your favorite salad!

Red Lobster "copy cat" cheddar biscuits:

For the biscuits:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 TBSP + 2 teaspoons baking powder

2 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 TBSP vegetable shortening at room temperature

4 TBSP col unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces

8 oz  grated yellow cheddar cheese

3/4 cups milk

(next time I will add some garlic powder to the dough so it has more flavor, plus we really like garlic in my house!)

For the garlic butter:

6 TBSP unsalted butter

3 cloves garlic minced

1 teaspoon fresh chopped parsley

Step 1:

place rack in top 1/3 of your oven and preheat to 425. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step 2:

Pulse the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a food processor. Add the shortening and pulse until combined. Add the butter; pulse until the butter is in pea size pieces. Add the cheese and pulse to combine. Pour in the milk and pulse just until the mixture is moistened and forms a shaggy dough. (I'm not really sure what shaggy dough is, so I just pulsed until it combined) Turn out onto a clean surface and gently knead until the dough comes together. Do not overwork or the biscuits will be tough.

Step 3:

Scoop 1/4 cup portions onto the cookie sheet 2 inches apart and bake about 15-20 minutes, until golden.

Step 4:

While the biscuits are baking, make the garlic butter by melting the butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat then add the garlic; cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the parsley. Brush the biscuits with the garlic butter and serve warm. (I actually did 2 "coats" for more flavor!)

Making all this stuff from scratch was a bit much to tackle in one night, next time, I think I'll stick to one from scratch recipe at a time! However, the whole meal was absolutely DELICIOUS! ENJOY!!!