This is such a simple dressing to make and a kitchen mainstay in our home. If you can make your own buttermilk (I’ve been trying my hand at one from Cultures for Health ) it’s even better as you can make it organic and with whole milk! Sometimes I mix this up with a few leaves of basil thrown in, but it’s a pretty classic dressing that everyone loves; it makes a gorgeous green dressing perfect for your favorite crunchy salad greens or slaw (or, ahem, spicy grilled chicken wings . . . it is football season, after all!)
Oct 042010
May 192010
It is late spring and our mornings start with the windows and doors open and breezes flowing through at breakfast, and end with dinner al fresco at night. I love it. And as the weather warms I instinctively begin craving whatever is fresh, crunchy and green. One of our favorite salads is good old Caesar. We eat it plain on the side of a grilled steak, or as a meal with roasted or grilled chicken, salmon or shrimp on top. I love the sharp pungency of the garlic mixed with the saltiness of the anchovies and parmesan and crisp lettuce leaves. There’s nothing like it. I’ve been making this dressing for a few years and just love it. It is inspired by a recipe Ina Garten originally made for a [... To read more, click here ...]
Feb 022010
It’s been a long, cold winter, and I’m ready for some fresh, crisp spring vegetables. We’ve been enjoying several salads and slaws with winter greens and vegetables recently, but wanted to organize and share some of my favorite salad dressing recipes before spring gardens burst forth. Though salad dressing is not the most exciting topic, good ones can be hard to find . . . and a good one really makes eating salads enjoyable! I hope this inspires you to make your own and enjoy your garden’s bounty! Pesto Ranch seen to the left 1 part mayonnaise 2 parts sour cream or yogurt A good sized dollop of pesto salt and pepper to taste This is one of my favorite, easy recipes. My son will eat veggies galore if he [... To read more, click here ...]
Feb 012010
Remember this post? When I declared that I’d no longer be buying mayonnaise? Ever again. Well, I haven’t. And I’ve been delving into all manner of mayonnaise recipes online and in books, in search of the perfect one ever since. I’ve resurrected curdled mayonnaise’s more times than I’d like to admit (I’ve included my favorite remedy, below) and I’ve experimented with only egg yolks, egg yolks plus one egg, lemon juice vs. cider vinegar, by hand vs. blender vs. food processor vs. hand blender. I studied Child, and Ruhlman. And over the past few months I’ve really figured out the flavors and technique that I prefer. And it surprised me. And then I decided to make it lacto-fermented, so that it would last in the fridge for six to eight weeks, just [... To read more, click here ...]
There is something beautiful that happens when you cook a bunch of onions, low and slow with butter. They become sweet, almost smoky with a depth of flavor that you’d never believe could come from the sharp, acrid taste of fresh onion. I love caramelized onions. As the base for French Onion Soup, piled on top of leftover roast beef in a sandwich or strewn over a pizza (maybe with some sliced granny smith apples and fontina cheese? How good does that sound? Yum.) But the thing is, to make really good caramelized onions, you have to be prepared to babysit a skillet of onions for 40 – 60 minutes or longer. You have to make sure not to get antsy and turn up the heat. You always, always end [... To read more, click here ...]
I am the last person you would think who would be making yogurt. I never thought I would. I thought that, unless you ran a dairy farm, yogurt was just one of those things that you just had to buy. Like butter. Or cheese. Something that normal people just didn’t make. I was almost proud of the fact that I bought it. Though I had friends who had made yogurt in the past, their recipes sounded complicated. Some involved specialty yogurt-making equipment. Others involved thermometers, special processes for keeping the milk a specific temperature like putting it in a thermal-lined ice chest or ovens that could be kept at really low temperatures (which mine never could). I just didn’t have the space or the time or the equipment, I said. [... To read more, click here ...]
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