Well, okay...I like salad, I hate salad dressing. There have been about three instances in my life when I truly enjoyed salad dressing. Two of those times were in Italy (I can still give you exact directions to one of the restaurants and tell you in detail what each course was, that's how amazing those meals were), the other time was at a close family friends restaurant in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. Oh, and there is a Chinese chicken salad dressing that I really like at a place here called the California Chicken Cafe. That makes four dressings in my 21+ years of life that I've enjoyed. Not great odds, I hate mayo and I hate vinegar, it's hard to win. I sometimes order salad when I go out to eat but I always get the strangest looks. "Chicken Caesar salad, hold the Caesar" isn't something most people would willingly pay for.
Anyway, the few dressings I've enjoyed have been olive oil and lemon juice based. I decided to try making my own at home. I just kind of made this up as I went and it could use some tweaking but I made do with what I had on hand.
Garlic Lemon Salad Dressing
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 clove of garlic (2 tsp if you're using pre-minced garlic like me)
a pinch of each salt and peper
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
I think in the future I'd use fresh lemon juice as opposed to the kind in the bottle, I just didn't have any lemons. I'd also add a little lemon zest (note to self: buy a microplane).
I caved on my not buying groceries goal and picked up a few things at Target last night. I just got some lettuce, cucumber, baby carrots, ground beef ($2.57/lb!!!), and bread. Essentials. For dinner tonight I put together a homemade bolognese sauce with garlic, ground beef, and my all time favorite pasta sauce from none other than Trader Joe's. I put it on the last of my penne pasta and I had a real meal!
You may have spotted the Pabst hiding in the corner of the first picture. I've never seen them in bottles in California before, apparently everyone else has, so I got excited and bought them. I love the inside of PBR caps, I want a full deck.
Meyer lemons are the best for salad dressing. Meyer lemon and olive oil, light on the herbs, maybe some cardamom if you like it, on a salad of baby spinach and mango and caramelized walnuts.
ReplyDeleteshould be pecans, not walnuts.
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