Homemade Salad Dressing

I am quite partial to Hidden Valley and Newman's Own...

In high school I had a friend who always "craved salads", this baffled me. How could anyone possibly crave a salad? A hamburger maybe, but a salad.. no.

It only took me 8 years to realize why she constantly craved salads. She was making her own salad dressing! I tried this one time, out of boredom as usual, to find that it turned out much better than your average iceberg lettuce-ranch dressing-bacon bit-tomato salad.

If you're fresh out of gluten, fat, and carbohydrate loaded pre-bottled dressings, why not make your own?

Salad Dressing:

3 parts extra virgin olive oil

1 part white wine vinegar

juice of 1/2 lime

1 tbsp habanero spicy mustard

1 tbsp honey

1 tsp cumin

Lots of s&p

And here we go:

Mix it all together in a glass jar or old salad dressing bottle. This will last in the refrigerator for a few days. Be sure to let the salad dressing return to room temperature before dressing your salad or else the consistency will be off.

Incase you want to make the salad too...

3 handfuls spinach

1/2 avocado

2 tbsp goat cheese

1 vine ripe tomato

I'd like to dedicate this post to Sarah B., who was that weirdo in high school who always craved salads. Little did I know, she was on to something.

Thanks love!

Sarah

Pretty Food

Do you ever have days where you just want to make pretty food?

You know the days I'm talking about.

Your hair is out of control.

You had to wear your "stand by" outfit because you forgot to do laundry.

You realize your nails are chipped just as you sit down at the office.

On days like these I think:

well damnit, if I can't look half way decent today, at least my food can.

Challenge: Find the most colorful items in your pantry and put them together in a pretty way.

This. Never. Fails.

If you have these items:

one long, skinny egg plant

one herb goat cheese roll, any variety

one jar of roasted red peppers in oil

one jar of marinated artichoke

salt

olive oil

You can easily make this dish:

Slice eggplant lengthwise into thin, 1/3 inch pieces, discarding the end pieces. Place in colander a few at a time, sprinkling with salt as you layer. Allow to sit for 10 minutes, then rinse pieces and pat dry.

In a large skillet, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil and cook one to two minutes on each side. Add oil to skillet as you add in new pieces. Remove pieces one by one and place onto a plate covered with paper towels. Spoon goat cheese onto big side of the eggplant, and roll up to small side, placing the seam side down.

Place rolls into a baking dish and bake until warm, at 350° about 10 minutes.

Chop 1 roasted red pepper and 1/2 jar artichoke coarsely to serve with the eggplant and goat cheese rolls.

These are really great, portable appetizers. If you want to take to a party, you can just roll up and place in a tupperware container. When you get to the party, bake for 5 to 10 minutes until just warm and top with the roasted red pepper and artichoke.

Sarah