When Life Hands You Lemons, Make Salad Dressing

Here in Texas, right now, it is HOT. Very, very HOT. And dry. We are experiencing a dreadful drought right now that has turned our usually lush and green little 25 acres into a veritable dust bowl. It seems that all the rain has gone to Tennessee, and Arkansas and all those other poor states that are now paddling for their lives.

So, Summer has come to us very early, and Summer always turns into "salad time" at my house. Salads are so cool and refreshing! The crunch of the wet, cool lettuce, and the light feel of it in the tummy, YUM!

One thing we love with our salads is homemade dressing. It has become very easy to just grab a dressing off the supermarket shelf. Those dressings have so many "alien ingredients" in them: preservatives to keep them fresh, gums to keep them thick, and Heaven Forbid!, the SCOURGE of the Salad Dressing World: Fat Free Dressings!! **shudder**

Here, Dear Reader, are some great, easy homemade salad dressings, using the delicious, nutritious, amazing Lemon! Lemon, so refreshing, Lemon, so tasty and tangy and cooling! So give these recipes a try, and explore the world of homemade salad dressings. They are so easy, and so much better for you, that you will not go back to the store brands! Now, for some Salad Dressing Feng Shui

Classic Lemon Vinaigrette

• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
• 1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 tsp. grated lemon zest
• 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1/2 Tsp. salt
• 1/2 Tsp. fresh or dried thyme
• 3/4 c. olive oil

Put it all in a jar and shake it like a Polaroid picture!

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Here is a "blast from the past" recipe that doesn't show up on too many tables these days, but we love it!

Green Goddess Dressing

• 1 c. mayonnaise
• 1/4 c. finely chopped fresh parsley
• 2 T. finely snipped chives
• 3 anchovy fillets, minced
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp tarragon vinegar, or use rice wine vinegar and a small amt. of fresh minced tarragon
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• dash salt or to taste

This is best whirled up in a blender, in my opinion, and is great with a seafood type salad

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Inevitably, in the South, one MUST have Buttermilk Ranch Dressing. It's in the rules. I don't know why. But it does go so well with any salad and it's a given with take-out pizza...

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

• 1 c. buttermilk (full fat is great, but harder to find these days)
• 1/2 c. mayonnaise
• 2 Tsp. lemon juice
• 1/8 Tsp. paprika
• 1/2 Tsp. dry mustard
• 2 Tbsp. finely chopped Italian parsley
• dash salt, or to taste
• 1 finely chopped green onion

Combine the ingredients and shake, shake, shake - shake, shake, shake - shake your dressing, shake your dressing!!!

ps: if you add some blue cheese, then this dressing morphs, and become another piece of heaven!

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All these great dressings keep very well in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks max, but I have the feeling that you won't keep them that long!!

Homemade salad dressings really only require some imagination. The beauty of homemade is the knowledge that you are dressing your wonderful, God-given salad greens with flavors that also come from nature, and not from the chemists' lab!

So, stay cool, my friends!

Now, I am thinking in Limoncello, but that is for another day!!

Namaste, y'all!!!