Dressing Up

What makes an ordinary bowl of tossed greens and chopped veggies a stand out? The dressing.Any dressing from a simple vinaigrette to a creamy ranch or tangy Thousand Island can add zip and verve even to just shredded iceberg lettuce and tomato wedges.Homemade dressings are not only yummy they're a snap to make.Even kids could create fancy ones for the evening salad. Sometimes the simplest is the best.Many salad devotees opt for the great Italian food writer,Marcella Hazan's recipe for a good side salad! Toss greens in olive oil, add a few drops of vinegar and then shake in fresh ground pepper and sea salt.This dressing works well if you have a strong main meal such as pasta or a roasted meat.The salad is secondary in this case.However with these hot June days, salads are becoming the main meal. Yes, you can still have an oil and vinegar base but try adding aromatic herbs such as oregano and rosemary.This is a basic Italian dressing recipe and can even be used on heroes too.A fruit infused vinaigrette is always a nice change of pace.Buy fresh picked blue berries or strawberries and bruise then( crush them with the back of a spoon)'Add to a white wine vinegar for fourteen days. If you want you can make several different fruit flavors, including peach and blackberry along with raspberry.Try these with salads having grilled chicken or turkey as the main ingredient. Creamy dressings are a bonus.They not only give a certain oomph to ordinary salads but they are chock full of flavor.One of the easiest and tastiest is French.This is just a simple mix of mayo and ketchup.There are recipes that nix the mayonnaise and sub in corn oil and white vinegar.Many prefer the first recipe .For added zing put in sweet relish or even chopped gherkins to create Thousand Island dressing.Sub in chopped pickles for the gherkins or sweet relish and you have Russian dressing.This is not only good in a salad but also slathered on a Reuben sandwich as well. Ranch dressing is popular right now and it's an easy one. Mix buttermilk with mayo and add garlic , onion powder and chives.Caesar salad is always a treat and the dressing is an easy to whip up.It"s mayo ,anchovy paste,Parmesian cheese and lemon juice mixed together and then minced garlic is thrown in.If you're making a creamy dressing ,then think big salad.Any of these dressing goes well with a chef salad laden with all sorts of meat. You can also add grilled shrimp, salmon to these as well as croutons and variety of veggies. warm weather calls for a salad.Jazz it up with a home made dressing.Any one is easy to whip up and dress a variety of meats,greens and veggies.