{"id":1746,"date":"2011-01-16T18:56:37","date_gmt":"2011-01-17T01:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/?p=1746"},"modified":"2013-04-06T20:21:04","modified_gmt":"2013-04-07T02:21:04","slug":"basic-creamy-salad-dressing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/basic-creamy-salad-dressing\/","title":{"rendered":"Basic Creamy Salad Dressing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I have three<\/strong> foundational ideas for managing my food preparation:\u00a0 1) stock basic staples, 2) keep food simple most of the time, and 3) make things from scratch.\u00a0 This\u00a0 has frequently lead to creative alternatives to buying pre-mixed products.\u00a0 An added plus is that I have a much better idea of what is in my food.<\/p>\n

Over the years<\/strong> I have experimented with salad dressing recipes, but have been frustrated with everything from taste to still ending up with multiple jars of flavors in the fridge.\u00a0 In the end, it was our short time in residence in Taiwan<\/a> that helped me over the hump of coming up with a basic salad dressing.\u00a0 I was extremely limited in what ingredients were available to me that I recognized.\u00a0 Greens were popular over there, but not salads in the sense that Americans are generally familiar with.\u00a0 There was also the issue of limited storage space living in a 5th floor apartment, not to mention that in the higher humidity everything, even what was in the refrigerator, spoiled more quickly.<\/p>\n

The recipe<\/strong> we came up with was so satisfactory that we have used it ever since, completely preferring it to prepared salad dressings.\u00a0 The proportions are approximate, because I never measure when I am making it.\u00a0 The ingredients are:<\/p>\n

1 part real mayonnaise to about<\/p>\n

3 parts PLAIN yogurt (homemade or Nancy’s are what I use)<\/p>\n

a couple or more tablespoons of red wine vinegar (I am thinking of experimenting with other flavored vinegars)<\/p>\n

about 1\/2\u00a0 teaspoon of salt per 4 cups of total salad dressing<\/p>\n

possibly 1\/4 teaspoon pepper, same comparison as for salt<\/p>\n

garlic, granulated, 1\/4 teaspoon?, optional<\/p>\n

herbs, such as basil, optional<\/p>\n

Use a wire whip<\/strong> to mix all of this.\u00a0 Remember, you can always add more of things like vinegar and salt to bring out flavor, but you can’t take it out.\u00a0 The salad dressing can be personalized by having cheeses, such as feta or bleu, available among the salad makings.\u00a0 If anyone needs to add pickle relish or ketchup for their dressing, they can do it in another little bowl for their portion size.<\/p>\n

Put any<\/strong> left-overs in a container with a lid, then into the refridgerator.\u00a0 A mason jar with the Ball white plastic lids<\/a> works well.\u00a0 I find labeling and dating containers of food very useful for kitchen management, but also things tend to get eaten, not forgotten, if people know what they are.\u00a0 The dressing seems to store well, but we have a large family of salad eaters, so it’s not usually around for more than a month.<\/p>\n

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I have three foundational ideas for managing my food preparation:\u00a0 1) stock basic staples, 2) keep food simple most of the time, and 3) make things from scratch.\u00a0 This\u00a0 has frequently lead to creative alternatives to buying pre-mixed products.\u00a0 An added plus is that I have a much better idea of what is in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19],"tags":[70],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}