Dressing

Allo. It's been awhile. I've been gone in Connecticut for the summer and am now back on schedule and blogging. It's funny that summer, with its abundance of crops and plants, pales in comparison to the fall season for me. However, regardless of the season, I'm always scouring cookbooks and the Internet for vinaigrette recipes. I remember coming across my first recipe in a Good Housekeeping Cookbook my stepmother had gotten for my new (and first) apartment in Virginia. At the time, I was mind blown the fact that you could make what seemed to be "fundamental items" within the comfort of your own home. I was truly astounded that one could make their own mustard, ketchup, blue cheese dressing and, of course, vinaigrette using a series of ingredients form the grocery store. To me, it was like making your own Cheez-Its: these condiments seemed originally to be cooked up in a lab and no mere mortal could replicate them. As you can imagine, my journey with food has vastly expanded the options I can create within my own kitchen. From jams and syrups to sausage and pork rillettes, I am constantly driven to perfect new dishes in the kitchen, a motivation which duly applies to the creation of vinaigrettes.

While I have discovered (and posted) a few key vinaigrette recipes before, this new one comes from The Taste of Country Cooking a biographic cookbooks of sorts written by Edna Lewis. The recipe follows:

1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil