home made

This post takes self-reliance in a different direction than a previous post on self reliance and sustainability.  This is dealing with a few more of my favorite things, self reliance, and of course, food!

During our jaunts to the store, we have the option of buying basically whatever we could need, with varying degrees of processing done to our product.  We can buy chicken whole, or broken down into different parts, such as breasts, thighs and drumsticks.  This happens not only with chicken, but with just about everything else in the super market.  You can find goods going from a minimal amount of processing done by others, to a maximum, like salad dressing.  These goods are typically loaded with things you cant pronounce, that emulsify, disperse, preserve  Today, I’m going to talk about how you can ditch all the add-ons and preservatives left in processed goods and make the stuff yourself.  Today I will be making salad dressing.

Ingredients required:

• Olive Oil – You can use any type of oil, but this is what I typically use.
• Vinegar/Lemon Juice
• Salt & Pepper
• Added herb(s) for taste.

Optional Ingredients

• Shallots/Onions/Scallions
• Dijon Mustard
• Soy Sauce
• Garlic -Easy on this champ, especially if you want to talk to people at dinner

I also keep an empty dressing bottle on hand for serving and storing the dressing.

This is just for your basic vinaigrette, but once you master the basics, you can start adding fruits or other spices.  Ill go over where and how to add fruit later in the post.

Now that we know what we know what we need, how do we use it? It is much easier than you imagined.

1. Find medium sized bowl, mix in 3 parts oil and 1 part vinegar or lemon juice
2. Add in salt, pepper, and whatever herb you pick (tarragon works great)
3. Whisk away.

That is all you need to do to have your home-made dressing ready for dinner in no time!

If you are looking to add some optional items listed in above, add in the liquids (dijon/soy) with the oil and vinegar, and if you use onions/scallions/shallots and/or garlic, add those in the second step.  Keep in mind that you wont need much of any of the optional ingredients to bring out their flavor.

If you would like to add fruit to the mix, just take the ingredients in the blender, and toss in your choice of fruit.  Any type of berries work great, as do apricots.

Enjoy your first foray into the home-made foods world, and I hope you will come back for more!

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