Freshly Made Dressing

Penzey's Spices is my favorite place to stock up on spice essentials. Penzey's has top of line spices common and uncommon, whole or ground, as well as a plethora of mixes. These dressing mixes are a flavorful and much more frugal (and sustainable) option to store bought bottled dressings. And if you eat salads with any frequency a fresh dressing is the perfect pairing. These spice mixes are also helpful because you can tweak them to your liking and easily substitute ingredients.

The Creamy Peppercorn is hand-mixed from: Tellicherry cracked black pepper, coarse salt, garlic, sugar, thyme, parsley. I prepare mine a little different than suggested...

• 1 tablespoon of spice mixed with 2 tablespoons of water, let the spices re hydrate for 5 minutes
• Mix in 1/2 cup of plain greek yogurt and 1/2 cup of mayonnaise
• Mix in 2 tablespoons of white vinegar

I also broke down the calories, for science. This recipe will make about 8 servings at 45 calories and 4g of fat. Compared to the store bought dressings I usually get, I'd say this is actually healthier. Now to make something to put it on...

Our lettuce has steadily been growing. I planted them from seed in a sort of careless manner, and the result was them growing on top of one another. I've been thinning them every so often and feeding them to the chickens, so not a total waste. But now the leaves are big enough for human consumption, yum!

I marinated and grilled some butterflied chicken breasts with plenty for leftovers. For the salad I sliced cucumbers and the chicken, then sprinkled some canned corn on top. (Those are some pickled brussel sprouts on the side.) 

Now bring on the dressing, so fresh! Even Chris enjoys a giant green salad covered in this.