Luckily their habits haven’t worn off on me, though – I don’t buy any pre-made dressings. I prefer to concoct my own or just go with some high-quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar. That way I know exactly what I’m eating.

Sometimes, I put yoghourt and/or herbs, oinions, garlic, mustard… depends on my mood… Be creative

But I’m picky about dressing — I don’t want anything that reminds me even slightly of mayonnaise, and most commercial Italian-type dressings have an odd chemical tang I can’t quite place other than as characteristic of that class of almost-food products.

For me, 2 parts red wine vinegar, 1 part (or less) light oil (olive, usually), and whatever else I feel like and is handy. I esp. like to add chopped-fine other perhaps wasted bits of vegetables from the rest of the salad, a sort of hair-of-the-dog approach. (I like tomato pulp and celery seeds, for instance.)

If they’re around, I might toss in any (though probably not all ) of the following:

Fresh-chopped garlic
Cilantro
Anchovy, if there’s a jar open already
Shredded cheese
Lots of black pepper
Tobasco
Cilantro
Pinch of [dill / mustard / curry]
minced red onion, or carrot, or pepper, or chive, or basil, or arugula …
Squirt of lemon or lime juice
Rough kosher salt
Salt-cured olive (chopped or at least pulled apart into small pieces)

Making a dressing doesn’t usually take more than 2 minutes, and even when it does, well worth it. Poured over even a one-ingredient salad (chopped cucumber, or a hand of romaine, or a plate of spinach or arugula), and I need nothing else. Leftovers, if any, can be used to marinate some chicken, or kept for a few days in the fridge.

timothy

I like that idea. I’ve bought dressings before because they looked like those I had tasted before and liked when they weren’t the ones I wanted. I’m sure I still have them too because I don’t want to throw good stuff away.

Ultimately, five dressings stored this way takes up no more space than two, since you couldn’t reach anything in the back of the top shelf anyway. Normally the tray comes and goes from fridge to the table with everything on it – eliminating the need to re-shove miscellaneous bottles back into place.

Now where she ever found little plastic trays exactly the size of her fridge I’ll never know.

This is pretty timely, because I just cleaned out my pantry. I have my aunt’s antipasto from Christmas ’07 and ’06. I am going to eat this week, so I have lots of room for ’08.