Salad dressing

You know how some people have a specific dish that they become known for? I have two that are "mine". If it's a funeral, I make lemon squares. Almost every time, few exceptions. For pot lucks, I generally make a salad. A basic green salad, with this dressing.

Maple Dressing
2 1/2 oz cider vinegar
3 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 clove garlic (minced or crushed)
3 oz olive oil
salt and pepper

whisk together and serve with a basic green salad. I like spinach, romaine and chopped peppers. This has gotten rave reviews at a few meals where it has been served.

breakfast for supper!

While Joy finds bliss on the allrecipes.com website, I've been tinkering on my own.

Some days, supper just doesn't seem exciting. Breakfast sounds more exciting - that doesn't explain why breakfast sounds as dull as dishwater some days, but you can't win em' all.

Last night, I decided to make pancakes for the family. I took a basic pancake recipe (Betty Crocker cookbook if you must know), and jazzed it up. I doubled the recipe and tossed in 2 cups of old fashioned oats and a half cup of ground flax seed. Let sit for 15 minutes before proceeding to allow the grains to soak into the batter. After 15 or so minutes, I realized I would need to increase the milk. So I added more until it felt right. Not too sure how much, I'm just like that some days in the kitchen.

While making the pancakes, I pureed up some strawberries I had pulled out of the freezer earlier in the day to make a nice berry sauce. Then I mixed up about 3/4 of a cup of low fat ricotta cheese with some local honey (about 1 1/2 tbsp or so). Serve the pancakes with berry sauce and sweetened ricotta cheese, with syrup for those who like that too. They went over very, very well here indeed.

White Bean Minstrone

I don't actually make this with cannellini beans, I use a can of mixed beans. When I was first given this recipe, I couldn't find cannellini beans anywhere in our small town, and quickly gave up looking for such an 'exotic' ingredient. I have since learned that they are simply white kidney beans *blush*, but I enjoy the variety of beans in this soup too much to change now!

This soup can be cooked up in a hurry if everyone is starving and you're pressed for time! Serve with fresh bread or biscuits!!

1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
3/4 lbs potatoes, diced
1 small zucchini, diced
1 can (14.5 oz) tomatos with garlic & basil
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed
14 oz fat free chicken broth
3/4 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
pepper
parmesan cheese

Cook onion, celery, carrot in olive oil on med-high for 4 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients (except cheese) and 2 cups water. Cover and boil until potatos are done (about 10 minutes).

Serve with parmesan. Makes about 9 cups.

I usually use diced tomatos (fresh is awesome, but lots of extra chopping), and add a clove (or two) of garlic to the onion step, as well as dried or fresh basil. Yummy!