I make each salad dressing as needed which is reflected in ingredient amounts. You can double or triple the recipe as required. These amounts suit the lunch time needs of two adults and two children.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp organic natural peanut butter*
3 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp hot sauce
fresh ground black pepper to taste
splash lemon juice to taste
splash of balsamic vinegar to taste

Combine all ingredients and whisk until well combined. Can be made ahead and refrigerated but should be brought to room temperature before serving and rewhisked.

*organic natural is my preference but any peanut butter you prefer will also work. Remember that processed peanut butters have a lot of added salt which will be reflected in the taste of the dressing.

1st course:

mixed greens with creamy vinaigrette

2nd course:

potato dill soup or broccoli potato soup

main:

cornish game hens with almond rice stuffing

spicy sweet potatoes

pan roasted cherry tomatoes

dessert:

layered carrot cake with cream cheese icing

What do you say?  Sound edible?

my latest obsession is one that my mother, were she still alive, would have keeled over from the shock of. i am in near constant thought on all things culinary. i watch my cooking shows, i add to my recipe card collection on a near daily basis and almost drool at the thought of taking fifteen minutes to plan my weekly menu. given my abhorration of all things kitcheny as a child this comes as something of an anomoly. i certainly do not claim to be an impressive cook and i likely never will be but what i lack in perfection i more than make up for in mountains of enthusiasm.

i bought a mortar and pestle, for heaven’s sake. to be used in the crushing of things by hand. such as and not limited to herbs and garlic and nuts and whathaveyou.

there you have it. i would linger but i cannot. you see, my children are away and the recipe box beckons. i am making a two week menu. dan has requested home made ice cream sannies with hot fudge sauce for sunday dessert. i will grant him this wish. the people i love crave the foods that i make them.

mother? did i just hear you gasp?

last weekend dan went out of town for a friend’s wedding and when he got back i made him Ina Garten’s grown-up mac and cheese
with her creamy vinaigrette salad from the same episode. For dessert, also from that episode, the lemon curd tart which was quite good. i recommend all of these recipes whole heartedly and am happy we’ve finally found a mac and cheese worth making twice.

also, the lemon curd is nice on it’s own to spread on bread, toast, muffins or whatever. i made some again later in the week to make mini tarts for a party we were going to and used the leftover on bread for the kids today. really nice.

The carrots were for Madison’s sake. Not that the rest of us hated them.

The salad comes from here where I left a rare comment saying um, I want that salad right now. I bought the arugula today with the idea we’d have it in a few days with another meal. Right as I put it in the cart I knew there’d be no waiting. I needed that salad asap.

It did not disappoint. Alice did it with balsamic and olive oil. I was out of balsamic (as was the store) so we used red wine vinegar. Very good but next time I will try the balsamic. I’m not a huge fan of that particular vinegar but I have a feeling it will be excellent here.

After dinner I was seen eating the salad remains from Jacob’s plate. He adores blue cheese so it’s weird there was any left. I’ve got a crapload more arugula so we’ll be seeing this sucker again later in the week. I know a lot of you are fearful of the blue cheese, but seriously, try it. This salad. You just crumble the bc up little teeny weeny if it makes you feel better.

I heart arugula, walnut and blue cheese salad. I heart it so much.