Dressings
Cascading Kitchen Notes
A bowl of slaw (1 recipe), right before serving add: 1 cup of crumbled blue cheese,
1 cup of freshly toasted, sliced almonds or other nut or seed,
1/2 cup craisins soaked in sherry vinegar and dressing.
Making your own dressings may sound like "one more thing to do", but
critically look at the cost of bottled dressings, then consider the ingredients, usually a LOT of sugar and compare that to honest, fresh flavors where you control the contents. A nice dressing will enable you to "pull" a basic food one way or another to add interest and pizazz to what otherwise might be a tad boring.
One recipe of slaw tossed with your homemade Caesar dressing,
chopped chicken and a slice of whole wheat toast on the side.
Use the Asian Dressing with 1 recipe of slaw tossed with: equal amount of leftover whole wheat spaghetti or
cooked Asian noodle, 1.5 cups freshly toasted sliced almonds, 2-3 cups of chopped chicken, 1-2 bunches of green onions sliced lengthwise. Immediately before serving toss with the Asian dressing until well coated. Don’t drown the salad.

Amish Dressing
From Friends of the Farm:
- 1/3 C Tarragon Vinegar OR 1/2 C Rice Vinegar
- 1/4 onion, hand grated
- 1/2 tsp. curry powder
- 1 tsp. dry mustard
- 1/4 tsp. salt (optional)
- 2/3 C. warm honey
Blend well in blender while slowly adding 1--1 1/3 C Olive Oil
Soaked Craisins or Dried Blueberries in Sherry Vinegar (keeps for weeks)
In a pint jar add: 1/2 cup craisins, cover with sherry vinegar.
Add them to chicken salad, braised greens or toss in salads.
Dressing for blue cheese slaw:
(double the recipe-it keeps)
- 9 Tbs vinegar from soaked craisins
- 3 Tbs Dijon mustard
- 1.5 Tbs honey
- 3/4 cup light oil-grape seed or almond oil
- Add a bit of black pepper and maybe a pinch of sea salt, right before serving
Asian salad dressing
(makes 1 quart-keeps for many weeks)
- 1 C light flavored oil (grape seed or almond)
- 3 Tbs of toasted sesame seed oil
- 9 Tbs Seasoned Rice Vinegar
- 2 Tbs Black Pepper (yes, folks, that's Tablespoons)
- 1tsp salt & 2 Tbs sugar
- 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds –the warm seeds help dissolve the sugar
shake together in a quart jar and ADD 1/4 C toasted sesame seeds. Stir the hot sesame seeds into the dressing. (The hot seeds help dissolve the sugar)
Ginger Sesame Dressing or Marinade
- 1/4 cup peeled/shredded fresh ginger
- 4 Tbs rice vinegar
- 2 Tbs soy sauce
- 3 minced garlic cloves
- 1-2 tsp garlic chili sauce ( Found in the Asian section of the grocery store...or make your own!)
- 1/2 cup peanut oil
- 1/4 cup toasted sesame seed oil Keep refrigerated in a glass jar. A little goes a long way.
Try tossing it over tender Asian greens or spinach. We like to add fresh orange sections, red onion and mushrooms.
