Heavenly salad dressing!

Last week (in 2008) I googled strawberries and oranges (since I have a bunch of both right now) and a wonderful salad dressing came up (the salad recipe itself has the strawberries and oranges).
Below is what was written, and far below is what I did - and I bet my version is better.
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons EVOO
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
Whisk and drizzle over romaine lettuce/strawberries/cut up orange and sprinkle with real parmesan cheese. Sliced red onion optional.
What I did:
1 tablespoons lemon juice (I ran out, drat!!)
1 tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons EVOO
NO Dijon mustard (I thought I had some in the fridge, it was horseradish mustard - so, nothing at all)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
So slightly less lemon and no dijon. Used fork to whisk.
My salad was below:
Arugula
an entire avocado, sliced up.
a good hunk of leftover rotisserie chicken, also diced
I had some strawberries in the fridge that had thawed and I had poured sugar on them so they were nice and juicy.
I mostly just used the strawberries, was not liberal with pouring the juice on the salad. Just enough to taste.
Pour all of salad dressing on salad, use chicken pieces to mop up remainder still in bowl.
HEAVEN, JUST HEAVEN. Especially as I got nearer the end and the bits and blobs of the strawberry juice mixed with the dressing itself.

I actually cooked something new tonight... Cranberry Chicken

Since my last posting, I have literally made ONE new thing - and that was chicken soup from a picked over rotisserie chicken. That was in June I think.

In August, for the heck of it, I actually tallied up what I spent on either groceries or restaurants in July. It totaled 775 bucks. Keep in mind I'm a single girl! I thought, whoa, I better start paying attention.

A month went by... and for the heck of it I totaled up my August grocery and restaurant expenses. Over 1100 bucks. Yes, over 1100 bucks. That's just insane - especially since I can't say I eat THAT well. (part of that was restaurant week with friends - who always know where to eat).

Gadzooks. OK, I'm going to really turn over a new leaf here. That is just ridiculous. If I were a gourmet cook, or could whip up a dinner party from scratch, I could completely understand 1100 bucks in one month. The problem too is that I buy WAY too much in one outing and if they are fresh veg, they invariable go bad before I'm able to get to them, and if they are "staples" I either forget about them in the pantry, or, I plain and simply don't use them all up. I'm not someone to buy ONE can of tomato paste, I have to buy 5. And maybe crack open one - or maybe not.




So tonight I pulled out my Savannah cookbook and made Cranberry Chicken. Very Easy.


It calls for

• Boneless chicken breast (6 pounds - I had 1.5 pounds)


• 1 oz pkg onion soup mix (I used about half that)


• 1 8 oz bottle of Catalina dressing - I used half a cup


• 1 16 oz can of cranberries - I used half a cup.

Mix up the ingredients, sans chicken of course.

Heat oven to 350, arrange chicken in a casserole dish (no top), pour mixture over it, pop in oven for one hour.

MMMMMMMM IT'S GOOD!

My amounts were clearly off - probably a little dressing and onion soup heavy - but it was VERY good and the chicken was really moist.

And would you look at that - I actually have lunch for tomorrow and either dinner again, or lunch the next day. I had an arugula, bufala mozz, and pine nut salad. With really good olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I do think though part of the reason I waste so much food is because I am a really really bad leftover eater. I get bored easily.

Pssst - while it was cooking, I soaked in the tub and had a good German Weissbier. Shhhhh.