Vinaigrette (p. 572), Roquefort or blue cheese vinaigrette (p. 573), Honey mustard vinaigrette (p. 573), and Sherry vinaigrette (p. 573)

I always forget how much I like a nice vinaigrette. For some reason, I never make it for myself, although my Aunt Charlotte makes the best vinaigrette I've ever tasted (and would be more than happy to show me the tricks). I've had excellent experinces with TJOC's dressing recipes--every one of them has been dramatically better than store-bought and I'm becoming well known in my family for my blue cheese dressing, which is based on the TJOC.

I was hungry and figured I could do something with TJOC's Vinaigrette (p. 572).

The recipe was pretty simple--I crushed some garlic through my garlic press and added salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, shallot, and a little prepared mustard.

I then slowly whisked in olive oil:

The vinagerette had a great flavor but was a little heavy on the olive oil in my opinion. I like my vinaigrettes more acidic. In the future I would probably make it with balsamic vinegar rather than red wine but it was nice to get the vinaigrette-making technique down.

And it led me to a delicious dinner:

I love artichoke hearts drenched in vinaigrette, preferentially with some feta cheese on the top. Yum! And I pretend it's healthy!

The next day I took the leftover vinaigrette and turned it into Roquefort or blue cheese vinaigrette (p. 573) by adding some crumbled blue cheese. I always use Maytag blue cheese because it's my favorite--and because I'm an Iowan and feel like I'm supporting the state when I use it. Maytag is mild (for a blue cheese) but flavorful--I would challenge anyone who says they don't like blue cheese to try blue cheese dressing made with Maytag. I've converted many naysayers with it.

I then went on a vinaigrette making bender. I made Honey mustard vinaigrette (p. 573). I mixed lemon juice, honey, coarse-grain mustard, and my version of white wine vinegar. I say my version, because I didn't actually have white wine vinegar, so I just mixed red wine vinegar and rice vinegar.

I whisked olive oil into the mixture:

And had a beautiful dressing! It was good, if you like honey mustard. Sweet and mustardy. I've always thought that I didn't like mustard because I don't like yellow mustard but I seem to be okay with Dijon. Random fact for the day--prepared mustard is yellow because of turmeric.

I finished out my day with Sherry vinaigrette (p. 573). I mixed sherry vinegar (I just counted my types of vinegar and I have white vinegar [essentially for cleaning], balsamic, red wine, rice, apple cider, and sherry--it seems like a lot of choices), Dijon mustard, shallot, thyme, and red pepper flakes:

And then whisked in the olive oil:

It was really good but, like all the others, heavy on the olive oil. I liked the flavor but I think that sherry vinegar is one of my least favorite types--it's a strange flavor.

Honestly, I eat a lot more salad when I actually have dressing and salads in the fridge and I could really stand to eat more veggies (I love them but I forget about them), especially since I'm allergic to an increasingly large variety of fruit.

Has anyone tried any of the TJOC dressings I haven't made yet? I would take requests.