HONEY MUSTARD SALAD DRESSING

Tags

Bragg Organic, cider vinegar, Dijon Mustard, Grey Poupon, Hellmanns, Heritage Basket Studio, Honey, HONEY MUSTARD SALAD DRESSING, mayonaise, Salads

 

I will have to admit, there has been a learning curve to being Type 2 diabetic, even though due its popularity in my family genetics (on both sides) there seemed to be no escape for me, no matter how hard I tried.

The first thing you want to do is cut all sugars from your life, the sad point, is that you cannot do that, sugars come in many forms, the largest one is this obsession for most people with wheat, in the forms of flours, pastas, breads, literally every meal had some form of wheat in it, wheat flours convert to sugars as they are being digested.  I learned quickly for myself any way, is that wheat in any form, even homemade, organic, non organic, etc. made my blood sugar skyrocket off the charts! The best thing I ever did is cut the wheat from my diet, at least 99.5%, which has helped greatly. Cutting wheat from my diet also greatly lowered my stiff joints and joint pain from Osteo-arthritis, which is in every joint of my body. I would say on this note, this was dramatically improved.

I do not use artificial sweeteners if I can help it, opting for one of the naturally occuring sugars, honey, Agave, etc. and Whey Low.(click on Whey Low) to be taken to their site.  Though I try hard not to use much sugar at all, you need something to give some amount of carbs.

Salads are wonderful and a healthy choice for you, but your body does need sugars in some form to live off of and operate on. Lately I have been trying to make my own salad dressings again. I find that the honey mustard, gives the touch of sweetness you are looking for, as well as the acidic influence of cider vinegar, so you have a savory, sweet tartness to your salad.

I will admit while researching recipes to make one of my own, I found that people tend to go way overboard on the honey part, Yikes, some recipes I was not sure if they were not trying to make a honey mustard dessert or what?

While I made this dressing using mayonaise, I will be trying and writing a post on Honey Mustard Vinaigarette when I make another recipe. That recipe is nearly the same but uses extra virgin olive oil, and no mayonaise. Variety is the spice of life.

1/4 cup Mayonaise (I used Hellmann’s )

1/4 cup Cider Vinegar (I used Bragg’s)

3 Tablespoons Rounded, Dijon Mustard (I used Grey Poupon)

2 Tablespoons Honey (I used local, any honey would work)

With a whisk or spoon, mix all ingredients together. This version with mayonaise does not separate in the refrigerator and stays nicely mixed.

Makes approximately 1 cup, recipe is easily doubled.

WILTED LETTUCE SALAD

Tags

bacon, Boiled Eggs, cider vinegar, Cream, Homemade Cream Salad Dressing, leaf lettuce, Mennonite Cooking, Onion, Recipes from a Country Kitchen, sugar, Wilted Lettuce Salad

Wilted Lettuce Salad is a family favorite, a simple and easily made salad. It can be made with loose leaf lettuce, dandelion greens, however in more recent years I have started using Romaine Lettuce cut into shreds. This is really a simple salad and will keep a couple of days in the fridge so that you can easily have some with every meal.

Basically it is yet another one of those dishes for which no real recipe was made, it consists of Lettuce or tender young greens, boiled eggs, onions, spring green, fresh garden or a simple onion from the store. and if you have it fried bacon is good in it as well. Mix all these together (of course you coarsely chop or slice the boiled eggs, the yolks will dissolve into the dressing, adding another layer of flavor and texture to the salad.

The dressing is easy, you can use cream, however I always use half & half, put a teaspoon of sugar in and stir it with the cream or half and half, taste it to see if it the sweetness you like, add more if you like it a bit sweeter, then add several tablespoons Cider Vinegar to the mixture, stir and the dressing becomes smooth and thick, you can also add dry mustard to the mixture is you wish, when I do this I always use Coleman’s Dry Mustard Powder (British) it is a bit hotter than American dry mustard and has more flavor. (a little Coleman’s goes a long way)

 

HOMEMADE WILTED LETTUCE SALAD DRESSING

Like many old country recipes you can make this to suit whatever size you want from an individual serving to a bowl full

The following is the amount I used for 1 1/2 heads of romaine and 3 boiled eggs and 1 medium onion chopped.

1 Cup Half & Half

2 tsp. Sugar

3-4 Tablespoons Cider Vinegar

Stir and pour over the salad and mix around (toss) until well coated, it is best to cover and refrigerate for at least and hour or longer before serving, and as you might have guessed by now you are waiting for the vinegar dressing to wilt the lettuce and the flavors to blend and marry. You will notice as you eat this and it sets for a day or so the vinegar flavor will be less as time goes by, simply add another tablespoon of vinegar and or less as you wish and stir. perhaps a bit more sugar to taste.

As I said this is one of those recipes for which there is no recipe you just whip it up, you can have more or less of any ingredient in it just how you like to make it.

HOMEMADE FURNITURE CLEANER & POLISH

Tags

cider vinegar, cleaner, Homemade Furniture Polish, lemon juice, Olive Oil

Time have been really tight for me the past two years, while this is not a good thing, it really goes a long way towards making you think differently that just running to the store and picking up a can of furniture polish as well as many other things you use in daily life.

While I consider myself fortunate in many ways to have grown up at the time I did from the 1960 on, those were the years that you did not go out and buy everything packaged and ready to go, and I might add by todays standards and pay a lot for it. You made things at home or made do without.

I consider myself fortunate also in the fact that all of my years from childhood on, I listened to what my grandparents, great grandmother and everyone older than myself had to say, how they lived before the turn of the century 1800’s to 1900’s I don’t think to many children learn early enough to “LISTEN” to old adults to learn the ways that they learned to do them. While as time goes on there are improvements in the thing we do and how we do them, it is still important to LISTEN and learn. One day you may be faced with times not so easy for yourself and you will appreciated drawing on things from the past, and using them today.

I cannot say that I learned this from the past, actually I did not have money to go out and get a can of Pledge. I will admit that I searched on Google for Homemade Furniture Polish hoping to be able to use thing I had here in the house to make my polish.

Here is what I learned. For the most part all the recipes were about the same varying amounts of the oil to lemon ratios, some recipes used only oil, lemon juice, while others were just the opposite, that it was oil and vinegar. I liked this one because it had all three, figuring that the cleaning power of both lemon and vinegar would be better in their own individual ways! I was right I am happy with my results

HOMEMADE FURNITURE CLEANER & POLISH

1 cup Vegetable Oil or Olive Oil (I used Olive Oil)

1/2 cup Lemon Juice (I used RealLemon)

1/2 cup Vinegar (I used Cider Vinegar)

Place all in a spray bottle and shake well (Salad Dressing for your furniture)

Spray on your wood furniture, wipe with a clean soft cotton cloth, then buff with another clean soft cotton cloth.

Sounds like it will take time, nope, no longer than using Pledge, however unlike Pledge this cleans and shines, my white cloth was brown when I got done, the other white cloth really was not dirty but the desk just shines, is not oily or greasy  like you might think.

I don’t need to buy anything except the ingredients to make and keep this on hand, and at a fraction of the cost of commercial polishes.

When you think about it, the oils nourish the wood, while the lemon juice and vinegar, both being acid is what dissolves the dirt and allows the oils to penetrate the wood.

The wood is left with a hard clean shine that looks like it will last.

NOTE: You can add essential oil if you like for fragrance, however personally I think it may be masked between the lemon juice and cider vinegar .