Recipe from Friend-of-family for delicious salad dressing: Pulse 1 c sugar, 1/2 c cider vinegar, 1T minced onion, 1/2 t worcestershire sauce, and 1/4t salt in blender until smooth. With blender running, add 1 c oil in slow and steady stream. Process until smooth. Add 1/4 c toasted sesame seeds (@ 325 for 15 minutes) and 2T poppy seeds. Chill 24 hours. It's pretty tasty, especially when served on top of a salad that involved pralined almonds (sliced almonds and sugar in a 2:1 ratio tossed in frying pan until delicious).

Not pictured: blanch spinach, toss with butter and lemon juice, and slivered garlic. Over that, put a seared chicken breasted, topped with a pan sauce consisting of pan fond deglazed with white wine, chopped scallions, sour cherries, a hint of balsamic vinager and a sprinking of basil chiffonade. Delicious!



Version 2.0 of Basil Lemonade: Pulse basil and a little mint with lemon juice and simple syrup (mine was the leftover basil simple syrup so this is a little browner than it should be) in a food processor. Pour in a glass and top with seltzer water. Garnish with delicious, candy-like heirloom cherry tomatos if whimsical.  In the future, I will probably run the basil puree through a rough strainer so as not to get that odd  basil scum due to the seltzer bubbles, and use regular simple syrup to maintain the brilliant green. Also, this is a strong contender for Crim Dell part 2. It's fabulously delicious. Alternately, I may drizzle a little grenadine in the bottom and do a tequila sunrise sort of thing.