Maple vinegar

This was an experiment, courtesy of the New York Times.  Check out the recipe on their website: I figured anything made with maple syrup and dark rum would be good.

After three weeks of fermentation in the back of my cupboard, I had a jar full of maple-y, not too vinegar-y, maple vinegar.

After further experimentation, here's what a jar of homemade maple vinegar is good for:

1. Salad dressing, especially on any salad with blue cheese and/or nuts.

2. On stinky cheese or blue cheese.

3. The Times claims it's good in a martini, though I haven't gotten that far yet.

A good fast all-purpose salad dressing

I've been eating a lot of salads this week. It's summer, you know. And this has been my go-to salad dressing. It's roughly 4 parts walnut oil (or any kind of olive oil, but walnut oil is particularly yummy in a salad) with 1-2 parts champagne vinegar (white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar would also work) and 1 part mustard, any kind. Whisk rapidly, add some fresh salt and pepper, and mix into your salad.

This dressing with arugula, avocado and goat cheese really completely rocked my world.

Blackberry viniagrette

The official salad dressing of the wedding.

4 teaspoons whole cloves
4 teaspoons whole allspice
2 3-inch cinnamon sticks
2 cups white vinegar
4 cups sugar
2 lbs blackberries

Tie spices in a cheesecloth bag, lower into pan with vinegar and sugar. Dissolve sugar over low heat, bring to a boil, simmer 5 minutes. Add blackberries, simmer 10 minutes. Cool and strain. Makes two pints.

Homemade ranch dressing

I haven't willingly eaten ranch dressing since puberty, I'm much more of a good olive oil and good balsamic vinegar as a dressing type person, but I recently discovered my stepson-to-be loves ranch dressing. And garlic croutons. So I made a big batch of both this weekend, hoping to tempt him into eating salad. (It didn't work.) But the ranch dressing was good.

3/4 cup buttermilk (you can also substitute the same amount of regular milk, with a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar or apple cider vinegar thrown in)
a little mayo and/or a little sour cream, depending on how thick/runny you want the final product to be--you can leave it out entirely with no loss of taste, but it will be runny
chopped chives and parsley
one garlic clove
salt

Peel the garlic clove and mash it into a paste with the salt. Put this in a jar and add the rest of the ingredients. Shake well. Season with salt and pepper as desired.