Books and Salad Dressing

I realized I haven't been blogging because I've been reading instead.  Can you blame me?  We took a really fun trip up to NYC over the long weekend.  I'll bet we'll blog about that soon.  Until then, here are a few recent reads:

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
• Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

What have all of you been reading?

Now the recipes.  I have been loving this Sesame Ginger Dressing.  We ate it yesterday on a bulgar salad, and it was absolutely delish.

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoons honey or brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons peeled and minced ginger
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons water

Blend until smooth!

I don't put quite that much honey in, I think it's sweet enough with just one tablespoon.
Ginger and sesame oil have become staples in the Marshall Family Kitchen.  Don't let the cost of the sesame oil steer you away; just one drop will add lots of dimension to your stir fry.  The ginger you can add to all kinds of things, especially stir fry.

Another dressing that I've been enjoying is my mom's lemon dressing.  It's easy as pie:

• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 1/3 c. lemon juice (fresh only please)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• whatever fresh herbs you have--basil and parsley work great
• water to taste if you want to tone it down a little

Again, blend till smooth.  Yum!  I just had lunch and I'm getting hungry again!