Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!  We had a wonderful day visiting with both Moms.  In the evening we hosted my Mom for dinner and in the end I decided to go with something simple because it was more about spending time together than all the frills.  So I just made grilled chicken Caesar salads.  The big difference was that everything from the salad dressing to the croutons was fresh and homemade.  For dessert we also had brownies that I made from scratch after seeing how delicious the one's Lucy made were.  This was my first attempt at brownies from scratch and they were rich, fudgy and delicious!

I make most of our own salad dressings at home.  Most are vinaigrettes and almost impossible to mess up if you know the base of having an acid and oil to counterbalance each other and then adding in other flavors.  You add a little of this, a little of that, taste it and then decide if you need to adjust it in anyway.  I have not however attempted to make a Caesar dressing.  Caesar salad dressing has a very specific taste, I never wanted to mess it up, and if you don't have a good base to go on it could be disaster.  Today was my adventure in trying it out.  I used a Martha Stewart recipe and it got a ten out of ten from both my Mom and Andy.  The recipe was easy and I will definitely be using it again!

For a little color and flair I used chive flowers to garnish the dish.

Caesar Salad Dressing

1 large egg yolk

1TBS fresh lemon juice

1 garlic clove minced

1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together egg yolk and lemon juice.  Then mix in garlic, Parmesan, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.  Stream in oil while whisking to emulsify.  Lastly salt and pepper to taste.