Raspberry Honey Vinaigrette

Yesterday, my wife came home with fresh produce, including an assortment of cherry tomatoes. I've been a bit under the weather and don't feel too much like making anything complex, so I opted instead for a simple garden salad. We have a variety of fresh greens growing in our garden, now seemed like a good time to harvest a quick and easy meal!

This led me to contemplate a good salad dressing. There was I time when I bought my salad dressings at the store. I look back at those days and chuckle at my innocent naivete. Those were the days before I discovered how incredibly easy salad dressings are to create and how much better (and cheaper!) they are when you make them yourself. They can be a lot of fun too, mixing different ingredients together into new and mouthwatering combinations. This was the task before me today, as I had run out of my previous batch of dressing!

Looking in the refrigerator, I found a dish of fresh raspberries. I picked them a couple of days prior and they were now a deep dark red, almost purple, color. There was about a handful of them. I gathered together a few other ingredients and whisked them together in a bowl. I suppose I could have used a food processor too but why make such a mess?

In the bowl were:
1/2 c fresh very ripe raspberries
1/2 c olive oil
1/4 c sweet vermouth
1/4 c red wine vinegar
1/4 c honey
1/2 t dried basil
1/2 t salt
1/2 t black pepper

I whisked all the ingredients together until they were well mixed. Then I let the dressing sit while I went out back and collected green leaf lettuce, arugula, and mustard greens. I also grabbed a few more raspberries off the bushes. Back inside, I assembled these together with the tomatoes, grated Parmesan cheese and a few homemade croutons. The only thing that I really wished I had at this point was a nice piece of smoked salmon!

A fresh and flavorful lunch, right out of the backyard! What could be more simple and satisfying? I feel better already!