That Good Salad

this is a surprisingly simple yet delicious salad. We made it exactly as the recipe called for and it was quite a refreshing salad. One word of advice.... Use fresh lemon juice. I did and I think it made all the difference. It ended up taking about 2 lemons.

Ingredients

3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 heads romaine lettuce - rinsed, dried, and torn into bite-size pieces
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
2/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
8 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1 cup Caesar salad croutons

Directions

In a jar with tight-fitting lid, combine oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper; cover and shake well. Chill. In a bowl, toss romaine, tomatoes, Swiss cheese, almonds if desired, Parmesan cheese and bacon. Shake dressing; pour over salad and toss. Add croutons and serve immediately.

source: www.allrecipes.com

A Useful Tool - The Citrus Press

I have recently rediscovered the usefulness of this tool. The Citrus Press. For a long time whenever I need fresh lemon juice I just use my good old hand to squeeze the juice out. I can never seem to get all the juice out. So I finally pulled out this beauty. It gets out all the juice and it keeps me from having to fish out the seeds. It is an inexpensive tool that will be useful for years to come.

MIA and a New Announcement

OK, so I know that we have been missing in action for a little while now. You all know how it is with summer, everything just gets turned around and upside down. With school starting again we have a new resolve to update more frequently and make this a place you enjoy coming so that you can get new recipes and tips for your families to enjoy.

With that being said we wanted to announce that starting this Tuesday and continuing for the next few months we will be trying something new. We have quite a few recipes in the "to try someday" pile. So we decided that we would finally put these recipes to the test. Twice a week we will be trying something new with our meals. This month we will be trying out new salads. In the months to come we will be trying appetizers, main courses, desserts and so on. hopefully this will give all of you something new to try as well.

Also, we will be starting a new tips and tricks and useful hints section. A few times a week we will post tricks that we have found to be helpful in the kitchen. If any of you have any questions, leave us a comment and we will do our best to answer any of the questions that you may have. Keep in mind that we aren't professionals. We are just two people who love to cook and have been learning a lot along the way. So we are hoping that with your questions we will be able to learn along with you.