Orange Balsamic Dressing

Photo of the japanese house kitchen...rustic!

I did not tell you that I moved again. Three weeks ago, little M and I packed up and moved across town. I am in love with my new home. I would have stayed in our other place (on the same block as two of my girlfriends) forever, but my landlord needed to move back into the house.  My new house has a nice big kitchen! The cozy victorian had about two feet of kitchen counter space to work however, which was a drawback for my cooking. The japanese house had a kitchen the size of a postage stamp, so I am used to cooking in small spaces if need be. Because the japanese house was the real deal, inevitably the wildlife crashed the house party due to the thin layer between the domestic and the wild. One pre-kid night, my husband was out of town working. Bed was a futon on tatami mats, close to the floor. I felt something brush by my face in the middle of the night which woke me up. Turning on the lights,  I saw a skunk squeezing underneath the futon in a mad dash realizing what it had inadvertently walked into. In the middle of nowhere on a hot summer night with no air conditioning, I kept the doors wide open. Thankfully the skunk did not spray. But that openness in the wild has some hilarious stories I tell M when we are on long car trips. The day two random rottweilers came walking into the japanese house while I sat alone at the desk still sends shivers up my spine! That story I will share another time...I still feel very grateful for life's modern conveniences. Screens, toilets, trash pickup and washing machines especially.

Blueberry season is almost here! This past weekend celebrating my friend Kate's birthday, we ate a salad with fresh blueberries that was tossed with this dressing. Balsamic and blueberries pair very well together. I had never been a fan of balsamic vinegar before finding Calolea balsamic locally. I found many balsamic vinegars to be watery and tart. Some companies make balsamic with grape juice, vinegar, coloring and sugar. Calolea brand is sweet, thick and luscious. Made only with grapes. I added the zest of an orange along with its juice to keep the vinegary acid to a minimum and then added olive oil. I decided to make this dressing for my friend Wendy's CSK offering this week that I am contributing to. I work out of the commercial kitchen in her cooking school and we have become kindred friend spirits offering local farm food shares in our CSK's! She really shines at vegetarian food. She gifted M and I a quart of her coconut carrot ginger soup last week and today M's teacher told me that she asked to taste it when she walked by M at lunchtime after smelling its spectacular aroma!


Orange Balsamic Dressing:
makes a 1/2 pint

3 Tbls Balsamic Vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
zest of an orange
pinch salt
5 grinds of pepper