I'm sitting around the big dining table with my three brothers, two sisters, my mom and my dad. The salad bowl finally makes its way around the table to me but there are only a few wilting leaves left in the bowl! My eyes dart around the table to see who grabbed more than their fair share but it looks like everyone did! Oh well! It's got our whole family's favorite salad.

Hopefully Mom won't mind, but I'm going to share the part of our family's favorite salad that made it our favorite: the dressing. It certainly wasn't the greens, or the exciting melange of diced or sliced crisp vegetables. See, Mom was kinda picky (and so were some of the kids) so our salad greens consisted of the "honeymoon salad" type - the "lettuce alone" type. All our salads were iceberg lettuce plus dressing. Sometimes there were little bowls of items like croutons, garbanzo beans, beets, and (yuck) artificial bacon bits on the table as well. But these could not be added to the salad bowl itself or a multitude of shrill objections would have been raised (mostly to the garbanzo beans but I personally would have pitched a fit about the baco bits.) But being a wise mother, Mom gave us our choice of fixings and kept the salad in the bowl very simple.

Unfortunately, when the packaged salad dressing mixes came out, she started using those. The Cheese Garlic flavor, the one most similar to our favorite, became our substitute favorite. But it was only a substitute. I always got a little thrill when I saw her mashing the garlic into the salt and pepper in the salad bowl with a fork. Your family will, too, once you start making this zippy homemade dressing for them. Enjoy!

Favorite Lemon Garlic Cheese Salad Dressing Recipe

This is one of those recipes that you don't actually have to measure. You just go for it and let your taste buds guide you. Here are the approximate ingredients...

Ingredients:

• 3/4 tsp salt

• 1/4 tsp black pepper

• 1-2 cloves garlic, crushed or minced

• 1-2 T fresh squeezed lemon juice

• 3-6 T vegetable oil

• 2 T Romano or Parmesan cheese, finely grated

This makes enough dressing for one standard salad, right in the bowl.

Step One: Put the salt, pepper and minced or crushed garlic into a large salad bowl. Using a sturdy fork, mash the garlic into the salt and pepper, making a paste.

Step Two: Whisk in the lemon juice, taste and adjust salt if necessary. Whisk in the vegetable oil in a ratio of approx 3:1 oil to lemon juice. Stir in the finely grated cheese.

Step Three: Add the salad greens and fixings to the bowl. Toss and serve immediately.

Serving Suggestions:

This dressing is good on almost any combination of salad greens and typical salad vegies/fruits. However, the greens need to "stand up" to the dressing so I like to use a crisp head of Romaine lettuce. Here is my suggestion: one large head Romaine, one diced Haas avocado, some thinly sliced red onion, some flat leaf parsley and some croutons or roasted and salted "pepitas" (pumpkin seeds, available at Trader Joe's).

The lemon makes this salad a natural accompaniment to seafood dishes or a good counter to creamy or heavy main courses. The garlic and cheese make it pair well with Italian dishes. It's also a great alternative to Caesar Salad.

Variations:

Blend some mashed, ripe avocado into the dressing for a creamy, Goddess-style dressing.

Tips:

1. NEVER toss a salad until you are ready to serve it. Dressing makes a salad wilt.
2. To quickly and easily peel fresh garlic, really bash each clove with the flat side of your chef's knife. The skins pull right off.
3. Use a Salad Spinner to quickly and effectively wash and dry your salad greens. This is a "must have" kitchen tool.