A fresh taste for salad greens...

I just discovered balsamic vinegar. Before that there seemed to be only two options available (to me) for salad dressing: conventional salad dressing such as thousand island and ranch, and homemade dressing such as the recipe for ramps dressing. The first is obviously too much for the delicate salad greens from the CSA. It drowns out and weighs down on the greens. The second is time consuming and involves some kitchen appliances that later need to be cleaned like a blender. In a small kitchen, I'm always thinking about whether I should pull out a big kitchen appliance for just a small item.

There is a new store in the neighborhood that sells olive oil and balsamic vinegar in bulk. And there are tons of different flavors. I sampled quite a few. That was new to me. I've never had the experience of pouring a little shot glass of olive oil and shooting it. The store is called Annona Gourmet. I am so glad I went in to check it out.

Actually, I stopped in there to get some aborio rice for risotto. The store didn't have any in stock. I stayed to sample the vinegars and left with a black cherry vinegar. Oh, my, extreme goodness. It was just perfect for those salad greens and took away from the bite of the black radish.

Oh, and the black radish?! So spicy and crunchy. I grated it this time and just dumped it on top of the greens. It has a bite, but that bite was tempered a bit with the black cherry vinegar.

Now I've got to do some more research on vinegar. How does it last? At what temperature should I store it? In the fridge? Or the pantry?

The health benefits include increased calcium absorption, better digestion, regulation of blood sugars, increase in anti-oxidants, the list goes on!