Southwest Inspired Dressing Recipe

The only thing to have come out of our garden so far has been lettuce, and we didn't even plant that. Patrick and I planted lettuce last year and it did relatively well in the buckets we had it in. Then it went to seed. I didn't know this, but when lettuce goes to seed, it is a lot like dandelions, which has led to some wonderful volunteer plants this spring. The ones not in the cracks in the sidewalks have been allowed to grow.

All this lettuce has inspired me to make salad, and all this salad has inspired me to make dressing. I made a southwest chicken salad for dinner one day and didn't have some ingredients for the dressing included in the recipe I was roughly following (I honestly can't remember the last time I exactly followed a cooking recipe. Baking yes, cooking, not so much). Furthermore, it didn't sound fantastic. Thus, I looked for some other recipes and, after looking at a few, combined ideas and came up with my own. 

Patrick is used to me doing this and he knows that it doesn't always work out perfectly. We often categorize my experiments into three groups: good as is, has potential with some changes, and not a good idea. This southwest inspired dressing, however, ended up being rather good, so I decided to share it, mostly so I will have written it down. I call it "Southwest Inspired" because that way no one can tell me it is not authentic--and it includes a product developed by a Vietnamese man.

Please note, I rarely measure, so this is all rather approximate. If you try to make this, make sure to taste it as you go. In that sense, everything is "to taste." The sour cream should be regarded as the base, so if you think you put in too much of anything else, just add more sour cream.

1 cup sour cream

1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoon chili garlic sauce (start with just a little and add to desired heat)

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash (I actually used a store knock off version)

The chili garlic sauce (this stuff) is something I somewhat randomly discovered when Patrick requested I get some kind of sauce like the chutneys he had in Fiji. I kind of fell in love with it. When I was very first pregnant, I craved this stuff. It is rather powerful, so it doesn't take a lot, but I have used this with just about any kind of food: stir fry, pizza, homemade macaroni and cheese. When I was pregnant, I wanted to put it on my oatmeal, but I didn't. I don't know that I would recommend that. Never used it in a dessert either.