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Spring is in the air! I know this because kids and teachers alike are beginning to count down the days until the end of the school year, the tour buses are out and about with drivers-in-training, the easily identifiable ad for soccer registration is everywhere in the newspaper, the Beat Beethoven Race is next week, there’s not a clean car in town — except the ones that have just pulled out of the car wash (they won’t be clean for long) — and you just know that at any moment you’re going to see that big wheel roll into place in the parking lot at Beaver Sports telling us that Bun On The Run is open.

Spring means that you no longer have to wipe snow off the grill before you use it, and it means getting reinvigorated with cooking “summer food!” Beginning with salad, or more specifically, salad dressings. We’ll cover salads next month …

We eat a lot of salad in our house. During the summer, it’s nice to make a salad your main course — easy to do with the bounty of fresh produce available in your garden, at the Farmers Market and at grocery stores.

Unbelievably, my mum called me “anal retentive” the other day. My girlfriend calls me a perfectionist, and some of my co-workers call me picky. When it comes to dressing a salad, even I admit I am downright obsessive! Don’t get me wrong about my salads — I’ll put anything in them, on them, and alongside them — but the dressing has to be perfect. Whether you’re dressing a wedge of flavorful romaine or some delicate butter lettuce, do it with some homemade salad dressing.

I may be picky and finicky, but in reality I enjoy foods of convenience like anyone else. But sometimes it just feels good to prepare something in the kitchen. And it feels even better when you’re preparing something new. Something new and more importantly, something easy. Salad dressings are an easy way to impress your family or other dinner guests. There is a significant difference in the taste and face it, somebody’s going to notice that the salad dressing didn’t come to the table in a bottle.

My Thousand Island Dressing is delicious on a simple green salad. For something a little more hearty, try it on a Chef Salad or a Crab and Bay Shrimp Salad, or pair it with iceberg lettuce, perfect tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers, and thinly sliced red onion. Yum!

THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon chili sauce

1 tablespoon chopped shallot

1 tablespoon chopped dill pickle

1 tablespoon chopped chives

1 tablespoon chopped mild peppers

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

For the mild peppers, I like to use “piquante peppers,” which you will find sold as “Peppadew” in the produce department. These peppers give the dressing a little bit of a zing. Mix all the ingredients together and chill.

Remember when making mayonnaise-based dressings or dressings with buttermilk, such as ranch or blue cheese, that they need to be chilled. Chilling overnight is even better because it thickens them nicely.

True Roquefort dressing, just like Champagne and Cognac, is tied to a specific region — the Roquefort cheese has to be from Roquefort, France. But there are some other wonderful “blue veined” cheeses available. The Danish make great bleu cheese, and you can buy some great domestic bleu cheese as well. If you prefer, make this dressing with Gorgonzola cheese, which is the Italian version of Roquefort.

BLEU CHEESE DRESSING

3/4 cup crumbled bleu cheese

2 cups of mayonnaise

1/3 cup sour cream

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup minced white onion

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper

Mix together the cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream and buttermilk. Add the onion, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper. For a thinner dressing, add a little more buttermilk.

APPLE CIDER VINAIGRETTE

16 ounces apple cider

3/4 cup cider vinegar

1 Granny Smith apple (peeled, cored and diced into a bruniose)

3 cups of light olive oil

2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons fresh herbs (optional)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon sugar

This dressing is a showstopper! It’s ideal for a mix of delicate greens, such as butter lettuce, watercress, endive and red leaf. It’s perfect for a first course for at your next dinner party or dinner tomorrow night.

Over medium heat, reduce apple cider by half. Chill the cider and then add the vinegar and apple, whisk in the oil, and add the herbs, the sugar and pepper.

Tarragon would be the fresh herb of choice for this recipe, and in case you’re not familiar with the term, “bruniose” is a culinary term for a small dice, approximately 1/8-by-1/8 inch.

Enjoy these recipes! And as always, if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to e-mail me.

Darryl Allan is food and beverage director for Fountainhead Hotels, which includes Zach’s Restaurant at Sophie Station Hotel. He enjoys sharing his passion for fun, creative and great-tasting food. E-mail him at fb@fdifairbanks.com.