I am so happy that you have landed in my little corner of cyberspace. If you join me here, you will, hopefully, get to know a little about me. You will read my thoughts, my hopes and dreams, and see some of my favorite things. I hope you will visit often. I will try to update it regularly and hopefully you will see an improvement in the blog along the way. Thank you for stopping in to see me as I travel on this journey called "life"!













Friday, July 22, 2011

Homemade Catalina Dressing & other stuff...

We normally have Mexican or I should say 
"Mexican inspired" food at least once a week around here.  
What can I say?  
We absolutely love it.  

The hot weather has had me thinking of salads lately.  My friend was visiting from Louisiana this past week and she showed me Pioneer Woman's Grilled Corn Guacamole. That certainly amped up the cravings.

  Oh my.
Have you seen it?

If not, you should click here and take a look.
It is a thing of beauty to say the least. 

It is kind of like the Charred Corn Salad that I made here; but Pioneer Woman's salad looks easier to make, I think, and  it has more avocado. 

How can that be bad, right?


So I've been thinking about grilled corn and guacamole and that leads me to thinking about taco salads and that always takes me back to the one that my Mom always made when I was growing up.  It was amazingly good and we definitely did not have it often enough.  I'm not sure that we could have had it often enough though.  I loved it.  It had all the usual taco ingredients plus beans plus Doritos and the ingredient that made it all so special.....

Catalina Dressing



An email from Kitchen Simplicity with a recipe for a Homemade Catalina Dressing just sealed the deal for me.  I knew that I had to bring all of these yummy things together for Thursday night's dinner.

I browned and seasoned the ground turkey, picked the fresh lettuce from my garden, grilled the corn, chopped the avocados and was disappointed because they were not so lovely inside and threw quite a bit of them away, made the Catalina Dressing and tossed it all together with some Tostitoes Hint of Lime Chips and it was delicious.

The dressing was once again the star of the show.  Every time that I make homemade dressing, I vow never to buy dressing again.  Making dressing is sooo easy and it tastes so much better than the store bought stuff.  So without further delay, I share with you this wonderful recipe for.....

Catalina Dressing
very slightly adapted from Kitchen Simplicity

1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup garlic red wine vinegar
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup canola oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Place first 6 ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Add the oil in a steady stream with the machine running until the mixture comes together in an emulsion. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately. Store in the refrigerator for up to one week.

This post is being linked up here for Foodie Friday, here for Friday Potluck, here for MomTrends Friday Food, here for Foodie Friday, here for Food Trip Friday, and here for Fresh Food Friday. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a wonderful weekend!














friday potluck guest host girlichef











FTFBadge







28 comments:

  1. Hello sweet friend!
    I hope you had a fun week with your Louisiana friend. She probably told you about the horrendous heat/humidity we're still having ~ day after day after day...

    Anyway, I remember making that same Taco Salad when my kids were younger and we all loved it! Of course, Mexican food is a staple in Texas ~ :-) Thanks so much for sharing the dressing recipe. Like you, I vow to NOT buy store bought and then sometimes I weaken and do it.

    Have a wonderful weekend!
    xo
    Pat

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  2. I would have never thought to make my own Catalina dressing!! YUMM

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  3. Catalina dressing is one of my bucket list items. Thanks for sharing. I am bookmarking this one! :)

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  4. Lady, great recipe. Guess when I have managed to make my own ketchup I can then take it a step further!!! Love Mexican too! Have a wonderful weekend!

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  5. This is so weird. I was thinking yesterday about trying to find a recipe for making salad dressing!

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  6. Delish--might whip some of this dressing up this weekend. Thanks so much for sharing on Momtrends' Friday Food linky. Stay cool and have a great weekend.

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  7. so sorry I missed this! looks absolutely delish . . . miss you

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  8. More avocado is always ALWAYS good! This salad sounds delicious but it's the homemade dressing that really MAKES the dish. Fantastic!

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  9. That's look so delicious! I would love to have this for dinner tonight.

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  10. The corn guacamole looks delicious! And nothing beats homemade Catalina, so good! Mexican inspired is a favorite.

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  11. I saw the corn guac on PW and bookmarked it. I have to try catalina dressing!

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  12. Candace, I'm so glad I found your blog. I arrived here quite by accident but once here I decided to browse around. I really like what I've found and I'll definitely be back.I hope you have wonderful weekend. Blessings...Mary

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  13. What a delicious recipe. Perfect for a hot summer day! Enjoy your weekend.

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  14. Thank you all so much for stopping by and for your sweet comments!

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  15. Hmmmm.... I am always looking for relatively preservative-free salad dressings. This one looks great, not something I would have ever dreamed up on my own. And your taco salad looks great, that's one of my favs for sure. Great post!

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  16. PS love your blog template! It's so beachy!

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  17. I must say, your Mexican food is as good as authentic :) Looks good, and I want to have some of that dressing!

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  18. What a beautiful salad Candace. We love Mexican food too because we lived in Texas for a while. I'm sure you enjoyed your friend's visit from Louisiana. It's always nice to have friends from home visit. I'm with you on bottled dressings. Never in my kitchen. Like you I make my own.

    Thank you for stopping by my kitchen and following along. It is my pleasure to meet you. I am enjoying looking around. I can sympathize with your move. My husband's job took him from Texas to Pennsylvania years ago and I felt like a fish out of water, but I survived and learned to like it a lot.
    Sam

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  19. So glad that you stopped by my blog and I could find yours. Happy new follower-hope that you find timee to follow back.

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  20. Hey Candace! Seems like you are really enjoying the summer... seems like I'm still jealous of your warm weather. It's just coooold here still. Anyway, thanks for this Catalina dressing recipe. Funny, it's always been somewhat of a mystery to me, since I've so habitually dressed my salads with olive oil + balsamic vinegar. I learned something new today :)

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  21. My daughter loves this dressing. I was experimenting w/ Thousand Island dressing and thought it was okay...needs more tweaking. Will try this recipe in the mean time. Thanks for sharing!

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  22. Oh my! It's not even 9am and you've got me drooling. LOL

    Hugs,
    Kat

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  23. im so glad you were able to visit my site and lead me here..this is a nice site and this catalina was first time to my ear :D hmmm...looks yummy! ;)

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  24. Grilled corn and avocado in a cool salad with homemade dressing sounds wonderful! That's about all I've felt like eating lately too.

    Thanks so much for the visit!

    Susan

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  25. Thanks for visiting my blog and I'm sooo glad I found yours! Wonderful blog! and I love, love, love, catalina dressing. I make a taco salad similar to your and I'm going to whip this dressing right up! thanks!!!

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  26. I love Mexican food. I should try that one when i have the chance.

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  27. A great recipe! And your photos make it looks so amazing. Thanks so much for sharing.. xo marlis

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  28. Oh, I am so excited to have this recipe for Catalina dressing, Candace! Believe it or not, I have a full recipe for something else that calls for Catalina and I didn't want to buy it, so perfect timing!!! =) Thanks so much for sharing this.

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