Back in the day, my favorite commercially bottled salad dressing was Catalina. But they reformulated it to be sweeter (and full of HFCS, but it was the extra sweetness that turned me off) in the 1990s or maybe it was the late 1980s. Right now, it is Annie's Balsamic Vinaigrette. Tart, creamy, not too sweet. No ingredient crud. I intensely dislike sweet salad dressings. When I want sugar, I'll have a dessert. If I want my salad with some level of sweetness, I'll add actual fruit into the salad itself. For a regular vinaigrette, home-made: Juice of 1/2 lemon Add rice vinegar to make 50 mL / 1.7 fluid ounces total volume atop the lemon juice (I used one of those Ball half-pint canning jars, and just added everything directly to that. The metric side of the scale on the jar was more convenient to me.) 1.5 teaspoon Dijon mustard 75 mL / 2.5 fluid ounces of oil. I recommend a 1:1 mixture (approximately 37.5 L/1.25 ounces of each) extra virgin olive oil to avocado oil. See below, and no, I don’t expect this to be measured out Exactly! Two teaspoons Penzy’s Herbes de Provence dried herbal concoction. 1/8 teaspoon salt, or to taste 1/4 teaspoon cracked pepper (approximate) I put it in that Ball canning jar, cap, and shake the devil out of it.

Linda, you can use Sriracha for the chili sauce, but you will not need very much of it, probably no more than half a teaspoon. To make up for the chili flavor, you can add chili powder (if it is a good brand and pure chili powder). If you have Ancho chili powder, that would be good to use, and you could just mix it with a bit of water. If you use chipotles in adobo sauce, you will be making an adobo dressing, which is a bit intense for a crab salad. I do recommend that you buy a canned chili or enchilada sauce - La Victoria is a good brand and is the correct mildness for this recipe. Sharon, it is fine to use a tomato based chili sauce in this recipe, but I give it a different name when it has tomatoes in it, although I can't remember what that is. I do make it both ways, but I think it is good to start with the pure chili sauce to be able to appreciate the subtle flavor of the mild chilies. Lars

Got all these from the cooking forum and they are favorites! Made the spinach salad from Ann for a luncheon, it was a very big hit! Vittorio's Spinach Salad from Ann T Vittorio's was a restaurant in Toronto that we use to go to years ago. Salad isn't something that I would usually order but I loved his. This is my recreation of his recipe. Salad: Washed and dried baby spinach 4 hard boiled eggs, peeled 4 or 5 cleaned mushrooms, sliced 1 can of artichoke hearts halved or quartered 3 Roma tomatoes, quartered 2 chopped green onions Kalamata olives Dressing: 1/4 teaspoon tarragon 1/2 clove of garlic 2 or 3 tablespoons wine vinegar 1/2 cup homemade mayo or Hellmans salt and pepper Place spinach in a large salad bowl. Decorate with eggs, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, tomatoes and green onions and olives. Drizzle with dressing and toss. Can be made on individual plates as well. Dressing: Soak tarragon and garlic in vinegar. Add salt to dissolve. Mix vinegar mixture into mayonnaise and adjust seasoning to taste. ------------------------------------------- Nancy's "55" Salad Dressing (wizardnm) 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic 1 teaspoon dry mustard 1/4 cup vinegar 1/4 cup water 2 teaspoons salt 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper 1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper 1/2 teaspoon celery seed (optional) 1 cup vegetable oil Combine garlic, dry mustard, vinegar and water in a food processor or blender. Pulse to combine. Add salt, sugar, peppers, and celery seed (if using) With processor or blender running, SLOWLY add vegetable oil in a thin stream. After oil is added, continue to process another 3 minutes. --------------------------------------------------------- Creamy Roquefort Dressing (mqmoi) 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 large shallot, minced 1 tablespoon Sherry wine vinegar 1 large garlic clove, minced 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 1/3 cup crumbled Roquefort cheese 3 tablespoons whipping cream Whisk first 5 ingredients in small bowl to blend. Fold in Roquefort cheese and cream. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Funky, You can use any preserve in that first dressing, as a variation. I don't think the red pepper jelly is terribly sweet; and I suppose one could easily adjust it if they did. I am a fanatic about how a salad is dressed --- 90% of the time I feel they are overdressed. If you dress very lightly and toss, to me the dressing is rarely too sweet because the dressing doesn;t over power. The only bottled dressing I buy is Ken's 1000 Island. My son likes it, and he knows how to make it from mayo, ketchup and relish, but TBH it tastes about the same. I do buy ranch packets, mainly to make dip. Other than that, I make my own. It lasts fairly long and to me it tastes a zillion times better. I have tried all of the fancy bottled ones, and they just don't cut it for me. As far as going bad ..I mean, the vinaigrette has vinegar ... a preservative. And the dairy based ones; you can usually smell if they have turned. I make half batches. FWIW:The "shelf life" of salad dressings varies somewhat. Generally, vinaigrettes can be kept refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. Dairy-based dressings, like buttermilk, and dressings made with fresh ingredients, like chopped onion, fresh herbs, tomato sauce and chopped hard-cooked egg, will keep up to 1 week.