I just had another lovely lunch at Cake Café, just blocks from the office. Allison gave me a few pointers on how she makes her awesome salad dressing. Cake Café calls it ginger-wasabi dressing, but according to Allison, there’s no ginger in it. I call it crack, because it’s addictive and I now get everything at Cake Café with a side salad, including the red velvet cupcakes and the blueberry turnovers. I must confess, I’ve had thoughts of pouring the dressing over the cupcakes and the turnovers too.

Experimenting in my own kitchen, I’ve come up with a recipe that works for me, although the dressing isn’t quite as intense as the original (probably too much oil). And I added ginger to it, because ginger is good, and because producing all those Jazz Fest schedules for the magazine has given my arthritic middle finger a diamond-like shape. My aunt Anna in northern Sweden swears by ginger for arthritis.

This dressing tasted great over shredded carrots after a long day at the Jazz Fest this weekend. I’ll keep you posted on the blueberry turnover combo.

1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon wasabi powder
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Start by dissolving the powdered items in a little of the vinegar and then add remaining ingredients. Mix. Keeps for weeks in the fridge.