
Lemon Vinaigrette — Made in a Measuring Cup
On our way back from our Chesapeake Bay anniversary getaway, we decided to take an old fashioned Sunday drive back to Old Town and made various lazy stops along the way. I thought it would be nice to have the family over for a summer supper when we got back so we made a couple of foodie stops. Our stops actually felt very “Ina-and-Jeffrey-take-a-Sunday-drive-through-Virginia.”
We went to an independent grocery store called Hall’s in Colonial Beach and stocked up on some summer salads — we brought a soft sided cooler, bought some ice, and Miles packed up the chicken, macaroni, and broccoli salads to serve when we got home.
Our other foodie stop was at a rather sophisticated and very photogenic farm stand outside of Montross Virginia . The place was actually so photogenic I wondered if they had an instagram consultant.
We got corn (Miles’ favorite), cantaloupe, a sugar baby watermelon, and gorgeous tomatoes of different varieties — I confess I was having a full-on Ina moment when smelling the delicious heirloom tomatoes at the farm stand.

To compliment the tomatoes I decided to make my version of a Lemon Vinaigrette Ina Garten uses with her Avocado and Grapefruit Salad (I know that mix sounds kinda’ odd but it’s delicious!). I swear I could drink this dressing!
Three major differences between Ina’s dressing recipe and mine:
- I have a little more acid
- I don’t use freshly ground pepper (we’re not pepper people)
- You have to whisk it all in a measuring cup because, for the life of me, I can’t figure out the fraction of the olive oil added!

Lemon Vinaigrette
Perfect Summer Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice about 1 1/2 lemons
- ?/? cup olive oil — fill to the 3/4 marker
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
from the cupboards . . .
-
2 cup measuring cup
-
little whisk
-
tablespoon
-
1/2 teaspoon
-
1/4 teaspoon
preparation (make sure you do it in this order) . . .
-
fill the measuring cup to the 1/3 marker with freshly squeezed lemon juice
-
fill the measuring cup to the 3/4 maker with olive oil
-
add a heaping tablespoon of dijon mustard
-
add 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
-
add 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
-
whisk until emulsified
-
refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving
serving . . .
-
whisk or shake before serving
Super easy salad dressing to make. And it keeps for several days in the fridge. How great is that?!! lol.
