Salad dressing: Bottle it or whip it up fresh?

HALLIE EPHRON: One thing I've never understood is why anyone uses bottled salad dressing. Unless you're camping. Or cooking for a household of fussy eaters in which everyone wants a different dressing.

Salad dressing really is easy and delicious. Make it yourself and you won't accumulate a backlog of partially used bottles of dressing. You can make just enough for a single meal and know exactly what you're putting in your mouth.

A basic make-it-yourself balsamic vinaigrette uses these ingredients:

Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dry mustard, salt, pepper

Here's the ingredients list for a popular bottled balsamic vinaigrette:

Water, Balsamic Vinegar (Wine Vinegar, Grape Juice, Water), Soybean Oil, Sugar, Canola Oil, Salt, Contains Less Than 2% Of Dried Garlic, Dijon Mustard (Distilled Vinegar, Mustard Seed, Water, Salt, White Wine, Tartaric Acid, Citric Acid, Spice), Spice, Xanthan Gum, Dried Parsley, Oleoresin Paprika, Potassium Sorbate And Calcium Disodium Edta

I'm sure it tastes fine, but notice the first listed ingredient (and hence the one there's most of) is water. Who puts water in salad dressing? And their "balsamic vinegar" is (parenthetically) a combination of wine vinegar, grape juice, and (more) water.

The best thing about making dressing from scratch is you know exactly what went into it. You can decide at the last minute what dressing you want to go with whatever you're cooking.

With these staples (below) on hand, and you can whip up a French vinaigrette, balsamic vinaigrette, creamy blue cheese, Ranch, Greek, or that orange creamy stuff we used to call French dressing in California...

• Olive oil
• Vinegar x 3: balsamic, white, cider
• Sour cream
• Mayonnaise
• Ketchup
• Dry mustard
• Dijon mustard
• Salt, pepper, sugar
• Blue cheese
• Fetah cheese

Here's the how-to for a delicious spinach salad with almonds and raisins and crumbled fetah or blue cheese.

- Soak 1/2 cup of raisins (or dried cranberries) in 1.5 T balsamic (red wine) vinegar, 3 T olive oil, 1 tsp sugar - 20 minutes or more

- Pan toast 1/2 cup of slivered almonds

- Break about 1/3 cup of fetah or blue cheese into chunks

- Rinse and dry about 1/2 pound of fresh spinach, removing any woody stems

- Assemble: mix spinach and raisins and dressing (what the raisins are soaking in), top with almonds and cheese

Are you into bottled dressings or a make-it-yourselfer? What's your favorite dressing and how do you whip it up?