Good morning, esteemed September companions. The autumn world used to begin after Labor Day, but many of you are already in full swing. Send us, please, some recipes or easy ideas from this full-swing life of yours.
(READ MORE: Labor Day menu: Grilled chicken, bruschetta, peach crisp)
Memories of The Loft restaurant have floated through this space of late. Judy Jones began by wishing she could duplicate their port cheese salad dressing, and this week she lamented, “Thank you for trying to locate The Loft’s lost dressing. It was a long shot. Personally, no restaurant today is as perfect as The Loft was.”
The term “long shot” sends me back to you. Surely you can do something, one or more of you. I started looking for other salad dressing recipes that contain port wine and cheese, and perhaps that would be a challenge to you experimental cooks. Do any of you remember whether The Loft’s version was a creamy dressing or a vinaigrette? It’s a mystery to be solved, and in such matters this is possibly the place.
The sender of the first recipe you will read below noted that there were many dairy products therein, and that reminded her of “a recently tasted lasagna recipe that contained no cheese but a lot of meat sauce. The only dairy came in a homemade bechamel sauce that was drizzled over the meat sauce. Does anyone have such a recipe? I would also like a recipe for bechamel sauce, though I believe you can purchase a dry, packaged bechamel mix or ready-made sauce.”