This is quite amusing. A family friend just forwarded an email to my mother that she sent to someone who wanted to know how to a nice make salad dressing. Funnily enough, this is still the rule I stick to when making salad dressing, and I usually love every one of them.  Here is the said email:

———— Original Message ————
Subject: Re: a request
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:28:33 -0400
From: Jean
To: Hannah

Hannah

Some years ago I went to dinner with some friends, and during the meal I noticed the salad dressing — it was delicious and had a bit of an Asian flavour.  So I said to the hostess:  “This salad dressing is delicious — any chance I could get the recipe?”  To which she replied, “You’ll have to ask Tom — he made it”.  Tom was her 12-year-old son.   

So after dinner I went into the kitchen and asked Tom for his recipe.  Tom said he didn’t use a recipe, “I just add stuff I like”.   But for that dressing, Tom used these basic ingredients:

About…
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
a few drops of toasted sesame oil
a teaspoon of Japanese (Kikkoman) soy sauce
a peeled clove of garlic crushed
freshly ground black pepper

It has a yummy Asian taste (the soy sauce gives the saltiness) and goes well on lettuces or any kind of combination salad.

I’ve used that recipe of Tom’s many times, and, more importantly, ever since that conversation with Tom, I’ve been making my own salad dressings.  I  had no idea how easy it was until he showed me.   I just make a little — enough for one salad — and it only takes a minute or two.  

———

To this day I still just add stuff I like and see what happens.