Eat your greens...with this dressing....

I know I've casually mentioned the new Whole Foods that opened literally right across the street from me in Friendship Heights but I've got to let the choir finally cry out on this: I'm thrilled to have Whole Foods in the neighborhood. Sure, I'll admit its not financially prudent to walk in there. And yes, I often go in for a pound of coffee and walk out $56 bucks later with a $6.00 yogurt that comes in a glass bottle with a $2.00 deposit on the bottle that I never actually return to get my $2.00 back because its also a pretty vase (what? Whole Foods also has lovely flowers. Just you try to walk out without peonies.)

But I'm a fast learner and quickly found that if I don't institute all kinds of rules and restrictions on my spending habits, there could be trouble. For instance: no emu eggs unless I'm having a party. Ok that's an easy one. A better rule is that I have to make a list ahead of time and am only allowed to be seduced by ONE off-list luxury product per visit. Good thing I let myself have that easement, otherwise I wouldn't have found my new favorite salad dressing.


A few sundays ago during high-pandemonium time at WF I was shopping for our Phish picnic when an all american, fresh-faced teenage boy with an agonizingly sweet smile and braces asked if I'd try his mom's salad dressing. Holy crap...is mom a marketing genius or what? Way to use your adorable 15 year old who probably plays lacrosse and has a girlfriend named Sally to hawk your wares. It really only took one bite and I was hooked. Really, the dressing is super simple: lemons, olive oil, salt and pepper. And at $5.99 a bottle, you're probably thinking "dude, you can make that at home".


You're right. You can make it at home. That's what this mama did. And then she figured out that most people who get home from work, workout, happy hour, etc at 9:00 at night aren't going to make their own. And that's how she got me. It's fresh and light and will entice me to eat salad at 9:00 a night even when I don't feel like slicing garlic or zesting lemons or engaging in any other dressing-making activies. I'll gladly pay the $5.99 for a bottle that lasts me two months to save me from eating tortilla chips and hummus because I have nothing healthy and delicious to eat on my salad.

Plus, as I checked out their website this morning I noticed that there are THREE fresh-faced teenage boys hustling salad dressing somewhere across the state of Maryland. Go find one and try a bottle. I swear you'll be hooked.


http://www.tessemaes.com/


And really, that's kind of what WF is all about: getting you to spend a little extra on food you feel good about. They only work really well in cities because we're full of busy, young and single, career-minded, socially concious people who pay attention to how their consumer choices have an impact on the world around them. How many of you are guilty of buying a pound of WF curried chicken salad to take to work all week because (a) you didn't get a chance to make your own chicken salad this week and (b) you can trust that what you're eating is mostly natural, organic and anti-biotic free? For all of the cooking I do, I proudly raise my hand and say "I am!" That chicken salad is addictive.

Thanks to my new neighborhood store for turning me onto Tessamae's dressing, a local Maryland product!