My New Friend Ginger

I never really knew if I liked ginger...the spice that is! If I was eating out and the meal came with it, I wouldn't think twice about it, but I never cooked with it.  Today I bought, grated and ate fresh ginger for the first time...and I like it!

Photo credit: suzyhomemaker.net

My friend makes great homemade salad dressings so I wanted to try her Asian 4-1-1 dressing.  In order to make it I had to figure out how to cook with fresh ginger.  When I put the ginger root on the counter it seemed to be staring back at me saying, "Hahaha, you don't know how to peel me!"  It was right...I had no idea!  Thank goodness for Suzyhomemaker!  She has a simple video showing how to use a spoon to peel the ginger.  Check it out here.  Once I watched that I knew this little root had nothing on me!  I peeled and grated it with no problems, what had I been so worried about?


The next issue was going to be if I actually liked the taste of ginger once I added it to the salad dressing.  I put the Asain 4-1-1 dressing on an Asian slaw salad that I shared here.  It's official, I like ginger, it has such a nice spice to it!  And now for the part where you get to have a good laugh at me...as I was eating my delicious lunch my brain clicked.  Or maybe my taste-buds and stomach talked to my brain and said, "Duh, you like ginger ale!  What do you think is in that?"

So now I have some fresh ginger ready to be added to another recipe...wonder if my other half will like it...hmm, he does like ginger ale!