Back in July my husband took me to dinner for my birthday. He surprised me and took me to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. He had a table in the back room reserved just for us! It was pretty awesome. I don’t really know what was better though, the food or the time alone to converse with no interruptions. Rarely do we ever get to go on date night, that was the last time we went, actually. We only have date night maybe once every 5 months or so, if that. But, that is one reason why we built the Back Yard Bar out on our back deck earlier this year. It’s like being able to go out to a bar and throw some darts, but we don’t have to pay a babysitter and spend a ridiculous amount of money at the same time. Plus, the food and the drinks are always better out there!

I am planning to post some pictures of the BYB soon, along with a whole new section of the blog that will showcase bar food. It seems that everything that I make for dinner, my husband is able to transform into some amazing bar food. He takes what I make, puts his own twist on it, then brings it out for us and our friends to try. There have been so many amazing concoctions come out of my kitchen after midnight on the weekends! These nachos he whipped up from some leftover Pulled Pork. To the chips he added, pulled pork, cheddar and Monterrey jack cheese, sliced jalapenos, pickled peppers, and a tiny drizzle of barbeque sauce.

Anyway….back to this easy salad dressing. We ordered the Ruth’s Chop Salad for our appetizer and it was the lightest, most refreshing salad. I could not stop eating it. I asked the waiter what the dressing was because I wanted to try and recreate it at home. They build the salad in a tall metal cylinder so that when it comes to your table is is completely round and tall and just looks beautiful.

I just checked the website and these are the ingredients in their salad: julienne iceberg lettuce, spinach and radicchio, topped with julienne red onion, mushrooms, green olives, bacon, eggs, hearts of palm, croutons, blue cheese, dressing and crispy onions.

Since it was summer, and I had tons of basil in the garden, I just went out and picked off a handful. I grabbed a few ingredients out of the fridge and this is what I came up with. It tastes very similar to the restaurants version. It is such a great dressing.

In these pictures I just used an organic salad mix, 50/50 with baby spinach, red onions and hard boiled eggs. I plan to make it again soon with all of the ingredients listed in the Ruth’s Chris recipe.

** This recipe is Gluten Free

Lemon Basil Salad Dressing

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• juice of one large lemon
• handful of basil, julienne and then chop (you can use as much or as little as you like)
• dash of salt

Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and whisk until  well blended. Serve over salad.

For a light Saturday lunch, I made this salad with these Fried Shrimp. Delicious!