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Dill crowns are like Alec Baldwin before Tina Fey asked him to be on 30 Rock. What I’m trying to say is that everyone acknowledges that dill crowns are great in pickles or in the broth used to cook up crayfish but they don’t get starring roles nearly often enough. I want to be dill crowns’ Tina Fey and you, gentle readers, will determine my success not by giving them an Emmy nomination but by letting me know if you’ll use them sometime soon in one of your recipes.

Compared to younger dill fronds, dill crowns have a stronger flavour that leaves a pleasantly perfumy, lingering aftertaste. Dill crowns are already famous in Scandinavia where they are used in all kinds of concoctions for beef and fish. Personally, I love adding dill crowns to sautéed potatoes and onions for the last few minutes of cooking. They are also sensational stirred into warm, roasted beets. Dill crowns are even lovely when simply torn into bits and tossed into mesclun mix to add texture and flavour to a green salad.

Have I convinced you to give dill crowns a starring role on your table? Hope so!

Over the last couple of weeks, salad greens have been coming and going more quickly at my house. Perhaps it’s fatigue with roasted and boiled wintertime veggies or just a craving for freshness. I just don’t know.

What I do know is that I’ve been combining frisee and mache lettuces, thinly sliced red onions and tomatoes with this fresh, sweet and tangy dressing and every bite has been divine. In fact, when I got home last night after two days of eating and indulging in  New York City, one of these salads was exactly what was on the menu!

Lemony Honey-Dill Dressing

3 tbsp lightly packed fresh dill fronds, chopped
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp minced red onion
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp whole, drained capers
2 tsp liquid honey
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Combine the dill, vinegar, onion, lemon juice, capers, honey, lemon zest, mustard, salt, pepper, garlic and hot pepper sauce in a bowl. Blend until well combined. Whisking, drizzle in the oil. Cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Whisk or shake well before using. Makes about 3/4 cup.

What about you? Do you fall into salad habits where one dressing and lettuce combo reigns supreme for a few weeks or do you toss up a new bowl of excitement every time you make a salad?

Being half Ukrainian, I have a deep and well-developed respect for dill pickles. In fact, I would say that I’m one of their biggest fans. But even my affection for dills has its limits and they have been tested twice in the last 24 months.

First came the Kool Aid dill. A Kool-Aid dill is what happens when you marinate a classic dill pickle in super strength strawberry Kool-Aid. You get a sticky, candy colored pickle that Mississippi kids (who comprise the fan base of this confection) call a Koolickle. I call it a sweet and sour abomination.

Koolickles are often made in a big jar and then sold by convenience store owners for $1 each. When I wrote about these pickle-flavoured confections in my Topline Trends newsletter the response was a universal yuck! Then, when I made a batch and featured them on Canada AM, the response was double yuck (I wish I could have taken a picture of Seamus’ face when he tried one on air!).

New this year is the commercial product called Pickle Sickles. Like a freezie, these snacks can be thawed and refrozen. Unlike a freezie or a Kool-Aid dill, they aren’t sweet but salty and sour. The press kit says Pickle Sickles are a healthy snack for kids and diabetics because they’re made from whole pickles, have no fat and only 1 g of sugar. I tried one as a professional duty. I have to say that even as a lover of pickles, dill pickle chips and even dill pickle juice (although only homemade dill pickle juice), these frozen snacks are nasty. They’re so salty that any nutritional advantage they have for not containing sugar is negated.

Trust me: when you want a cold, salty and sour snack: grab a fork and eat an actual pickle. You don’t need to try these new pickle creations.