Olive Garden Taste-Alike Salad Dressing

Back in February 2012, I went to an English conference in Springfield.  One of my co-workers introduced me to the goodness of Olive Garden.  Earlier this month, my little sister and I introduced my mom and older sister to the goodness.  We all agreed--the salad and breadsticks was the best part.  We all wanted the salad dressing.

Overall, we are a Ranch dressing family.  Ranch dressing goes on EVERYTHING.  But there was just something about that Italian dressing at Olive Garden.  So I went to Pinterest and typed in "Olive Garden Salad Dressing" and came up with a ton of recipes.  I chose the one at The Country Cook.  Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 packet Good Seasoning Italian Dressing (In the dressing aisle at the grocery store--I got the Zesty Italian) 
Ingredients to make the dressing: 1/4 cup vinegar, 3 TBSP water, 1/2 cup oil (I am partial to Olive Oil--it's pretty much the only oil I use anymore)
1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 TBSP mayonnaise
1/4 cup olive oil
2 TBSP white vinegar (Okay, so in retyping this from the Country Cook's blog, I realized that when I read her recipe I read 2 tsp vinegar instead of 2 tbs vinegar...mine still tasted okay though)
1 1/2 TBSP water

Steps: (I used a blender attachment to mix my dressing because I'm not fancy with a dressing cruet.  But I have decided to ask for one for my birthday)
1. Make the packet of Italian Dressing according the the instructions on the back.  This makes just a little bit of dressing.  Then put that aside.

2. Mix the rest of the ingredients in order (I don't think the order matters that much.  I forgot the sugar until I was completely done with the dressing--and it tasted fine)

3. Mix the two mixtures together and store in container with a lid.  (Again, I did not have a cruet to store it in.  The Country Cook said mason jars work great--yeah, I don't have any of those either.  So I got creative and used a water bottle--you know one of those with the spout that pops up--it didn't really work all that great) 
4. Shake well before each use--Keep unused dressing for up to 4 weeks--if it lasts that long--I've eaten more salad since making this dressing than I did all summer!

This recipe makes just over 8 oz of dressing.

I bet this would be really good drizzled over grilled Romaine lettuce.  Can't wait to try that next summer!

Up next: Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese