Italian Dressing (comparable to Olive Garden)

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 T sugar
2 T Parmesan cheese, finely grated
2 T Romano cheese, finely grated (a block of this cheese costs about $4 and makes more than 2 cups grated)
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning (combination of basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme etc.)
1/2 tsp parsley flakes
1 T lemon juice (I've tried both freshly squeezed and bottled, both taste great.)

Whisk the ingredients together and serve over salad. Keep leftovers refrigerated.

A little story:
I discovered (and tweaked) this recipe for a Young Woman fundraiser we did last week. We served an Italian Feast and had a silent auction. The girls wanted to mimic the Olive Garden experience, I promise it was not my idea. We played jazz/Italian music. We served homemade spaghetti sauce with noodles, freshly baked bread sticks, salad, and little Andes mints just like Olive Garden. The girls really wanted to have authentic Olive Garden dressing, but we couldn't get any managers to donate it for free and we couldn't afford to buy it.

I did a little research online, made this recipe several times at home, tested it out on Jay and several groups of friends, tweaked it to my liking and spent a grand total of $14 to make enough to serve 250 people! (It would have cost about $50 if we bought it from Olive Garden.) I was so proud. Especially when many of our guests asked for the recipe and said it was their favorite part of the meal. When I initially tested the recipe on Jay, I was nervous he would say it tasted nothing like OG. He actually said it tasted similar, but not exactly, but either way he wanted more. Today (more than a week after serving it at our Fundraiser) Jay asked me if we had any more of it around, he was craving it. That's when I decided to share this recipe on this blog. I love that it's so easy to whip together and it tastes so fresh. Mmmmm mmmmm. Bon appetit!