Make Your Own: Ranch Dressing Mix

I love Ranch dressing. Really. A LOT. So much that I really try not to have large quantities in the house at any given time, because I will eat it with a SPOON, ok? And Ranch dip is even BETTER. But since I didn't want to store opened packets of dry Ranch mix, I made 2 cups of dressing when I opened a packet. Two cups is about a cup and a half too much for me to have laying around. Ahem. Plus, there’s the chemical problem. Have you ever READ the ingredients on a packet of dressing mix? Scary stuff.

So I poked around on the internet for a while, cobbled together a bunch of recipes, and came up with my own!

The Recipe:
Makes about 1 ½ cups mix

1 cup dry buttermilk (found in the baking aisle)
2 tsp salt*
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried minced onion
4 heaping tsp parsley
Optional mix-ins**:
2 tsp dill weed
1 tsp dill seed
*My original recipe called for 4 tsp of salt, but it was WAY too much. Start with 2 and add more as you see fit.
**Regarding the optional mix-ins: sometimes I add these to the finished dip. There isn’t actually any dill at ALL in packaged ranch mix though, so this is strictly a personal preference.

Combine buttermilk, salt, garlic powder, onion and parsley in a bowl. Store in a container in the refrigerator until ready to use. (Dry buttermilk will actually go bad once it’s been opened, so always store it in the fridge.)



To make dressing:
1 – 2 Tbs mix
1 cup milk
1 cup mayo
Combine thoroughly and chill.

To make dip:
1-2 Tbs mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayo
Optional mix-ins:
2 tsp dill weed
1 tsp dill seed
Combine thoroughly and chill.

Veggie Dressing

One of my favorite quick meals is a Boca burger and a side of vegetables, all microwaved.  I really like vegetables!  I like them steamed, baked, boiled, etc., and without anything on them!  I just LIKE them!

Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with me.  Ha!  And my husband and daughters were all in agreement:  vegetables were "yuckie!"  I used to let them dip everything in mayonnaise, so they'd eat vegetables!  I didn't care that I was developing a bad habit; I figured they could deal with that when they got older!  And in the meantime, they'd at least have a few vitamins and minerals!

It finally occurred to me to make a "dressing," like I used for salad.  Even I think that lettuce needs dressing!  Ha!

So, here is my vegetable "dressing," which we all could eat with a spoon and no vegetables!  Ha!

Vegetable Dressing

1 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. onion powder

*1 tsp. dried thyme leaves

2 Tbs. water

**1 c. olive oil

**1 c. canola oil

In a 2 cup container with a lid, combine salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme leaves, and water.  Shake, or let it sit for a few minutes and then shake, until the salt and the powdered stuff are dissolved.  Add the oils, and shake to combine.  (I like the combination of oils, because I think olive oil has a sharp taste.  If you love olive oil, just use that!  Or just use canola oil for a stronger herb taste!)  Refrigerate.  To use, shake well and pour it on!

*I've also used oregano leaves, rosemary leaves, and other herbs.  I like thyme best; it seems to go well with all the vegetables I've tried.  (Oregano, for instance, makes green beans taste spoiled to me!  Ha!)

**If you're using a 2-cup container that leaves no room for extra stuff, then just add oil until it's full.  I use a 16-oz. container that used to hold honey.  It works great, because I have to squeeze it out, and I have less of a tendency to just keep pouring!  Ha!  

In the above "meal," I feed Steve a piece of already-cooked chicken (like Tyson's mesquite chicken available at Costco) and vegetables with this dressing, and he's a happy camper.  You should understand that his favorite meal is a Hungry Man Fried Chicken dinner!  Mmm--grease and salt!!!  Ha!

This dressing is also great on Boca burgers, chicken pieces, fish, etc.  It's just good!  Since there's no acid component, it's not so great on salad!  Ha!

I hope you enjoy it!  

Shrimp: Two Ways, One Method

I really love grilled shrimp, but in the winter I'm not going outside to mess with the grill. So I figured out how to bake them in the oven! Below are 2 separate shrimp recipes, but since the prep and cooking method is exactly the same for each, you can actually make them at the same time. I've been known to buy 1 pound of shrimp, and do 1/2 of each pound a different way. ;)

Proportions given are for 1 pound of shrimp (about 21-25 count) per recipe, which should feed 4-6 as an appetizer or 2 hungry adults as an entree. I cook these with the peel on, but deveined - usually sold in the grocery as "easy-peel shrimp."

Recipe #1: Spicy Shrimp and Tartar Sauce

1 pound large raw shrimp (21-25 count)

3 Tbs unsalted butter, melted (Do NOT use salted butter - the seafood seasoning has salt already in it.)

1 Tbs seafood seasoning (Old Bay or equivalent)

1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray 2 cookie sheets with non-stick spray.

Toss all ingredients together in a bowl. Lay the shrimp out on the baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes, turning halfway through.

Finished:

Tartar Sauce:

Edited to add: the first recipe below is MY recipe. Underneath that one I added my mom's. As it turned out, I was trying to make her recipe, but I was using Kosher pickles instead of regular dill ones. Kosher ones have garlic, LOL. Both recipes are good, but for these particular shrimp, I'd use the second one - my mom's. :)

The second tartar sauce recipe below is my mom's recipe, which she invented by reading the back of a bottled tartar sauce jar and playing around with proportions and extra ingredients until she liked it. (She did it when I was too young to remember, so growing up I had NO IDEA you could just buy tartar sauce in the store. I thought it always had to be made from scratch!) I like it because it's not sweet at all; it's a savory sauce with a lot of dill.

Mine

1 cup mayo

2 tsp dried minced onion

2 tsp dill weed

2 tsp dill seed

4 tsp Kosher dill pickle juice

1 Kosher dill pickle spear, chopped as finely as you can.

Mix ingredients together and allow to chill for 2 hours. (The longer the better: you want the dried spices to soften up a little.)

*Note: I like my tartar sauce VERY dill-flavored. If you want a subtler flavor, use half the amount of dill weed, dill seed and pickle juice.

Mom's

1 cup mayo
2 tsp dried minced onion

2 tsp dill weed OR dill seed (or 1 tsp each)

3 tsp dill pickle juice (NOT Kosher - don't make my mistake, LOL!)

1 dill pickle, chopped finely (again - NOT Kosher)

Mix together and allow to chill for 2 hours. The longer the better, for the same reason as above. :)

Recipe #2: Lemon-Caper Shrimp with Almost-Aioli Dipping Sauce

1 lb large raw shrimp (21-25 count)

2 Tbs capers

1/4 cup olive oil

Juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup

sprinkle of salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese for dusting

Almost the same method as before, with one additional step: preheat the oven to 350F, toss everything but the cheese together in a bowl and lay out on 2 baking sheets. Spoon the leftover sauce at the bottom of the bowl over the shrimp. Then sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top and bake for 10-12 minutes, turning once (halfway through).

Finished:

Almost-Aioli Dipping Sauce:

1 cup mayo

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tsp capers

2 tsp caper brine

2 Tbs lemon juice (about 1 lemon, squeezed)

1/2 tsp pepper

4 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese

Mix together in a bowl and allow to chill for an hour or so.

I serve both of these dishes over salad (sometimes with a piece of garlic bread), but they'd also be fantastic over lightly buttered pasta. You could even serve them up over rice pilaf, with a small salad on the side.