Ranch Dressing

It would have to be Spring that it's been raining all day and we just didn't want something hot and warming for dinner. Actually for a moment, the skies were blue and the leaves on the trees and the new wheat in the fields were all sparkly and washed clean. The Brain and I on our quarterly trip back from Costco, with a car full of meat, took a different way home and discovered several good roads to ride my bicycle on. If only I was allowed on my bicycle. But I will be allowed back on it eventually and until then I just have to remember where those roads were. Nice rolling roads with little traffic.

So yeah, despite the recurring rain, the Brain wanted a salad for dinner. That worked out nicely with my new cookbook purchase of The New Best Recipe Cookbook from the editors of Cook's Illustrated. To make a long story short, the Brain and I have a deal that when he spends a specified amount of money on fast food I get to buy a book (because I don't eat fast food). It came down to this cookbook, a $65 book that is more like an encyclopedia of vegetables that I know I can check out at the library, and the Martha Stewart Living Cookbooks. I first heard of this cookbook from Deborah over at Taste and Tell. It was her cookbook of the month a couple months ago and I kept drooling over her selections. I have to say there's a ton of information about every recipe and the cookbook details the different trials and errors in making each recipe. It's a great cookbook for nerds like me! I knew that I had some buttermilk to use up so I made the Ranch dressing recipe. Totally delicious! It was a little chunky though, I guess I could have minced my vegetables a little smaller.

It was terrific on a nice Romaine salad with crumbled bacon, hard boiled eggs, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and grilled chicken thighs. Tasty.

Ranch Dressing

adapted from the New Best Recipe

1/2 small garlic clove minced to a paste with 1/4 tsp salt

1/4 small red bell pepper, minced

1/4 small onion, minced

1 medium scallion, white and green parts, minced

1 1/2 tsp minced fresh parsley leaves

1 1/2 tsp minced fresh cilantro leaves

1/2 tsp juice from 1 small lemon

pinch of fresh cracked black pepper

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 Tbsp sour cream

Mix the garlic paste , bell pepper, scallion, onion, parsley, cilantro, lemon juice, and black pepper in a medium bowl. Add the buttermilk, mayonnaise, and sour cream and whisk until smooth. (The dressing can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days.)