A Tale of Two Dressings: Updated

Do you know when you realize something about your growing up years was uncommon but you didn't know it was uncommon at the time? It's not a bad thing by any means, just different. Well, last week I realized something like that. In my parent's home you will find, at any given moment, between 10 to 15 different kinds of salad dressing. I'm not exaggerating. Did you even know that there were that many varieties? We always had several options. I never even knew Paul Newman was anything other that a salad dressing maker 'til I was in high school. I guess you might call some of my family members condiment connoisseurs. I just never realized that having 12 varieties of dressing on the table for dinner wasn't commonplace. I was just talking to Rory and he said that he only ever remembers his family having ranch dressing. They always had it, but that's all they ever really had. It made me kind of sad. During our conversation I mentioned that I'm generally a 1,000 Island girl but I do love a good Italian Dressing. To that he said he didn't think he ever tried Italian Dressing it until he was like 21! Now that's just crazy! I'm so glad that I had several options besides Ranch growing up otherwise I probably wouldn't have liked salad. I've grown to appreciate it now, but I hated Ranch as a kid. Am I crazy?! I thought I'd just share that with you...

Anyway, after sharing my Italian Seasoning Revolution, I went back to Winco and got all of the spices and herbs to make Italian Dressing Mix and Ranch Dressing Mix. I tried them out over the weekend and brought them to a few family/friend festivities along with a salad, of course. Both were very simple but turned out pretty well. I thought I'd share the recipes.

The first was Ranch dressing mix.

The Ranch Dressing Mix Recipe:

1/2 cup Dry Buttermilk

(I couldn't find dry buttermilk, so I replaced it with lowfat instant milk. I found out later that regular powdered milk isn't the best substitute for dry buttermilk... Oops. It worked out okay though)

1 Tbsp Parsley

1 Tsp Dill Weed

1 Tsp Onion Powder

1 Tsp Onion Flakes

1 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Cilantro

(the recipe didn't call for this, but I love me some cilantro.)

1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder

1/2 Tsp Ground Pepper

Here is the recipe for the dressing:

1 Tbsp Mix

1 Cup Mayonnaise

1 Cup Milk

The dressing tasted good but turned out a little too runny for my taste. Rory and I tried to thicken it up by playing around with the proportions and adding a couple things but to no avail. I think it was worth it to try though.

Next was the Italian Dressing.

The Italian Dressing Mix:

2 Tbsp Oregano

2 Tbsp Salt

1 Tbsp Garlic Salt

1 Tbsp Onion Powder

1 Tbsp Sugar

1 Tbsp Parsley

1 Tsp Black Pepper

1 Tsp Basil

1/2 Tsp Thyme

1/4 Tsp Minced Onions

For the dressing itself:

2 Tbsp Mix

2/3 Cup Canola Oil

1/4 Cup White Vinegar

2 Tbsp Water

The Italian Dressing turned out really well. I loved it. If you are going to try one of these recipes, I recommend this one.

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What I'm listening to:

Right now, I'm listening to Dan Auerbach's album Keep It Hid. When The Night Comes is probably my favorite song on the album.

Dan Auerbach is the singer for the duo The Black Keys. If you haven't heard of them, I pitty you. I LOVE them. They are so bluesy, raw, and brilliant.