2 Sisters 2 Cities

Image Map

Homemade Ranch Dressing and Dipping Sauce

Posted by on

Homemade Ranch Dressing {from 2 Sisters 2 Cities}

Hello again poor, sweet neglected blog.  It’s been so hard to find the motivation to blog these past few weeks, but I am finally feeling inspired once again on this sunny spring day.  I have a whole series of kid-friendly (and especially toddler-friendly) recipes lined up.   First up on my list is homemade ranch dressing.  Many of the family cookbooks that I own recommend dipping sauces to get your toddlers interested in eating healthier items.  I can certainly attest that T literally licks his plate clean if I give him a little bowl of homemade ranch dressing, ketchup, or hummus to dip his food into.

While it’s certainly easier to buy a bottle of ranch dressing at the store, I prefer to make my own salad dressings for two reasons.  First, I like to have control of what goes into the dressing…fresh herbs, organic ingredients where possible, a controlled amount of salt, and no preservatives.  Secondly, I think homemade dressing just tastes way better than any bottled stuff.

Ranch Dipping Sauce {from 2 Sisters 2 Cities}

This homemade ranch dressing is pretty versatile…kids can use it to dip chicken fingers and baby carrots.  I know some people cannot eat a slice of pizza without some ranch dressing on the side.  It tastes really awesome with a bowl of potato chips (I know, I ate all the chips for my lunch after taking these photos!  I ate the carrots too!)  Or, simply use the ranch dressing as it was originally intended- to dress up a simple mixed green and tomato salad.

Print
Homemade Ranch Dressing and Dipping Sauce
Prep time: 
Total time: 
 
This delicious ranch dressing is great for salads or as a dipping sauce for chicken nuggets, vegetables, and chips.
Ingredients
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¼ cup Italian flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons fresh chives, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons fresh dill, finely chopped
  • 1 cup light mayonnaise
  • ½ cup light sour cream
  • ¼ cup buttermilk
  • 1 tablespoon white vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • ½ teaspoon paprika
Instructions
  1. Mix the garlic and salt in a small bowl and mash them together with a knife. Add in the finely chopped herbs and mix together with the garlic salt mixture.
  2. In a bowl or large measuring cup, add the remaining ingredients and the herb/garlic/salt mixture. Adjust ingredients to taste and add more buttermilk if you wish for a thinner consistency. Transfer ranch dressing to a sealed container, such as a mason jar. Refrigerate the ranch dressing for a few hours to allow the flavors to meld together.

Source: Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

If you are interested in other salad dressing and dips, check out our recipes for

Thousand Island Dressing:

Homemade-Thousand-Island-Dressing

Dill Dip:

Dill Dip

Baked Potato Dip:

Baked Potato Dip

Cheers to a great weekend!

sister m signature

 

 

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Posted by on

Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner

Well believe it or not, it is already mid-March and this upcoming weekend  is St. Patrick’s Day.  Not only is St. Patrick’s day a day to have fun and drink green beer, but also a day for those of you that are Irish (like M and I) to pay homage to our heritage and our ancestors.  Our family actually came over to America during the potato famine like so many Irish families did.  They had to work really hard to prove themselves in America and helped with building many things like the canals and railroad systems we have today.  St. Patrick’s Day is a way to honor them.

Corned Beef Dinner

Every St. Patrick’s Day growing up ,our mom would make corned beef and cabbage for dinner.  She would also boil some potatoes, carrots, and onions with the meal.

Our local milk brand, Byrne Dairy, would sell green milk.  Similar to the shamrock shake, this was mint-flavored milk,  except it tasted a thousand times better!!  {They stopped selling this green milk like 10 years ago so if you are reading this now, Byrne Dairy,  bring back the green milk! } Although it wouldn’t do me much good out here in Cali so maybe I should be asking this of Berkeley Farms or Clover Farms.  Along with the green milk and traditional corned beef and cabbage, my mom also made us these cut-out sugar cookies in shamrock shapes with green frosting and green sugar sprinkles for when we came home from school.

St. Patrick's Day Traditional Corned Beef Dinner

For the last three years, I happened to visit my parents in Syracuse with my boyfriend on St. Patrick’s Day weekend.    My mom made us the corned beef dinner when we visited so my boyfriend also has an appreciation for the meal.  Armed with my mom’s recipe, I attempted to make my first corned beef and cabbage meal over the weekend.  I made it a weekend early just so I could share it with all of you.

I was worried at first that my grocery store wouldn’t carry the corned beef brisket or round.  I guess I never looked for it before because every store had this including Target, Costco and Safeway.  Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner with Guinness

Does anyone else have something traditional they do on St. Patrick’s Day?

If not, why not start one this year by making this meal.  It is really easy to make and delicious.  Did I mention leftover corned beef is perfect to make reuben sandwiches?

Print
Corned Beef and Cabbage
Author: 
Serves: 4-6
 
Ingredients
  • 2 lbs. corned beef brisket or round
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 cooking onion
  • 1 crushed clove of garlic
  • 7-10 peppercorns
  • 6 carrots
  • 5-6 white or gold potatoes (small to medium sized)
  • 1 head of cabbage
  • 2-3 small onions
Instructions
  1. Take corned beef out of package and dry with a paper towel. If there is fat on the back of corned beef, you can cut it down with a sharp knife. Leave a small amount on there to add flavor to the cooking broth (Be careful with your hands!)
  2. In a large pot or Dutch oven, place brisket. Fill pot with cold water so that the brisket is covered with water, plus an extra inch of water.
  3. Cut cooking onion in fourths and add to water along with bay leaf, peppercorns, and garlic.
  4. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer (covered) for one hour and forty minutes.
  5. Fifteen minutes before the timer end, start to prepare the vegetables. Peel carrots and cut them in halves or thirds. Wash the potatoes and cut them in half. Peel onion and cut in fourths. Rinse cabbage and peel off first layer. Cut into eight slices with part of the core divided in each to hold the cabbage together while it cooks.
  6. Skim fat off the top of the corned beef water and add carrots, potatoes, and onion. Cook for twenty minutes with lid closed.
  7. Pull out corned beef and place on a plate and cover with aluminum foil. Skim additional fat off the top.
  8. Add cabbage to water with vegetables and cook for an additional 15 minutes.
  9. Slice the corned beef in thin slices, and drain vegetables (or pull vegetables out with a slotted spoon or tongs). Serve on a a platter and enjoy!

Source–  Adapted from our Mom!
sisterk (2)

Fresh Produce Tuesday- Week #13: Carrot Recipes

Posted by on


I thought this week might be challenging to find a lot of different carrot recipes, but I definitely underestimated how many ways one can eat carrots.  Although carrots can be found year-round in supermarkets, it’s always interesting to try out the various varieties and colors of carrots available from local farms.  If you open yet another CSA box full of carrots and think “les carottes sont cuites” (translation: the carrots are cooked, meaning: you’re done for), here are 10 carrot recipes to get culinary inspiration.

Carrot Recipes from Around the Web:

Carrot Recipes from Other Bloggers:

Please link up any recipes with carrots as an ingredient.  Feel free to submit as many recipes as you want!

If you are looking for more recipe ideas for fresh produce, please be sure to check out the Fresh Produce Tuesday tag.  We have a large assortment of recipes for  Asparagus, Artichokes, Spring Onions, Peas, Garlic Scapes & Spring Garlic, Rhubarb, Fava Beans, Radishes, Lettuce, Morels, Strawberries, and Kale.  Check back in next Tuesday, June 26th for our Chard post and on Tuesday, July 3rd for recipe ideas for Raspberries.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...