Ranch Dressing

  Ranch dressing was made popular by the Hidden Valley dude ranch in Santa Barbara sometime in the 1950s.  Long before the Clorox company bought the formula and revised it several times to make it more shelf-stable, this dressing capitalized on fresh ingredients and the tang of buttermilk.  This recipe is adapted from the original formula that made ranch one of the most popular salad dressings today.  Though maybe not the flavor most are accustomed to pouring from a plastic bottle or mixing from a paper packet, the fresh and vibrant taste of this dressing is a perfect accompaniment to veggies and meats alike.

Clorox purchased the Hidden Valley Ranch brand in 1972 for $8 million.

Make a paste from smashing and finely chopping together:

• 1 garlic clove

• 2 pinches of kosher salt

Whisk paste together with:

• ½ cup buttermilk

• 1 tbsp. fresh parsley leaves, minced

• 1 tbsp. fresh chives, snipped

• 2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice

• 1 scallion, trimmed and finely sliced

• ½ cup mayonnaise (add 1 tsp. of white wine vinegar if using store-bought mayo.)

• ½ cup sour cream

• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

If dressing is too runny, add mayo or sour cream.

If dressing is too thick, add buttermilk

Use before the expiration dates of the buttermilk and sour cream.

Tuna Salad

  Tuna salad is a fast and relatively healthy lunch that can be put together mostly from things you have on hand anyway.  Aside from serving on bread it can be served on romaine lettuce leaves or stuffed into a fresh tomato.  Using leftover grilled tuna or the kind that comes in pouches is preferred because it has a better texture and a less “fishy” flavor than the canned varieties.

A tuna salad sandwich on pumpernickel rye.

• 6 0z. tuna in water, drained and flaked (or leftover grilled tuna)

• ½ cup kosher dill pickles, diced

• ¼ cup mayonnaise

• 1 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 1 splash white wine vinegar

• ½ tsp. garlic powder

• 1 tbsp. white onion, diced (optional)

• 1 tbsp. fresh parsley, minced (optional)

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and refrigerate until cold.  Leftover tuna salad tastes even better the next day after the flavors have had time to mingle.

Seeding Tomatoes

Not a seed to be found.

  Many times you’ll run across a recipe that calls for seeded tomatoes.  If you are new to cooking, you might not know that there are things you can do to make this process easier.  It will also save you time in the long run.

  First, if there is a trick to seeding a tomato its in the slicing.  Make sure you cut the tomato in half across its  ”equator.”  If you cut from top to bottom only a few of the seed containing chambers will be exposed.

  Next, you scoop the seeds out of each individual chamber.  A spoon or small melon baller can be used, but I find the easiest and most effective tool is a clean finger.

  Another way to remove the seeds is to squeeze the tomato cut side down over a trash bin.  While squeezing is a little faster, it will sometimes leave a few seeds behind and crush the tomato.  If there are many tomatoes to be seeded and appearance isn’t important, (like for a sauce) this method may be preferrable.