Hit by a Pitch

I haven’t posted a recipe for a while, so let’s talk about food today.

Do you guys know about Springs1? If you don’t, you really should. She’s on Blogger (where she starts a whole new blog for each post, which is awesome). “How to Be a GOOD Server in a Restaurant” deserves special mention. She’s all over the internet, but this is enough to get started.

Springs1 is a masterpiece of crazy internet freakdom. She is obsessed with restaurants, servers, and above all else, RANCH DRESSING.

I will admit to having in common with her a love of ranch dressing. I’m no Springs1-level freak about it, but I am a little snobby. Bottled ranch sucks. Restaurant ranch usually is awesome, but sometimes you want to have it at home. I’ve tried a few recipes I found on the internet but haven’t been impressed. So I took the best one and tweaked it a bit.

My work-in-progress ranch recipe is after the jump. Tomorrow, I’ll get back to sports and tell you about my dirty little Olympics secret.

Springs1 Ranch

Ingredients

• 1 cup mayonnaise (I use Hellmann’s/Best Foods — light is ok)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 1/3 (or more!) cup buttermilk (with 1 1/3 cup, the dressing will be v. thick)
• 1 teaspoon dried chives
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• fresh cracked pepper to taste
• 1/8 teaspoon dried dill (v. optional — the dill is iffy; sometimes I like it and sometimes I don’t)

I use heaping measurements of the chives, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt.

Throw everything in a large bowl and stir like crazy until smooth and well-blended. Add extra buttermilk if you like a thinner ranch at any time. Refrigerate (duh). I store this in a glass jar.

For a low-tech version, leave out the green stuff (chives, parsley, and dill).

It’s pretty good, but something isn’t quite right about it. I don’t know exactly how to explain it — you know how when you have really good ranch at a restaurant, it has a sort of “cool” quality? This is missing that. But what is it? I’ve read that MSG adds the right flavor to ranch, but I’ve never tried it. Maybe that’s it.

Let me know if you have any ideas!

Update 6/21/10: I posted an improved recipe here.