REC: Garlic Ranch Dressing Mix - aka A Happy Accident!

Just a quickie - but I want to document it ~ before I forget it!

In my never-ending quest to be the World's Worst Blogger (as well as nearly-worst food photographer!), I bring you this:

Appetizing, aint it?!

Actually, it *is* quite good - in it's final form :-)

I was surfing around a few weeks ago, asking Google "How can I make my own ranch dressing mix?" (you know, without preservatives and anti-caking agents, and cooties).  And I stumbled onto this recipe.  PERFECT!

So I printed it up and started dumping the ingredients into a bowl and (as usual) wasn't paying SUPER close attention to what I was doing when I accidentally dumped 2-1/2 TABLESPOONS of garlic powder into the bowl - rather than the specified 2-1/2 TEASPOONS.

"Oh sh*t!"

I attempted to scrape-out some of the garlic powder (and realized I was messing-up everything else in the process) so I decided "Aw f**k it!  I *like* garlic!" so I left it alone.

Turned out to be QUITE the Happy Accident and it is now my "Go-To" ingredient for many different things! (BBQ chicken-ranch salad! Yummm!).

So I am giving full credit to Simply Scratch, but I am posting my fubar here so that I can continue to make this Most Excellent ranch mix over-and-over again.  Maybe you'll like it too?

QT's Happy Accident: Garlic Ranch Dressing
Yield about 1 cup

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry buttermilk
• 2 TBS dried parsley flakes (+ 1/2 TBS later)
• 2 tsp dried dill
• 2 TBS garlic powder
• 1-1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1-1/2 tsp dried onion flakes
• 2-1/4 tsp sea salt
• 3/4 tsp sugar (or Splenda, if you prefer)
• 1/2 tsp fresh-ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• a couple of dashes of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp dried chives

Instructions

1. Dump everything - except 1/2 TBS of parsley and 1/2 tsp of chives into a small blender or food processor.
2. Whir it for a few seconds - stop and shake it periodically, as needed - til everything is a fairly uniform power.
3. Add the remainder of the parsley flakes and chives (so you have a few green bits in there)
4. Dump everything into a sealable jar (I used a pint canning jar) and store in the freezer for future use. 

How easy was that?!!

To use:  Basically 3 TBS = 1 packet of dried ranch dressing and/or dip mix.  

Salad Dressing: Add 3 TBS dry mix to 1/2 cup mayo, 1/2 cup sour cream and 2/3 to 1 cup buttermilk (or regular milk will probably work - haven't tried it yet)

Dip: 3 TBS dry mix to 1 cup of sour cream

This stuff is soooooo good!