Homemade ranch dressing

Doesn't this look pretty?
Actually not mine. Public domain photo.
Well, we do what we can.

I made homemade ranch dressing on Saturday, and by Tuesday, we were on our third head of lettuce.

There's been a lot of salads in the Walker household is what I'm saying.

I figured that if it were THIS popular, then I may as well share it. While it's natural and organic (well, if you buy natural and organic ingredients), it's not zero waste -- our recycling plant will take the plastic sour cream container, but not the cardboard/whatever it is buttermilk carton. (It's a misconception that you can recycle anything -- there has to be an actual market for the end-product. Bummer. Money ruins everything.) I'm not really sure what to do about that. I just tried to figure out if those kinds of cartons can be composted, but I'm not finding any info. Anyone know?

Homemade Ranch Dressing

How it's written:
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon dried parsley or 3 tablespoons fresh
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
3/4 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/8-1/4 teaspoon dried dill (to taste)

Combine sour cream, buttermilk and lemon juice in a jar or mixing bowl. Shake or whisk to mix well. Add remaining ingredients and shake or whisk again until well combined. If using a bowl, transfer to a container with lid. Refrigerate one or more hours before using, and taste to adjust seasonings before serving.

For a thicker dip: Increase sour cream by 1/4 cup (or, conversely, add more milk, a little at a time, if a thinner consistency is desired).

Shake well before each use.

How I actually make it:
So the smallest buttermilk I can get at my store is a pint -- that's two cups for us Americans and 500 mL for the rest of the world -- and the percentage of me actually remembering and using 1 1/2 cups in other projects is roughly zero. So! I get two cups of sour cream, dump all that in my jar, then dump in the entire carton of buttermilk. I mean, really, what could happen?

THEN I go crazy and add a glug of lemon juice and start throwing in seasonings pretty much based on my ability to pay attention that day. And honestly, if I add 2 and a half tablespoons of dried parsley instead of the prescribed two (because I'm essentially doubling the recipe, remember), the world is NOT going to end. I find exact measurements for this kind of thing to be more of a guideline than the rule. (Eh, I'm 43. I've learned stuff.)

Oh, and I don't normally have onion powder, so I just add extra garlic powder -- yeah, I have garlic, but I prefer the powder in this recipe.

Um... I think that's it. It's not watery because of the extra buttermilk, but it IS a dressing, not a dip.

My quart of ranch (that's  4 cups for Americans and 1 L for everyone else) is just about gone now, and it's only Wednesday. Who knew this was all it took to get the girls to eat salad?

Bonus ramble:I googled "public domain ranch dressing" so I could find a photo to accompany this little post, since I'm too lazy to walk the three steps into the kitchen, take my container out of the fridge, and then try to make it look nice in a photograph, and THIS was part of the selection:

Maybe Hillary likes ranch?

The internet is so weird, you guys.