No seasoning packets here: just really good, fresh-tasting ranch you can use as a dip or a dressing for salad, veggies, wings, pizza, or any other appetizer/thing you want to dunk, dip, or spread with ranch.
Posts tagged as “sauce”
The season for holiday eating starts and lasts in my home well into January, since my birthday happens to fall on January 6th, just after the Christmas and New Year holiday stretch and on the day celebrated by some Christians around the globe as Three Kings Day. One of my favorite things about going grocery shopping at this time is how easy it is to find fresh cranberries. It wouldn't be the holidays in my house without cranberry sauce, which I have made every year for Thanksgiving since I was a kid.
In its fresh, not dried and sugar-coated, form, the cranberry is a controversial fruit: some love it, some hate it. I'm definitely on Team Cranberry and growing up, it was a contest each year between my mom and I to see how many bags of cranberries we could make for our sauce, which we did on Thanksgiving day. One year, we made six or seven bags worth of sauce, which we gave to family members in plastic containers along with festive tins of homemade cookies for their holiday celebrations.
I happen to think the cranberry is underrated. A lot of people don't like them because although they are round, like blueberries, they are mouth-puckeringly tart. Blueberries start off small and tart, ripening and getting sweeter as they mature. Not a cranberry, which is why I think of them as the blueberry's sassier cousin.
What's that one thing you really crave when a food craving hits? Pick your poison: savory or sweet. Maybe it's a really decadent chocolate dessert? Or a fresh, piping hot pizza with all of your favorite toppings?
You know that feeling of having a craving that just needs to be satisfied. A desire for something, you can practically taste whatever it is. Sometimes, the end result is amazing. Other times?
One of the worst food-related things that can probably happen in my opinion is having a craving for something, finally eating it, and having it be an epic fail. Talk about a letdown!
This happened to me recently with Chinese food. Dave and I try not to get take-out food too often, since it's expensive and not always the healthiest. But one night recently, neither of us felt like turning on a stove, firing up the grill, cutting seemingly endless amounts of produce, or doing anything for dinner other than picking up a fork (or chopsticks) and calling it a day. I ordered shrimp with broccoli, no sauce, and I couldn't wait to eat it after not having it in a while.
Granted, it came without sauce, but on the first bite... something wasn't right. It didn't taste bad, i.e. spoiled, but it didn't hit the spot. Added a little soy—still not right.
Then, the lightbulb went off in my head: make a quick sauce. Soy sauce needed some help from its friends ginger and garlic if there was any hope to save this dish.
