The Ranch Kitchen's Dilly Dip

As spring turn into summer, our garden is starting to overflow with squash and all our other vegetables.  One thing I always insist on making sure we have plenty of is crookneck squash and zucchini as we love it!

Last summer to help be a little healthier, I began to cut the fresh squash and serve it with Hidden Valley Ranch Dip as an appetizer before our meal each night.

Click here for the recipe for The Ranch Kitchen's Dilly Dip



This year with the fresh dill from my garden I've starting making my own The Ranch Kitchen's Dilly Dip that my husband and I have become pretty addicted too.  We enjoy it nightly now this past week and I can't wait to make it for my health conscious older daughters when they come in for Memorial Day weekend!

Click here for the recipe for The Ranch Kitchen's Dilly Dip

This recipe literally takes under five minutes to make and you will love it just as much, if not even better than traditional ranch dips or salad dressings.

The trick is to this dip is to grow your own fresh dill.  Dill is super, simple to grow and will spread in huge clumps pretty rapidly.  However, I don't think it taking over our herb garden will be much of a problem with Scott and I making this Dilly Dip all the time.

I used a new seasoning in this dip by Tone's called Six Pepper Seasoning Blend as you can see in the picture below. Click on the link in the name in the last sentence and you can buy it off Amazon. It's fantastic in this dip and even better on top of homemade pizza from our grill.

So give it a try and let me know how you like it.  It would be even healthier with a good Greek Yogurt or light sour cream used instead.

Try this dip as a side for baked fish like salmon, cod or catfish too!

Enjoy!

Remember, no one said cooking had to be hard!

Alise - The Ranch Kitchen   

Sure Champs November Post 'Recipes from the Ranch' - Holiday Must Haves!

 

Thanksgiving is almost here and most of us will be thinking toward what recipes to fix for our holiday meals.  For this month's Sure Champ's Recipes from the Ranch we shared some of my families favorite side dishes that have now become a tradition at our house.

It's a cook greatest wish to impress her family and friends and these recipes are always highly requested and loved.

Each of these recipes are easy to prepare the day before, cook the day of or add the dressing to right before serving.  Served here are my Sure Champ Blue Ribbon Green Beans and The Ranch Kitchen's Winter Salad. 

 

Check out the November Blog post below at the link or by clicking on the picture.  You'll find both recipes on the Sure Champ site and also on my recipe tab on The Ranch Kitchen Blog and Recipe Site.

 

 

You can read the blog post here at -
Sure Champ Recipes from the Ranch November Must Have Blog Post.

What are your favorite recipes?  I'd love for you to share them on my The Ranch Kitchen blog.  It's easy to create a login and post your recipes so that your famly and friends can easily access your family favorites for generations to come!

Happy holidays a little early and enjoy the cool, crisp weather ahead!

Alise Nolan

 

The Ranch Kitchens' Honey Mustard Spiced Pretzels

As my friend Buffy told me sometimes the best recipes are the mistakes!  This recipe turned out to be a real hit all because my youngest daughter accidentally picked up the wrong bag of pretzels! 

Me, being in a huge hurry as I usually am, prepared my seasonings on these pretzels AND THEN tasted them!  I realized all too late that she had picked up a bag of ROLD GOLD Honey Mustard flavored pretzels!  I really honestly didn't have to do a thing to them because they are already really great pretzels.  But, I guess it's a good thing I did made this mistake because these pretzels turned out super spicy and our staff liked them the best so far of all I've made most recently!  I get a little tickled as they walk in and fill up a entire bowl to make it through testing breaks or the day!

The Ranch Kitchen's Honey Mustard Spiced Pretzels

2 bags ROLD GOLD® Honey Mustard Flavored Tiny Twists Pretzels

1 cup Canola oil

1 package Hidden Valley^® Original Ranch^® Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix

1 teaspoon of garlic salt
 
2 teaspoons of Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning

Mix seasoning in oil with a whisk.  Place 1/2 bag of pretzels in a large bowl and pour 1/4 of seasoned oil on top of pretzels.  Mix up the mixture with a spoon and pour another half bag of pretzels and continue to alternate the seasoned oil and stirring pretzels. 

I usually allow this mixture to sit overnight covered with Seran wrap or as in today's case, we served it immediately! 

Enjoy!  It's spicy and not for those watching your salt intake...but it might be worth an occasional treat! 

As with all my pretzel recipes on this site, you can always bag these up and take on trips in individual baggies!

Alise

The Ranch Kitchen's Ultimate Fire Crackers

I love my spice rack!  I may use too much garlic salt, too much Tony Chachere's and usually too much lemon pepper, but cooking and making things in excess seems to be my specialty.  I love to make things in a pinch or hurry that turn out well or so said my friends. The Fire Crackers I'm sharing on my blog today was just one such recipe!

My newest quick recipe are these The Ranch Kitchen's Ultimate Fire Crackers that were over the top good and a HUGE hit at my recent snack table we put together for our teachers and staff for our recent state test.  I modified this 'fire cracker' recipe from one I had fixed a few years back to include some spices that I thought would give it the extra punch it needed.  The extra garlic salt and especially the Salad Supreme Seasoning gave it the salty crunch that I think made these the hit they were.  You can adjust the red pepper flakes to your heat index, as you may not like things as spicy or hot as we do! 

With all that said, these are slightly addicting, way bit spicy and definitely something I'll make in huge batches now for home parties, camping, traveling on the show road this summer and for potlucks as an appetizer. 


The Ranch Kitchen's Ultimate Fire Crackers

1 box of saltine crackers (4 sleeves)
1 cup Canola, grape seed or vegetable oil
1 package Hidden Valley^® Original Ranch^® Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix
1 teaspoon garlic salt
2 teaspoons McCormick Salad Supreme Seasoning
2 teaspoons of red pepper flakes

Mix with a whisk your dry spice ingredients in a small bowl.  Add oil to this and mix well with a whisk.  Break open 4 packages of saltine crackers and place in a gallon size Ziploc bag all at one time.  Pour oil and spice mixture over the saltine crackers a little at a time. Reseal package and gently shake and move crackers around in the Ziploc baggie to move oil/spice mixture around.  Add remaining oil/spice mixture to saltine crackers, seal baggie and mix. 

I served these immediately in a large bowl. However, you can allow these to sit for 30 minutes and air dry on a cookie sheet then spoon back in to a new/clean Ziploc bag or plastic container with a top that seals tightly. 

These will feed approximately 20 people IF they don't devour more than ten crackers at a sitting!

This is the spice Salad Supreme Seasoning that I think gave these crackers the extra crunch!



These would be great packaged up in snack sized Ziploc baggies for people to grab at functions as well or to use as a snack at work or in school lunches. 

Enjoy!

My Girls Favorite Squash

 

At least once while my girls are in, I MUST make this easy squash side vegetable dish that is always their most requested healthy dish.  Thank goodness they are calorie conscious, and I am getting more so with age.  This recipe can be seasoned with any seasoning really, but we prefer Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning, or occasionally lemon pepper and garlic salt.  With 1/4 cup Canola oil and a chopped onion, these zucchini and yellow squash are an excellent side that sometimes gets a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese as an added bonus!

 

 

My Girls Favorite Squash

 

 

4 yellow squash. sliced in 1/4 inch circles

4 zucchini squash, sliced in 1/4 inch circles

1 onion, chopped in large chunks

1/4 cup Canola Oil, vegetable, grapeseed, or olive oil

2 teaspoons Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning or you can use 1 teaspoon garlic salt with 1 teaspoon lemon pepper instead.  Truly - season to your liking.

 

 

Prepare squash and onions.  Pour 1/4 cup oil in a Teflon coated pan with stove top turned to medium high heat.  Add squash and onions cooking for five minutes while stirring occasionally.  Add seasoning and continue cooking on medium and then low heat as your vegetables start to cook through. I usually cook this uncovered, but when I am in a hurry covering your pan with it's lid will speed up the process!

 

***We love, love this simple, low calorie squash dish probably once a week in the summer when it's in overabundance in our garden!  It is great to make in large batches and have for leftovers for the next days meals.  I usually cook this in my large Teflon coated wok.

 

Alise  

 

 

 

 

 

 ***This was lunch today for my girls that consisted of my Stuffed Jalapeno and Cheese Chicken and pasta.  I used nacho jalapeno's for this chicken dish as I was out of my usual favorite of pickled jalapenos, carrots, and onions.  When you live in the country...you don't just run to town!

Enjoy!

The Ranch Kitchen's Pico De Galo

Click here for a recipe card of Pico de Galo

I miss summer.  I miss my flowers, my garden and most especially our homegrown tomatoes.  I am starting to be sick of winter and all that comes with it. EVERY mosquito in my yard should be dead by now.  And we are ready to camp, wear short sleeved shirts and grill outside again! Winter needs to go away quietly, but for some reason this year it's wetter, colder, and more miserable than we ever remember!

I don't think it's because I'm getting old.  I do however think it's because like so many of us this year our winter in the south, north, east and west has been the most brutal we can imagine.  My heating bill attest to it and we've burned more fires in our fireplace than in the past!  My husband said the other night he had built his last fire in the fireplace....Kyle and I think differently!

I had a few minutes to blog tonight and found a post of my summer tomatoes where I had posted the pictures above and below with the intent of posting the recipe some day soon.  Oh, how it made me ready for summer and this Pico de Galo!  Honestly though, this tomato side dish can be made anytime of year.  In Texas it's made year round in Mexican restaurants to go on the side of fajitas (beef skirt steak with bell peppers and onions served steaming hot on hot flour tortillas) or as a type of chunky salsa to dip your chips in (fried corn tortilla chips). 

The recipe pretty much follows what I have included below, but you can make variations by adding guacamole, sweet banana or bell peppers.  We love lots of lemon or lime juice in ours and I especially love using my Persian limes from my pot off my back porch.  And that makes me realize that I didn't think about how much I missed my fresh limes! 

Pico de Galo will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and I have been known to add more tomatoes to it to keep it going bringing it out at dinner each night.  This dish isn't just for Mexican food and is great with just about anything be it summer, winter, spring or fall.

The Ranch Kitchen's Pico de Galo

8 tomatoes, chopped in 1/2 inch cubes

1 sweet white onion or red onion, chopped fine

1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped fine (optional)

1 sweet banana pepper, chopped fine

1 bunch cilantro, chopped fine

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped fine (seeding takes our some of the heat)

1 lime or lemon, juiced

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon pepper

Cut up tomatoes, onions, bell and sweet peppers, cilantro and jalapeno pepper.  You use the food processor for the peppers on the pulse button to get my vegetables to the right consistency.  I don't suggest pulsing the tomatoes in the food processor as they may get too mushy.  I like my tomatoes firm for my Pico.  Add all seasoning and taste.  If you need more lemon or lime juice, garlic salt or pepper, just add it to your own liking.





Looking at this picture from last summer really makes me wish for

summer and our  garden tomatoes!