Home Made Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
    I'm picky about the mix. I load up on Hidden Valley mix when it's on sale. I also hoard it. I'm, now, using packets I stowed back when the company also made a Thousand Island and an Italian Ranch dressing mix.
    I mix mine a bit differently, though. I'm not sure whether it's 'healthier', although I figured out the caloric content and it is "lighter", if that means something to you [My recipe = 35.6 calories/Tbl; Recipe on back of packet = 48.43 calories/Tbl] It doesn't to us. I made all my changes based on taste and an internal "ick" factor when it comes to using mayonnaise. Don't ask.
    You have to like sour to like this. Not lip puckering sour but sour. I have made this recipe with all sour cream, but that's just a bit too sour for me.
*  *  *  *  *My Homemade Ranch Dressing
Ingredients:
1 packet Hidden Valley Original Buttermilk Ranch seasoning
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk (more buttermilk for a thinner dressing)

Preparation:
Whisk together the mayonnaise and sour cream with the contents of the seasoning packet.
Add buttermilk, continuing to whisk ingredients until well mixed.
Pour into jar. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before using.
Yields: 24 oz.
*  *  *  *  *    Very easy little recipe. I buy a quart of buttermilk and we have usually gone through it before the "SELL BY" date. Needless to say, I also buy mayonnaise and buttermilk in bulk.
    I'm not sure if it's any cheaper than store bought dressing. It has significantly less sugar, which is something for which I always appreciate. Since it is this dressing often makes the difference between my mother eating vegetables or not, we use it liberally.
    My habit of liberally adding vegetables to whatever simmered concoction I'm making: Mac & Cheese; marinara; any soups, any stews, the Strogansauer I make; as well as making lots of stir fries, etc., has not changed since I began doing the cooking. What's changed is, first, that she deigns to eat these high fiber concoctions and, second, that she no longer fastidiously picks out the vegetables and consigns them to the disposal. She even gets excited about vegetables. She is super sensitive to and appreciative of the smell of onions and garlic sauteeing, so I try to accomplish this as often as possible.

    Something I want to make clear. This isn't primarily a food column for those caring for an Ancient One. It is, primarily, a meditation about food as it comes to bear on my life, the life of my Ancient one, and our life together. I like sharing recipes so I know I'll be doing this, especially within the next few days. But, expect, more often, that I'll be musing about food. I am of the experiential opinion that food, its selection and preparation, goes a long way toward enlivening the spirit and prodding one to alertness. Appetite is also the first to go when something goes wrong.
    I remember mentioning in my main journal that this weekend might lend itself to lots of cooking. So far, this hasn't been true, but the sudden drop in temperature has given me a handy place to store the ham before dividing it up for freezing: The front porch. Ahh, rural life.

Labels: aroma and cooking for Ancient Ones, Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing, purpose of this journal, storing ham

- posted by Gail Rae @ 16:43  0 comments   email...this post

 
Where to start? How about with the cup of cocoa I just made...
...to relax me out of the day and into contemplating why I'm starting this journalized section of The Mom & Me Journals dot Net? This cup of cocoa isn't an Ancient One recipe. It is a Caregiver to the Ancient One recipe. It's my way of winding down in the evening, after my Ancient One has gone to bed. This cup of cocoa is also the smoothest homemade instant (I know, an oxymoron, but hold onto your britches) by-the-cup cocoa you'll ever make. Guaranteed. I've refined this recipe through years of fooling around, and this is the best version, yet.*  *  *  *  *Easy On The Evening Cocoa
Ingredients:
1.  1 really heaping tablespoon of powdered cocoa
2.  a little less than the equivalent of honey
3.  a pinch (just a few grains) kosher salt
3.  splashes to taste of your favorite flavoring (I used orange extract and almond extract, tonight)
4.  about a teaspoon of instant decaf coffee for a little mocha richness
5.  about 6 oz heavy whipping cream to an 18 oz cup

Preparation:
    While you are heating water to a boil:
    Mix the first four ingredients around in the bottom of an 18 oz cup until they've moistened themselves, forming a smooth, thick, dark paste.
    Begin adding the cream to the cup and stirring it into the cocoa paste. As you stir the cream in, the paste will become lighter, smoother, and a touch whipped, as well, as heavy cream doesn't need much encouragement to incorporate air in a pleasing manner. Continue adding and stirring in heavy cream until the paste reaches the color you'd like your cocoa to be. That's right. It's that simple.
    Now, your water's boiling, or very, very hot. Fill the cup slowly with hot/boiling water and stir the water through the smooth, light mousse-like cocoa paste you made in the cup, just as though you were stirring hot water into a cup with instant powdered cocoa mix. But, the cocoa's soooo much better! There's a nice foam on top, perfect for floating marshmallows, if that's your preference. The liquid is smooth and devilishly creamy. You can control the amount, sweetness, richness and flavor overtones of the final product from the beginning.
    This recipe is particularly good when using liqueur as flavorings, as alcohol evaporates at 120F. Always cut back on the honey if you use liqueurs.*  *  *  *  *    It isn't that I keep this cocoa purposely. It's that the only time I make it is deep into the evening, maybe an hour before I'm planning on going to bed. Mom is almost always in bed by this time. If she's not, she usually prefers a generic mint chocolate mix that I can't stand. As well, although she loves chocolate, she's never been much of a cocoa fan. So, I have this recipe all to myself. Almost every evening when I am writing a last journal entry of the day I am usually polishing off a cup of this cocoa as I polish up a post.
    Mom doesn't have personal, never been shared recipes like this, anymore. I'm sure she did. I think I peeked in on some of them during the first years of our life together. Some of her unshared foods, usually sandwich concoctions, were horrendous. But, then, I think she'd consider my evening cocoa scandalous. But, she doesn't do much food preparation, anymore. I'm surprised she made herself toast, yesterday.
    She never really was much of a cook. Not bad, but not good. I think some of that was her smoking habit, which was overwhelming when I was a kid. However, she loved that her daughters enjoyed cooking and put us to the task. So, she has a long history of knowing how I cook and trusting me as I cook.
    She doesn't always remember what she likes (sometimes involving day-to-day lapses), and, advantageously, what she doesn't like. This is how I was able to introduce her to flavorful vegetables over the last two years. It went slowly but surely. Now she lingers over sumptuously vegetabled Cobb salads, the only dinner, when she's not feeling good and her appetite is iffy, of which she'll eat the whole thing, even if it takes her an hour. Of course, a lot of her turn of taste buds has to do with heavily flavoring vegetables, but I've managed to stay away from cream sauce, thank the gods. She never was much for that.
    So, anyway, what I'm doing here over in this Mom & Me journal is recording interesting things about my mother's and my relationship/s to food and how this translates to our relationship with each other. She's come a long way since mid 2000, around the time I stopped writing columns for Playing with Food. So, I haven't written about her eating habits and food preferences since then, although, toward the end of writing the columns I remember beginning to mention my mother's diagnosed type 2 diabetes, some of the changes I was beginning to introduce to her diet and how I was attempting to introduce them.
    Maybe the best formal way to introduce My Mother and Food is to cite some places where you can access her history. If you'll take a look to the upper right in the menu bar, you'll notice, toward the end, two lists of Playing With Food columns in which she is mentioned, or heralded, or both. Her food proclivities played frequent roles in many of my columns. In some, they were the subject. I don't expect you to read the following list, but use it as a reference.

    Informally, though, well, where should I start? My mother's diet, is, now superb, as I've mentioned in other areas here. It has not always been superb, and, frankly, I didn't push for changes until, bit by bit, certain issues had to be addressed or Mom and I had to decide to give up on her health. We, together, struggling, sometimes, chose the high road. So, that's what I'll talk about, as I post. Things like, oh, ruminations on how Mom came to love vegetables. How she broke herself of her chocolate habit, and a few others, like peanut butter and nuts (although she still likes a few now and then). And, sometimes, maybe more than sometimes, I'll publish recipes; things that Mom and I regularly eat.
    I'll talk about my own habits, as well. For instance, I'll bet you've wondered if I continue to eat a different diet than Mom. Short answer: Nope. She's eating my diet, now, except for a few differences. She eats lots more cottage cheese than I. I rarely drink V-8 juice. I eat fewer eggs than she. My portions are usually a tiny bit larger, but not much, and sometimes, depending on the food (like ham and split pea soup), my portion is decidedly smaller. I eat somewhat more fruit and sugar than she does, but invisibly, in my coffee, for instance. If you think her diet is high in fiber, mine is even higher; I use a much heartier bread than hers; I eat lots more vegetables, lots fewer fats. I take the same supplements she does, except for iron and only in the morning, plus a few more for menopause management, but no medications, no aspirin, no aloe vera, no calcium/vitamin D (although I don't suppose that one would hurt me).
    Well, anyway, there'll be lots more, I'm sure, now that I've got this started. I can just pop in and publish at will. This is also being advertised, by the way, over at Playing with Food. And, it is included in the search at that site. I may split them, later, but, right now, I don't think it's necessary.
    So, now I'm up and running on at least four wheels. How strange this journey has been for me. How strange, I think, it will continue to be.

Labels: cocoa by the cup, dementia and mom's food preferences, mom and cooking, mom's food history, personal recipes, purpose of this journal

- posted by Gail Rae @ 01:29  0 comments   email...this post