Sour Cream

 

 

Salads make up a sizable portion of the food that I eat daily.  I often times eat a salad that is bigger than my head.  In fact, I usually eat a salad that overflows an 8 X 8 inch baking dish.  I do not think I have ever met a vegetable or fruit that I have not enjoyed in a salad.  But, of course, various forms of lettuce, chard, arugula, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and olives are standards that find their way into damn near every salad I eat.  But, I put all sorts of other great things in as well, and this usually helps in using up bits of other things we have been using in other food preparation.  Garbanzo beans (chickpeas), kidney beans, pinto beans, and black beans are frequent fliers in my flight of fancy with salads as well.  But again, nothing is really off limits.

Well.... EXCEPT.... fat.  As a lot of folks know, I try to shy away from eating fatty foods.  I save the small amount of fat I do eat for "splurges"..... like an occasional cookie, or an ice cream cone from the ice cream shoppe... but those tend to be rare, special occasions.  For me, eating very low fat as my day-to-day food plan is, I believe, very helpful for me physically.  

Yet, one thing I have missed is specifically "Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing" that is traditionally made using the seasoning packets shown above in which these seasonings are mixed into a 50-50 blend of whole milk and mayonnaise....  which makes the dressing VERY high fat.  

Ranch dressing is probably my favorite dressing to have on salad.  Even though I do not add much dressing to salad overall, I still refrained from having "Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing" because even the small amount I would use still contained a high level of fat grams.  So, for a number of years, I would try and use just about any bottled, fat-free ranch dressing I could find.  They were generally "ok" and I made due with them.  But, none of them tasted like "Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing" made from the spice packets.  

I am not sure why it took me so long to figure out a work-around for this, for I am always fussing and fiddling with recipies of all sorts when I cook and bake.  But, it was only perhaps four months ago or so, that I suddenly had a "EUREKA" moment.... and figured out a great way to have the true, "Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing" flavor for my salad..... and it is so damn easy, I cannot believe I didn't think of it long ago.  

What I do now, is I have my wife buy (she usually shops for groceries) me a pint of Fat Free Sour Cream.  In the stores in our region, we have four different brands of Fat Free Sour Cream, and we have eaten them all over the years.  One brand, in particular, however, tends to reliably come in a thinner, more "liquidy" consistency than the other three brands.  For most purposes, thicker sour cream is what we prefer...... BUT.... this thinner variety..... is PERFECT for making a fat free version of "Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing".  I simply empty the spice packet into a new pint container of this thinner fat free sour cream, and blend.  

It tastes WONDERFUL and hits all the right "Ranchy" notes I have been missing for a long time.  I think I have made four batches of it since January.  It is great to have that flavor back.  

* * * * *

When I ran my 11 miles this morning, I was amazed that my "gizmoey" watch I wear while running suddenly started to record my heart rate again!  If you may recall, this gizmoey watch was an old cast-off (reject) that my youngest son no longer wanted after he received a mega-fancy, much, much more expensive "gizmo" watch a year or two ago.  Although I never really needed the damn thing, I admit I had grown fond of its ability to record the number of miles I ran because it gave me much more flexibility on where to run as I did not need to stick only to known routes I had already measured the mileage of.  And, I also found it interesting in that it would record my heart rate.... both while at rest and while running.  But... unfortunately, for some unknown reason, in early February, the heart rate monitor quit functioning as did the distance recorder.  It became just a watch. It annoyed me a bit, but what the hell could I do?  So I just lived with it as a watch. Things became extraordinarily busy right around that time, so I never found any time to fuss with the damn thing to see if I could figure out how to fix it. 

But, a few days ago, I thought.... why the hell do I wear this watch, when it is just a boring digital watch that is only a watch, when I have the more interesting, more aesthetically pleasing analog watches I have amassed across my lifetime, that I could wear instead?  So I took it off, attached the gizmo watch to its "charger thing" it needs to keep it running, and have been wearing one of my analog watches all week.  I am actually wearing one of the two "wind up" watches I have that are still functional.  

So... when I awoke to run yesterday, I was going to put on the "gizmo" watch because it has a light button (the wind-up, of course, does not) to run outside, so I could see the time (because it was dark).  But, unfortunately, I had not pushed in the charger "doo-dad" all the way, and the gizmo watch did not charge, and had instead drained completely of power..... zilch.  So, I fiddled with it to assure that the "doo-dad" was inserted all the way into the watch so it would charge, and left for my run without a watch (I used the clock on my phone to figure out what time it was).  

But... now the good news..... this is my THEORY.... so I am not sure if it is true or not.... but I am thinking that perhaps when my "gizmo" watch completely drained itself of energy, perhaps it reset in some fashion to "default" settings.... because lo-and-behold..... both the mileage counter and heart monitor functioned this morning! Perhaps in early February I may have pushed some errant button without realizing it that must have turned stuff off?  I do not really know.  Things have been to hectic work-wise the last several weeks, so I never investigated the "gizmo" watch further.  But, now it appears I no longer need to find time to fuss with the damn thing.  I can just wear it again.    

* * * * *

While running today, I took some time to gingerly venture off the smooth path, back onto some sidewalks instead, to give me a different view.  It was nice, although I did have to be very careful and conscious of watching for cracks and upheavals in the sidewalk so I would not tumble and crash. But, during the miles I was on the smooth pavement, after I completed my daily rosary, I allowed myself to remember and daydream about that beautiful honey-maple burley leaf I found yesterday.  I had not thought of that blend in quite a long time.  But, when I found it, it brought back many memories of wonderful times when I was smoking that blend.  I remember a camping trip when our kids were pretty small, and I remember the flavors of that blend being so pleasant as we sat around the firepit, laughing and talking.  And the camping trip also reminded me of the fun we had playing Uno and "Crazy 8s" with the kids late into the evening at the campgrounds as well.  The scent of the honey-maple pipe tobacco elicited a memory circuit I had not thought of in a long time.  It was part of a conditioned,  olfactory memory, I guess.  

PipeTobacco