Hidden Valley Ranch Fest

I was super duper excited to be chosen for the 2nd Annual Hidden Valley Ranch Fest courtesy of Crowdtap. I received some great stuff from them including: a fantastic green shirt,recipes, cute little dipping bowls, packs of seasoning/dressing mix, coupons for Hidden Valley Ranch, and a bottle of ranch dressing.

The bowls are super cute and easy to place on your plates. They're really convenient, especially for my family who have a lot of people who don't really like dressing touching their food. The recipes were in both English and Spanish which was perfect for sharing with some of my family members that don't read English well.

I had a party planned, but sadly the weather didn't want to cooperate so I just handed out the dressing mixes along with some bowls, recipes, and coupons to some family and friends. They all tried making the potatoes with ranch because I mentioned how awesome they were. Seriously whether you use instant or "real" potatoes, russet or red, you need to get some ranch taters in your life! Below is the recipe I got off of the Hidden Valley Ranch website, feel free to use it as you wish. I omitted certain ingredients, but they still came out fantastic.

Original Ranch Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• 2 pounds peeled Idaho potatoes chopped
• 2 tablespoons Hidden Valley® Original Ranch Salad® Dressing & Seasoning Mix
• 3 tablespoons butter softened
• salt to taste
• ⅓ cup half-and-half
• pepper to taste

Directions:
Place potatoes in large pan with water over high heat and boil until tender but still firm, about 15–20 minutes. Heat butter, half-and-half and peppers in saucepan over low heat until combined. Drain potatoes and place in mixer with butter sauce. Add dressing mix and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

I cheated and used instant Idahoan Potatoes for the mashed potatoes and left out the chipotle peppers because I'm not a fan. The mashed potatoes came out super flavorful and I'll definitely be using real potatoes next time.

I also used the seasoning on my country style pork ribs. I took the package and slightly sprinkled over top and then rubbed it into the pork. I let it sit for about 20 minutes before putting it to cook. Once it was almost done I then took a little bbq sauce and just basted the ribs with it. If you've never had bbq chicken or ribs with ranch dressing before, you're definitely missing out! As you can see below the kids absolutely loved it and were wanting seconds, sadly there wasn't any more left and they asked me to make it again next time.



So that meal was two days ago and today, Nov 19, I'm using the ranch dressing mix to season my drumsticks and russet potatoes. I just sprinkled 2 tbsps onto the potatoes first and mixed them really well. I dumped them into a pan and proceeded to coat the chicken. I set the temp at 375 as that's normally what chicken recipes ask for. I've honestly never made this before so hopefully it comes out delish.

My nephew had a long practice so wasn't able to get a picture of the monsters eating. They practically inhaled everything without breathing, I don't know how they do it. They're like teenage tasmanian devils, all that was left was some chicken bones and happy kids.

I loved Hidden Valley Ranch before this and I definitely love it more now. I didn't think there were many ways to use ranch other than on top of a salad, or as a dip for buffalo wings. It's much more versatile and I'll definitely be adding ranch to my spice rack.


Disclaimer: I received the products shown above for the sole purpose of doing a review. All opinions are my own and no further compensation was received. If you would like to try out great products, then join Crowdtap.