One time I went to a Jack in the Box in Anaheim and they had a ranch dressing dispenser. Yes. You heard me correctly. In my sheisty town you have to pay 50 cents after two microscopic packages of ranch. But here? Here you had access to a free flowing lava of ranch, perfect for two monster tacos and a large curly fry. At this point you have either 1. Read enough of my blog posts to chuckle at my love for this particular meal or 2. You think I am a flat out glutton. There may be some truth to both. But because I like to pretend I’m classy, I’ll give myself the title of “foodie”.

When it comes to cooking, I love a good sauce. I love having an accompanying burst of flavor with which to drizzle over my food or use to dunk in delight. The recipes below are the versions I have played around with over time. Here are my top 5 favorite home made sauces and dips!

Chipotle Mayo

This is my most requested sauce. I’ve probably bought enough mayo in making this sauce to fill an olympic pool and it’s probably because you can put it on just about anything. As a dip for crackers and chips, a sauce for fajitas, burritos, and tacos, or a sauce for any meat imaginable. You get the idea. My husband said I should remind you to be careful. While the sauce is not particularly spicy, eating it becomes addictive and too much results in a firestorm from certain unmentionable places on your body. There, you’ve been warned.

–  1 thirty ounce jar of mayo (Yes. The whole thing)

–  1 garlic clove

–  1 seven ounce can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

–  Juice of half a lemon

–  ½ teaspoon salt

–  ½ teaspoon pepper

*Put the above ingredients in a food processor and blend until the garlic is thoroughly chopped. Keeping the blade going, drizzle in ¼ cup olive oil until blended.

Homemade BBQ Sauce

I did entire blog post on this bad boy so just click here to read all about this zesty little creation.

Dijon Aioli

My college friends Joan and Lindsey do not allow me to come visit unless I make this sauce. Again, you can dunk just about anything in it, but our favorite is parboiled yellow fingerling potatoes with a sprinkle of sea salt and cracked black pepper!

–  1 sixteen ounce jar of dijon mustard

–  ½ cup mayo

–  1 clove garlic

–  ½ teaspoon salt

–  ½ teaspoon pepper

*Put the above ingredients in a food processor and blend until the garlic is thoroughly chopped. Keeping the blade going, drizzle in ¼ cup olive oil until blended and creamy.  

Pesto

This is one of my personal faves because it’s so versatile. Spread it on crostinis, use it in wraps, pour it over hot pasta…basically it makes anything plain, taste amazing! Yes. You can buy pre-made in a tub at the store but where’s the fun in that? That stuff is also like triple the price for 3.2 ounces.

– 4 cups fresh basil leaves

– juice of ½ lemon

– ¼ cup pine nuts (however these are ridiculously overpriced so walnuts work just fine too)

– 1 clove garlic

– ¼ cup parmesan cheese

– 1 tsp. salt

– ½ tsp. pepper

*Put everything into a food processor and pulse until basil is chopped. Then turn it on high and drizzle in olive oil until pesto is the consistency you like (¼ – ½ cup). If you want to make extra and freeze the rest for later, just don’t add the parmesan cheese. Place the pesto in mason jars and freeze for future use. When you defrost it to use later, don’t forget to add the cheese. Pest without the salty bite of parmesan is not the business.

Summer dill dip

This is a SUPER easy dip to pair with veggies or crackers and is a great alternative to boring old ranch. It does not, however, replace ranch for tacos. There is no substitute for that.  

– 15 ounce container sour cream

– 1 cup mayo

– ¼ chopped green onions

– 1 Tbsp. dried dillweed

– juice of ¼ lemon

– ½ teaspoon salt

– ¼ teaspoon black pepper

*Place all the ingredients in a bowl and stir!

I hope you try these out this summer! Leave a comment below on which one is your favorite!