Snack Food Edition: Ranch Oysterettes

This is a pretty short and sweet post.
After all, I am on vacation at the beach for my 5th wedding anniversary...and I have XBOX 360 to be playing.

...what?  You thought I was going to say something else?  I'm a geek, remember?  Of course we brought the XBOX 360 on vacation.  Normal people bring swimsuits, geeks bring gaming consoles.  That's how it goes.

Speaking of gaming...we have occasional game nights at our house for our friends.  Everyone knows that gaming and snacks go together like Bert & Ernie, so the wine starts to flow and the snacks follow suit. One of my favorite things to fix (and the most dangerously addictive!) is ranch oysterette crackers. These things are sooo yummy.

You may want to make a double batch if you are having a big group come over, because these little crackers move fast. I set out bowls of these on the table, and I'm hopping up to refill them every few minutes until people realize how many they have eaten and beg me to stop.  That's how game night goes at our place...we'll feed you snacks until you beg us for the safety of your waistline.  There's no shame in my game: my mother taught me to feed guests well, and that's what I do.

Without further adieu, I give you the recipe written in my chicken scratch.  Enjoy!

(My friend Kelia has a serious addiction to these!)

Poor Man's Pad Thai

Hubby and I are on vacation at the beach this week to celebrate our 5th anniversary.

I love North Carolina.  I really feel that they are one of the few states that are really passionate about food they are known for, like BBQ.

Being born and bred in Eastern North Carolina, I grew up on Ralph's BBQ off of I-95.  It still might be one of the holy grails of N.C. BBQ for me...but I did happen to find a close second:  Smithfield's Chicken 'n' BBQ.  There is nothing like having that bite of pepper and vinegar assault your palate and make your tongue do the happy dance!

Every now and then, if you are really lucky, you can catch bags of freshly fried pork skins at the register of either one of these places.  In fact, it's been such a rare sighting for me when I walk in that it's almost like seeing Big Foot when I do.

I had a Big Foot sighting yesterday at Smithfield's.  I tried to remain calm, so as not to create a stampede.  In fact, I waited until hubby and I finished ordering until I nonchalantly added, "And one of these," indicating one of the two bags left to the guy taking our order, trying not to break it down into a touchdown dance.  Man, I was smooth. James Bond has nothing on me.

My parents love Smithfield's, so being a good daughter, of course I sort of took a picture and rubbed their noses in it a little bit.  (don't worry, karma being the bitch that it is, got me good later that night but that's a story for later this week...trust me you'll love this one.)  The conversation with my dad absolutely makes me crack up. Pork fat rules.  LOL!

Have you ever eaten Pad Thai?  It's really delicious!  There are a few places in Northern Virginia that make a really delicious version, and one of them was featured on the Food Network during an episode of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" a few years ago.  I have tried to make it exactly twice, and have gotten pretty decent results both times.  Neither one has been the classic version, but the most recent one is really easy, not expensive, and pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

The best part?  This version utilizes a staple that might bring back fond memories of being a broke college student: ramen noodles!

Okay so here are the tools of the trade:

• One package of ramen noodles
• one egg
• 2 tablespoons lime juice (not pictured)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onion
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• red pepper flakes or Siracha, optional

It's really important to have all of your ingredients measured and ready to use, because this recipe moves fast.  

You know that flavoring packet that comes with the noodles?  Take it out, you won't need it.  Keep it for later...I am sure I can come up with something to use it in.  So if you remember my post about saving money, this will make sense:  use two packets of soy.  I used three and it was a bit too much. Stir your soy sauce and lime juice into your brown sugar for a bit until it dissolves.

I also find that while green onions aren't very expensive, I never use them all before they get all slimy and nasty.  So I chop them all, and I put them in a container and throw them into the freezer.  That way I can grab them and throw them into dishes as needed.  

Can you use regular oil instead of sesame?  Absolutely.  I just like the added flavor of it.

Start by throwing your noodles into some water. Let them cook for maybe 4 minutes, enough for them to break apart and get a little soft.  Drain them and set them aside until later.  

While you wait for the noodles to cook, crack the egg into a small bowl or cup, take a fork and beat it. Spray your pan with some nonstick spray and toss in the garlic and green onions.  Saute them over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, then add in your egg. Scramble it gently until it's just about done, and then set it aside.

Using the same pan, add your sesame oil, the cooked noodles and the soy sauce/lime juice/brown sugar mixture.  Toss those around in the sauce and let it cook over low medium for a few minutes until the majority of the sauce is combined into the noodles.  

Here is where you can also throw in some cooked chicken, beef, or even some small salad shrimp.  I left mine as is, but that's because I didn't really have anything to add...but that salad shrimp sounds better and better all of the time.  I suppose you could use tofu as well, but I have not made many recipes where I have been very successful with it.

Oh, and if you want a bit of a bite, you can toss some red pepper flakes in there as well.  Maybe even some Siracha if you like that.

Now take that egg you previously cooked and add it, using a spatula to break it up.  Stir it well and let it all get combined.  Make sure all the sauce has been absorbed and cooked into the noodles.  If it starts to look a bit dry, add a touch more soy, but you don't want the noodles dripping.  Just well seasoned and delicious.

Grab a plate or a bowl and that's it!  

Unless you have some peanuts laying around, because then totally grab a tablespoon and chop them for the top.  It pulls it all together, trust me.

Enjoy!!

Biscuits & Gravy Casserole

I am a Southern girl who likes her comfort food.   The trouble with Northern Virginia is that if you want some good old comfort grub from the South, the only place you can go around here that even smacks of home cookin' is Cracker Barrel.  Don't get me wrong...I love me some Cracker Barrel.  Chicken fried steak, biscuits, country ham, dumplins and fried okra?  Um, yes please!

When I feel the need for some super yummy comfort food, I go to the one dish my husband turned me on to - oddly, after I had moved to Northern Virginia! - biscuits and sausage gravy.  One taste and I was wondering how I had lived without this in my life for so long.  Why had no one made this for me before and forced me to try it? (yeah...okay...not that anyone is going to have to force me to try anything that has the words "biscuits" or "gravy" in it)

But I digress.

Usually he is the master chef behind this dish when we have it, but my poor dude has spent the last 4 days working four - count 'em FOUR - 16 hour shifts.  So I always want to make sure he has something yummy to come home to.  Besides me, of course...bwahaha!

Have I mentioned I like simple cooking?
Yeah.  Lazy cooking.
That's the way this house rolls for the most part.  I still throw in a complicated recipe every now and then just to prove I can do it.  (chocolate Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream and chocolate whiskey ganache are no joke to make, but sooo worth it)

In any case, I decided to turn our beloved biscuits and gravy into a casserole, hoping for more more servings than our greedy butts get with the traditional way of cooking it.  In a way I guess it kind of worked.  We got 4 servings out of it, but mainly because I immediately put them in containers and stuck them in the fridge.  Out of sight, out of mind and all that.  Well, usually.

It couldn't be ANY simpler to make this.

For starters, preheat your oven to a toasty 350­°. Now grab an 8x8 pan, and lightly grease it so the bottom of the casserole won't stick.

Take a one pound roll of sausage - any brand or flavor will do - and brown it in a pan.  Drain that and set it aside for later. Try not to nibble on the cooked sausage, even though the smell has to be driving you bananas.

Oh, is that just me?  Alrighty then.

Now you want to make that pepper gravy.  You can get a package and add water, then warm it on the stove.  That's the easy way to go, and nothing wrong with it at all!

I just find it easier - and a lot cheaper - to make my own.  One cup of milk, 3 tablespoons of flour, ¼ teaspoon of salt,  and 1 teaspoon black pepper.  You can be liberal with the pepper. Honestly, I just grabbed my pepper mill and added cracked pepper until I liked the way it looked. Let this simmer on the stove for a while until it thickens into gravy.  Make sure you taste it to make sure you don't need to add more salt or pepper.  Nothing is worse than gravy that tastes like cardboard!

You know that 8x8 pan you prepared?  Let's decorate it.

Grab a can of Grands biscuits. Now flatten four biscuits and smoosh them together in the bottom of the pan so they make a crust or sorts.

This is why you want to make sure you grease the pan.  Stuck on, inedible biscuits are a major cooking violation that should be illegal.  Wasting biscuits??  A good Southerner would beat you for that one. That's like throwing away fatback.  It's just not done, man!
*tsk*

Alrighty, combine that sausage with the gravy and pour it on top of those biscuits in the pan.

Now take the remaining four biscuits and smoosh them as flat as you can get them.  Making a good crust that covers the top as amply as the bottom was hard for me here...but mainly because I was getting hungry and not willing to spend a lot of time on it! That sausage gravy mixture was begging me to eat it by the spoonful, and it was growing harder and harder to resist so I needed to get that in the oven double time.




Drop that in the oven and bake it until those biscuits are golden brown.  Try not to grab a fork and dig in like a puppy.

Now if I were a good wife, I would have made my own biscuit crust instead of buying canned ones. I might Bisquick it one day and see how that turns out, but if I go whole hog and actually make biscuits from scratch, I am definitely not squishing them in a pan to be a crust.  I'm going to smother them in some marmalade or apple butter or just eat them plain.

Because...homemade biscuits.
Yeah.