Friday Addiction: Toasted Ritz crackers with cream cheese and jelly

Yes you read that title right, toasted Ritz crackers with cream cheese and grape jelly.  It’s really, really good. It’s a relic from my childhood.  We had this wonderful neighbor/babysitter we called Grandma Rose and she really got me started on my lifelong love affair with Italian food.  She also made this delicious snack for my sister and I all the time.

Tonight I made it for Future Foodie and she is now officially a fan.

It’s super easy.  All you need are Ritz cracker, some plain cream cheese, and jelly of your choice (I prefer concord grape jelly).

Lay the crackers on a piece of foil, smear the cream cheese on each cracker, and add a dollop of jelly.  It should look like this:

Pop into a toaster oven on the toast setting for just a few minutes.  The goal is to get the cream cheese warm, the jelly to melt a little, and toast the cracker a bit.

Now eat one or more if you’re so inclined.  You will get a nice mouthful of buttery, slightly salty, a little tart, creamy, sweet goodness.

Friday Addiction: Potato Chip and Peanut Wrap

Yes you read that title right – a potato chip and peanut wrap.  This is J’s guilty pleasure snack.  He loves to make these sandwiches, it really combines three of his favorite things to eat. He loves the creaminess of the peanut butter contrasted with the salty, crunch of the chips.  “A perfect delicacy” in J’s words.  He’s kind of a glutton for peanut butter, would probably eat a dirty sponge if it was dipped in peanut butter.  He and his family eat  Syrian flat bread (usually it’s from Cananda) with EVERYTHING! Really!  For example, I have seen: Syrian bread wrapped around breakfast sausage, spaghetti and meatballs, fresh vegetables; anything they can wrap that bread around, they will eat it that way.

So if you are feeling like you want to try a brand new sandwich, here’s what you need:

Bread of your choice

Peanut butter (J uses natural peanut butter from the Honest Weight Food Co-op to give it that patina of healthiness)

Ruffle potato chips (but really any potato chips would do)

Instructions:

Spread peanut butter on bread. Layer on the chips. Smoosh the two sides a tiny bit.  Enjoy.

Friday Addiction: Stovetop Popcorn

I never knew popcorn could be so sinfully delicious until my husband made me some popcorn on the stove.  His popcorn now makes me scoff at microwave popcorn (which by the way, can cause cancer).  This stovetop popcorn has a buttery taste without actually using any butter.  Do I have your attention now? Good, now get moving and make some popcorn!

Ingredients

1/3 cup Canola oil

3/4 – 1 cup popcorn kernels (we use white, organic popcorn because we’re stinkin’ snobs)

Salt

Instructions

Place the canola oil in a big metal bowl or big soup pot.  Heat the oil on medium high heat.

When the oil gets hot, almost smoking, add the kernels in.  Shake the bowl around to coat all the kernels.

Put a cover on the bowl.  Move the pan over the heat source back and forth to distribute the heat. It is essential that you lift the cover a little every now and then to let steam out. But be careful, when popping starts in earnest, make sure that kernels aren’t flying all over your kitchen.

As popping slows down considerably, pull the bowl off the heat.  Put the popcorn into a bowl, toss with salt (to taste).  Toss from bowl to bowl, adding salt until salty enough.

Note: to make it even more delicious, get some Cabot shakable cheddar cheese and shake that shit all over the popcorn.  Get ready to get into a fist fight with your family over that popcorn; it’s that good.

Friday Addiction: Soft Pretzels

Soft pretzels can be very good or very bad (aka soggy, no flavor). When they are good, they are crisp on the outside, soft in the middle, with a small amount of salt.  These pretzels exist at the Philly Pretzel Factory
in Clifton Park.

The pretzels are extremely affordable, you can buy a whole bag of the pretzels, eat all of them or save some for later.  We usually do that and stash them in the freezer.  They heat up wonderfully in the toaster oven.

I just ate one, here it is prior to entering my belly:

Yum.