Sunday, April 26, 2020 – So I know people don’t like it when recipe writers spend too much time telling a story before they get to the recipe, but the setup is actually pretty important here.
It all started when I had my Dungeons & Dragons players play a parody of Guy’s Grocery Games. For this particular parody, they had to design a recipe using some ingredients from a table (either by rolling for it, or by playing an IRL simulation of skee-ball). This party was dealt a hand of hot dogs and canned ravioli, and then halfway through the competition, I threw in popcorn as a monkey wrench.
What did they come up with? Find out, after the cut!
Ravioli Dog
Ingredients
3 Tbsp butter
1/4 onion, chopped
1/2 stalk celery, thinly sliced
1/2 jalapeno, finely chopped
kosher salt
2 hot dog buns
1 15oz can canned ravioli
1 tsp sriracha sauce
kosher salt
ground black pepper
2 beef hot dogs
2 oz shredded cheddar
Directions
- Melt 2 Tbsp of butter in a medium sauce pan on medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and jalapenos with a pinch of kosher salt. Saute until soft, about 10 min.
- While the vegetables are cooking, melt the remaining 1 Tbsp in a medium pan on medium heat. Toast the hot dog buns for 1 min.
- Add the canned ravioli (with sauce) to the sauce pan. Raise the heat to medium-high until the sauce begins to simmer. (Should happen very quickly.)
- Reduce to low heat. Stir the sriracha into the sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Cook the hot dogs according to the instructions.
- Line a baking sheet with foil. Put the buns on the foil, then the hot dogs into the buns, then top with the ravioli and sauce. Sprinkle on the shredded cheese.
- Place the baking sheet on the top rack of your oven. Use the broil setting until the cheese is just melted. (About 2 min.)
Serves 2. Eat with fork and knife.
Editor’s Notes
I ate one and a half of the ravioli dogs. Then I stared at the remaining half of a ravioli dog. It stared back, deep into my soul. I decided I didn’t want it anymore, so I threw it out.
I know the limitation of the Guy’s Grocery Games parody was that I had to use hot dogs and canned ravioli, but there’s really only so much you can do with hot dogs and canned ravioli. Kid me would have loved it. I bet the Triple-G judges have to eat this kind of stuff all the time.
I think the concept is salvageable though. Instead of canned ravioli, make your own ravioli and sauce. Instead of hot dogs, a nice sausage of some Eastern European variety. Instead of a hot dog bun, maybe a nice bolillo roll.
If you look at the “cast photo” above, you might notice a jar of marinara sauce that’s unused. I blindly skimmed the players’ notes from the Triple-G parody and bought every ingredient that I saw, failing to realize that I actually just needed the sauce from the canned ravioli. It’s okay. I now have a nice marinara sauce to use for Leftovers Day.
You’ll also notice I served this on a baking sheet. I thought I’d be able to plate this after melting the cheese. I was wrong. Next time, I should just assemble it in a casserole pan. Or maybe put it on an oven safe plate. The ravioli dog was only in the oven for 2 minutes. It can’t possibly get that hot.
Cheese Caramel Popcorn
Ingredients
1 Tbsp butter
2 cups caramel popcorn
1 oz cheese puffs, crushed
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cocoa powder
Directions
- Melt the butter. Drizzle it over the popcorn.
- Toss the popcorn in the crushed cheese puffs, chili powder, and cocoa powder.
Serve in a bowl. Eat with a spoon.
Editor’s Notes
I actually really liked this, but that’s mostly because junk food is delicious, and doctored junk food is even better. It’s really messy though. I would recommend eating it with a big spoon.
If I were to tweak the recipe, I’d bump up the chili powder and the cocoa powder. Just enough to add a bit of complexity to the recipe, without overpowering the caramel or the cheese powder.
Also, I used cheese puffs because, again, I blindly followed the notes. You could probably use regular Cheetos (crushed).