Okay, by this point in time it’s no lie that my husband and I love to eat. Good food, junk food, cheap food, foody food…it doesn’t matter. If you are a restaurant with an Urban Spoon rating above 80% we are probably visiting you soon. Alternately, if enough seemingly sane people recommend you, count us in. So in no particular order, here are the best places to eat in and around Lawton and Fort Sill. Please note that in six months here, excluding fast food, I have eaten in a ‘chain’ restaurant five times. Five. I ❤ mom and pop.
1. Los Tres Amigos
- Website: http://lostresamigosonline.com/
- Los Tres is straight up Tex Mex goodness. It’s not real Mexican food, it’s not winning any Michelin stars any time soon (none of these places are, trust me), and it’s not fancy but man is it good. Having a go-to Mexican place in town is mandatory for me. When my favorite place back home went under after we moved out here I actually cried in a parking lot in Texas when I got the text. I’m that serious about it. Plus, it’s amazingly inexpensive: two dinners and two large drinks (go with the frozen strawberry margarita and thank me later) with complimentary chips, salsa, mystery cheese dip, AND sopapillas will run between $25 and $30 at dinner. Not gonna argue with that. It does have a ‘smoking’ section but we have never personally experienced even a whiff of smoke. The food always comes quickly and is always hot and fresh. There are also two locations, one on each side of town, although I feel very East Side/West Side about the issue and have only eaten at ours on the East side. EAST SIDE LOS TRES FO LYFE. That’s all.
2. Sabah’s
- Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/sabahspakistanicuisine?fref=ts
Okay, this place is insanity. It’s in a sketchy ass strip mall thing on the West side of town with like 15 seats inside and emits the most amazing restaurant smell my nose has been blessed to smell. Sabah’s is a family run Pakistani place in the smack middle of Oklahoma. It is INCREDIBLE. I have never had Pakistani before my first trip here and I really feel like I need to rewind my life and go eat it sooner. The owners could not be more accommodating to my total inexperience and are totally down with giving you the definition of literally everything on the menu. For lunch, ‘The Special,” a choice of meat and side along with rice and naan will cost you exactly $10.79 (hahaha I don’t eat here a lot, CLEARLY). I always get the malai chicken, which is chicken cooked in a magical sauce made with tomatoes and magic and everything wonderful; this goes amazingly with a chickpea concoction called chana masala which is again, cooked in mystery magic. The lunch menu is a smaller selection, but dinner offers a full menu with kabobs, curries, rice dishes and more sides and dessert options than lunch. Go. Go and eat for me once we PCS. If you go with or are yourself active duty military, the restaurant offers 10% off your total as well. Not that I need any more motivation to go there.
This is so depressing. And making me hungry. Moving on.
3. Wayne’s
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WaynesDriveInn?fref=ts
- Wayne’s is Sonic but so much better. Classic neon drive in featuring artery clogging burgers, chili dogs, tater tots, crazy fountain drinks, and cookies (what? Yes). Not much to say except that if you love that drive in magic and a great burger then you won’t be disappointed. I get a bacon cheeseburger and tots; Husband favors a chili cheese dog and jalapeno poppers; friends go for the fish and chips. They are most famous for the curiously named ‘steak fingers’ which I *think* are like country fried steak fingers but I’m a little suspicious so stick with burgers. it also is present on both sides of town and unlik Los Tres, I have eaten at both and both are the same greasy awesomeness. Notably closed on Sundays and NOT cash only (just FYI). Burgers about $5 each and generous side around $4 each.
4. China Wok
- I have written an entire ode to China Wok on this blog before and so will summarize: CASH ONLY, amazing Chinese food with a drive through and quick service. Mongolian Beef + Fried Wontons = Mindblowing. Huge plates of meat and rice cost about $8 on average.
5. The Silver Spoon
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/THESILVERSPOONLAWTON?fref=ts
- The Silver Spoon is an adorable sandwich shop located on C Avenue, which is the home of several one-off shops (including a comic shop!). At lunch, they offer a menu of hot and cold sandwiches, awesome soups and salads and a dinner a limited menu of homemade goodies like pot pie and meatloaf. I will personally vouch for the meatloaf dinner and any sandwich on the lunch menu and will especially sing the praises of the potato soup! The raspberry sweet tea is the first fruit tea this Southern girl has ever allowed in her life and I love it too. Check the FB page for dinner updates as some nights are totally booked with reservations; if you can go there is live music at night and a bar ‘upstairs.’ The decor is cute ‘old lady’ with interesting architecture which is always a plus. Notably amazing service with a smile and helpful with menu questions. It is a little more pricey than the other places listed here, with dinner about $15-$20 a plate but is more special than the others listed, so would make a great date night.
6. Luigi’s Express
- Okay, not the Luigi’s Italian place but the Luigi’s Express on Cache Road. I have admittedly eaten here only twice because they have a super loose interpretation of ‘hours.’ I mean ‘hours’ as a set period a place will be open; Luigi’s means a general guideline of times they *might* be open. The gyros are outstanding though, and the calzones and pizzas are a step up from Pizza Hut (which is still good…). Huge serving about $8 a plate at dinner if you can catch them open.
If you find you are still attached to chain places, there is: Chilis, Applebees, Red Lobster (which is a shame of the chain and I would NOT recommend it at all on both faults in food and service), Olive Garden, Buffalo Wild Wings, Cracker Barrel, Subway, various fast food places i.e. Chick fil A, Taco Bell, McD’s, Arby’s, Wendy’s, etc. I hope even if you aren’t in Lawton that this will encourage you to branch out in your own town and try those random places you’ve always driven by but never tried.
It’s been a month since I posted my thoughts on this place we currently come home. Tonight, as Husband and I celebrated his birthday, just the two of us with our favorite candles burning and a homemade birthday cake (YUM) to eat, and the first one we have spent together as a couple I realized that today started our last week here in Lawton.
With Husband snoring away in our bedroom now I can safely let a little of my feelings on this matter out. It’s been a long journey to feeling sad about leaving here. When I knew that we were going to be moving out here I actual felt quite the opposite. I felt angry that Husband had chosen a different path relatively quickly before he had to put in his preferences for his branch for the next five years and beyond. In all honesty I had wanted him to branch Armor so that we could be close to home in Fort Benning for around a year before heading to Fort Carson. When the call came that Husband had received his first choice of Field Artillery I hastily gave him my congratulations and promptly hung up to have a good Southern girl “I-Don’t-Wanna-Do-It” cry. When the days inched by for us to move out here I had several more of those same cries and to be perfectly honest, didn’t commit to moving with Husband until I was about halfway across the country in a car packed full of my belongings. Even after we got here I spent a few days moping. Then I got better. Then I relapsed. Then I got my crap together when I realized that I was letting my self-induced negativity affect how I felt about this place.
I made friends. I tried new recipes and such. I had time to knit and crochet and craft my little heart out. For the first time I appreciated awesome sunsets and local food and how awesome (and still a little weird) it is to see Husband every single day.
It’s weird how quickly we grow roots in a place when we let ourselves go. They recognize me and my friends at the Thai place in town. The guy at Sabah’s knows what I order. Hastings (sob…that’s going to be hard to not have) should hang mine and Husband’s pictures on the wall. I know my way around town without needing a map which is a big deal for me. I could tell someone where to go and not go. I don’t miss Target as bad as I thought I would, I’m living without a massive two story mall and it’s okay. I like coming home. Yeah, home. It was a long time before I called this tiny apartment ‘home.’ Now it’s nice to say ‘let’s go home.’ Is that petty? Yes. But it was powerful to realize you can have more than one home and it’s okay.
I was scared that my relationship with my family would suffer as a result of my not being there on a daily basis. I was so so wrong. I feel just as close to them now as I was before I moved. Maybe even more so. Family is family no matter where you are. Visiting home was like I never left. Going home for Christmas will be like every other Christmas except that I’m bringing Husband with me and not picking him up from the airport. I’m so thankful to know that no matter where Husband and I are that our families will be there to support us.
So for this week, I’m going to find time to post some of our favorite things to do in the area and its surroundings. A new crop of girls and their boyfriends and fiances just found out that they too will be heading to Lawton come next summer and I want to be able to tell them that it;s okay out here, like no one told me. So I’ll be discussing our favorite restaurants, things to do, places to see and that sort of thing. Meanwhile, I’ll be soaking up our last few days here and taking it all to heart.
Well this is cool. I haven’t been on here for two weeks and I managed to crack 1,000 visitors to this little blog here! I realize that’s hourly traffic for some people but again: I currently live in bumf*ck nowhere Oklahoma. Let’s get real: someone from Motherland Russia read about homemade honey mustard and that’s just neat. To the Russian: hey. I love seeing your whopping huge country lit up on my ‘visitor’ map.
Ahem. This week started Husband’s LAST FULL WEEK OF BOLC! Yes, I can hardly believe it myself. Little old Husband is right now only a week away from finishing Basic Officer Leadership Course. We will still have another month left here as he finishes two additional schools, but the end is in sight. I think when the time comes to move I’ll have to do a “Best of Lawton” post or something. Recently an innocent post over on the Foxtrot Bravo (that’s “Facebook” to everyone who isn’t my husband) sparked some personal offense on my part, offended on LAWTON’S part, due to some snark.
I know I like a place when I get insulted and butthurt when someone trashes it. A girl, just another West Point (now) wife, asked about things to do in the area and a fellow wife, a Captain’s wife (not that it matters ONE bit to me) informed her that this is (direct quote) “hell on Earth.” What? Wow, you have a narrow minded and uncreative understanding of hell if Lawton is all you can come up with.
Let me tell you something, world: I wish with all I’ve got that someone had been as open minded and honest as I am when it was time for me to move here. All I was given was negative comments about the lack of chain restaurants, ‘exciting’ things to do, how ‘awful’ the weather is, how no one is friendly, how the base sucks, etc. I don’t ask for much. After being in a long distance relationship (wah wah, I know…but still) for four years, it is truly enough for me just to be able to see my husband when he comes home from work. Really, even those days I wish work would take him back, that’s hella exciting for me. So the fact that Olive Garden is mediocre and there isn’t a four story mall in my backyard doesn’t really irk me the way perhaps it would and does, some women.
I don’t claim to be Mrs. Positive, but if you’re an military wife reading this, miserable somewhere in the world: it’s okay to miss home and your old life and everything that goes with that, but it’s not okay to say that no one is there for you and that where you live is a hell hole. Focus on the good things. For example, Lawton has kick-ass family owned restaurants on the super cheap. Thai, Pakistani, Chinese, Mexican; you name it and someone here is cooking it. I’ve never eaten better! Husband and I can see a film here for $10. That’s the price of ONE ticket back home, so don’t say date night isn’t affordable. An hour drive isn’t far but you can live without Target. You can and will make friends if you’re open to it. Don’t rely on your FRG to entertain you. Be satisfied with the beauty in small things: I love waking up and seeing the mountains in the distance and the sunsets are stunning here. There are sunflowers on the sides of the roads. There is always a cool breeze blowing and there is perfect darkness not thirty minutes from town. Does that get you through the hours? Sure. It can also get you through the days and nights and weeks and months too, if you’ll let it.
I’m not religious but spent four years studying those who are so a bit of advice: be full in your portion. This is your life now, so live it to the fullest. Life takes work. Life won’t come to you sitting on your sofa, whining on a public forum that there isn’t anything to do, holding a miserable attitude and wondering why no one desires your company. It doesn’t work that way. Life will come to you the minute you step outside or say hello to someone new. It can come in learning a new talent or practicing an old hobby. It can come to you each day when your ‘someone’ comes home from work. It can happen whenever you let it with whatever means you allow: crafts, friendships, beauty, nature, cooking, reading, writing.
This is important for me to remember daily because the reality is that Husband is deploying much sooner then I would have ever liked when I dreamed of our life in Fort Carson together. And I know I’ll have probably more than one whiney Facebook status, sappy instagram picture, and woe-is-me blog post, I know that having a positive outlook is more valuable than anything. I would hate to know I wasn’t giving it my all because someone else’s attitude brought me down or upset me. And I’ll admit, this woman’s backhanded comment about how I cannot understand her life because my time here is temporary and her time here is longer and therefore my attitude is invalid and my outlook irrelevant really hurt me because I was only trying to make a homesick girl I saw myself in feel better about her time here. I saw myself clearly in another woman and wanted to be a good experience for her own quest to adjust to life away from home in a place no one really loves.
This post has nothing to do with anything really, but if this blog isn’t a space for venting then what is it? But let it be said: when our time here at Sill is over (for n0w) in a few weeks, no matter how amazing Colorado is, I know a part of me will stay here. It’s the first place I shared a home with Husband with and that will always be special.
So tonight I wanted a quick and simple dinner since I’m going out of town tomorrow and hadn’t even looked at my suitcase yet. Earlier in the week Husband had requested pasta salad and I was happy to oblige. I use a box (the horror!) but find the flavor is pretty amazing. I use “Suddenly Pasta Salad” mixes; the box comes with the pasta and a flavor packet that is mixed into low-fat (HELLMAN’S y’all) mayonnaise. I add pepperonis, shredded cheese, and olives for no reason other than that’s how my Nana makes it so that’s good enough for me. Husband would eat it by itself but I decided he needed some protein in his life. So I bought pre-cut chicken tenders ( a lifesaver, really) and coated them in Oven-Fry brand crispy deliciousness. Slap those in the oven for twenty minutes until oven fried yummyness emerges.
But while they were cooking I got up a fierce hankering for honey mustard. We didn’t have any honey mustard. Oops. Pinterest came through with this simple and delicious recipe that uses a scant three ingredients you probably already have: mayo, Dijon mustard, and honey (plus some black pepper). I halved the recipe for just husband and I, so in case you’re measurally (that’s a word now) challenged like me, that looks like:
- 3/4 Cup Mayo
- 1/4 Cup honey
- 2-ish tablespoons of Dijon
- Dash of black pepper
Spot on deliciousness. It was perfectly mustardy and perfectly honey-y. We really enjoyed it with the tenders and it was a simple, “felt like a kid again” dinner with virtually no clean-up involved. It provided leftovers to soothe Husband’s aching heart that he’ll have the house to himself for about a week (ha, ha) and really hit the spot tonight. Definitely on the docket to be made again with that perfect sauce!
I just realized it’s been over twelve days since I last blogged about anything…at all! Truth is, this is the doldrums stage of BOLC over here in Sill…we’re close enough to the end (hallelujah) that we’re not doing anything super crazy. Husband has had long class days for a couple weeks now and that leaves us little time to do any real exploring. I’ve also been enjoying repeating some recipes that we really enjoy so I haven’t been trying too many new things.
Here’s some things that have happened though:
- I have discovered the amazing difference between boneless and bone-in pork chops. I’m not going back to boneless. Yes this is random, but I know someone, somewhere knows exactly what I’m talking about.
- I have tried Thai food and seen the light. Any Lawton readers should head to Thai Food Express on Sheridan and see the light as well. Fresh Basil and Spicy Garlic with Chicken is mind blowing.
- Husband and I are hopelessly addicted to “Doctor Who.” We’re now those raging fans who want to turn Husband’s blue Xterra into the TARDIS. We already ordered the “Police Box” sticker for the front windshield. And we have TARDIS and Dalek salt and pepper shakers.
- I also crocheted a Dalek. Go to my Ravelry.com profile to see. Username: LindseyN
- Yes, really.
- I am going back to Georgia to visit my parents on Thursday and I’m excited to see them and home. We’ll be going to a craft festival at Stone Mountain and my Dad and I are seeing The Who in concert. Oh yes. We love The Who. They were my first concert and I’m stoked to see them again with my Dad.
- I am amazed at who passes through this blog. I’ve had visitors from the UK, Canada, Oman, Singapore, the UAE, Korea, Japan and elsewhere. That’s pretty cool to a girl living in the middle of bum-f*ck nowhere Oklahoma.
- Did I mention the Dalek is over nine inches tall?
- I’m also addicted to Instagram. Man that shizz is addicting.
- Finally, Husband and I are so excited to move on to Colorado Springs and start another adventure in Fort Carson. Our most exciting news is a fairly official report date to the base; we will be arriving around mid-January and cannot wait to breathe that mountain air and go on lots of new adventures!
You know the weekend is really over when you’re up late, emotionally invested in another episode of “Chopped” and so deep in the Pinterest DIY/Crafts section that you think you’ve seen all the Internet can offer.
Also, I watched a video on how to make your hair into a ‘faux-hawk.’ So there’s that.
But before all that happened, Husband and I (center, in the picture below…hahaha) enjoyed a great weekend in Dallas, Texas!
That pretty much sums it up, right there. With Rosa and Jonathan and Elizabeth and Blaise in tow, we all visited Six Flags over Texas and the Texas State Fair! Oh, and a place called the Spread Eagle Saloon, but we’ll skip that part of the story because Jaegerbombs are involved.
Ahem.
Six Flags was, of course, a blast. Nothing bonds people together more than screaming in synchronized fear as you come out of your seat plummeting down a humongous hill or flipping over a dozen times in less than a minute.
I’m kidding. That crap terrifies me, but it’s still awesome.
We were so lucky that the day was rather chilly and overcast; we hardly wasted any time waiting in lines and were able to enjoy the park to its fullest. Rosa went upside down for the first time in her life and Blaise and Elizabeth were at their first theme park together. Husband and I have done both plenty of times before, but it was fun to experience yet another set of coasters together. Husband would love to go back to Cedar Point together, but I’ve got to work up to that!
After a full ten (!!) hours at Six Flags, Rosa and Jonathan had to leave due to work obligations, so the next morning Husband and I headed over to the State Fair with Elizabeth and Blaise!
But first…we stopped at the most incredible, hole-in-the-wall, odd-people-out Barbecue/Soul Food place I have EVER been to. Sweet Georgia Brown’s Barbecue may just have been the best decision of the entire trip. I had the most succulent, literally falling-off-the-bone ribs and most incredible mac and cheese I’ve ever tasted. We ate until we could eat no more and then waddled our way to the fairgrounds.
Where we promptly proceeded to eat some more. Isn’t that the point of fairs? Everything really is bigger in Texas, and their fair is no exception. Incredible arts and crafts on display, amazing animals (we touched a zebra, y’all), ADD paradise in a carnival, and the intoxicating smells of deep fried everything. Our favorite part was the skyway ride over the fair, which offered a bird’s eye view of all the happenings below. My only prize from the weekend was a handheld mandolin (for my favorite oven potatoes!!!!!) and waffle fry cutter (everyone be jealous). After stuffing ourselves silly and spending all our tickets, we left a chilly Texas behind and returned to Lawton.
I absolutely adored the atmosphere of everything in Texas and spent the ride home planning when we could go back to better explore the Dallas area. It reminded me so much of home and eating that great soul food at Sweet Georgia Brown’s reminded me how much I really do miss living in the (proper) South. Sweet tea was readily available, everyone was so polite, and you could feel that Southern hospitality in the air. If Husband chooses to serve out his time in the Army as a career choice, I’d love to have the opportunity to post to Fort Hood to soak up more Texas style.
Logistics-wise, if you’re planning on visiting Six Flags over Texas, tickets can be purchased online for $40. This will save you $20 per person and save you time in line! The park is open on the weekends now until the end of the year, but bundle up if it’s chilly outside! That wind on the rides will chill you down quick, but it will keep some people away which makes for shorter wait times. The State Fair runs through October 21st, and is fun, if not a bit pricey. Bring lots of cash and be prepared to convert that into ‘tickets,’ which are used to purchase everything from rides to food to alcohol (if that’s your thing). If you’re in the Dallas area, which was three hours from Lawton and not a bad drive at all, definitely check both out!
Are you scared of calories?
Do cast iron pans make you shake in your boots?
Do you shy away from frying anything, even delicious tasty meaty meat coated in a crispy flavorful crust?
Does the thought of combining grease and flour in a pan and adding obscene amounts of whole milk make you want to eat a salad?
Then look away please and come back here another day.
A few nights ago, Husband asked me if I could make this dish again. It was the first thing I made after we got married back in Georgia. I had purchased a brand new cast iron Lodge skillet and wanted to break it in. Being Southern, I couldn’t think of a better ‘heavy skillet’ dish than Chicken Fried Steak.
Interjection: apparently this name causes confusion. There is no chicken present. The “chicken” comes from the method of breading and frying the cube steak (round steak pulverized into tenderness…which happens to be super cheap). Sometimes this is called ‘country fried’ steak, and to be honest I don’t know the difference or if there is one. I guess they had to come up with something for Northerners and others to call this so everyone knew the chicken was served elsewhere.
Anyway. I whipped it up, screwed the gravy up royally, thankfully had bought some “just add hot water” gravy, served it with potatoes and everyone loved it. Husband ate half a cow and ten gallons of gravy and declared himself lucky to have married a Southern woman. I was of course, thrilled that I had made a ‘classic’ dish but was bothered by my failure with the gravy. And thrilled Husband was happy with it, because at the time I had no idea what to make 5 or 6 nights a week.
So I saw making this again as redemption. The basic recipe can be found pretty much anywhere online, but for reference with the gravy I turned to my favorite ‘down home cooking’ maven: The Pioneer Woman. I love the Pioneer Woman. She’s funny, engaging, and uses simple ingredients everyone has in their pantry. She also definitely doesn’t use store bought gravy so I knew she’d have a solution.
And it worked. I made the most luscious, creamy, peppery gravy ever. I am so proud of myself. In addition to the Pioneer Woman’s foolproof gravy, her additions of seasoned salt and cayenne pepper to the breading is amazing and delicious. Basically everyone should use her recipe. Someone in the comments even made this ‘healthy’ by using almond flour and chicken stock instead of whole milk to make the gravy.
I ignored their comment.
Notes: I like, thirded (is that a word?) this recipe. She uses three pounds, I found three pieces of cube steak that totaled just over a pound. So I used only about 3/4 cup of milk and one egg for the wet mixture and only about 1 and 1/2 cups of flour (plus a tablespoon-ish of seasoned salt and pepper and just a dusting of cayenne) for the wet mixture. The gravy made what was obviously the full amount, so unfortunately a lot was wasted, but now I know for next time I could use only a couple tablespoons of grease and less flour and milk for a smaller amount. I’m not complaining though, because man was it good. I also used WalMart brand lactose-free whole milk and it was perfect.
Yeah, I’m lactose intolerant. Which means I can really only enjoy this dish in the comfort of my own lactose-free home. Most gravies use heavy cream and currently there is no lactose-free brand of that (that I’m aware of). So it’s nice to be able to eat this knowing I won’t have to be sick.
Also: NEVER EVER use soap on your cast iron anything. Skillets, griddles, pans, anything. How I clean mine is as follows: scrape out as much gravy/grease/bits and pieces as you can using paper towels. Yes, this will use a lot of paper towels. Move on. Next, sprinkle salt in the skillet. Yup. Just salt. Coarse salt, table salt, whatever. GENTLY use the salt as an abrasive to soak up any last bits of grease or bits holding on to the pan. Just accept that this isn’t a sterile piece of kitchen equipment. But it’s okay, because each time you use it, it gets better and better with layers of seasoning. So if that bugs you, just use a regular non-stick skillet you can hand wash. Once I’ve salt-scrubbed my skillet, I light lube up another paper towel with oil and wipe it down, just so that everything gets that seasoning again.
It’s a beautiful thing. Make it. Eat it. Have a salad tomorrow. It’ll be okay for one night.
I haven’t been blogging as much for a couple reasons. One, last week was unadventurous in the kitchen because sometimes all you want are pigs in a blanket. So you make those and revel in how delicious canned pastry dough and hotdogs can be. Sorry, it happens. But you don’t blog extensively about that because no one wants to know about pigs in blankets.
Two, we haven’t been up to much. Husband is in the meat of BOLC right now and comes home quite sleepy, so we haven’t been out much. Plus, there hasn’t been much to do in Lawton to even motivate us to go anywhere. We did see “Looper” though, and it was really good if you need a movie date or anything.
Three, we finished Battlestar Galactica and I’m not ashamed to say I’ve been in mourning. If despite my recommending it a zillion times already on this blog and on Facebook you haven’t started watching it yet…well…I don’t have much to say except that you’re missing on not only on great science fiction, but great storytelling and characters in general. Excuse my while I go cry it out some more that it’s over…
BUT.
This coming weekend is Columbus Day and that means a long weekend so that means…
WE’RE GOING TO DISNEY SIX FLAGS!
Haha, so it’s not Disney, but it’s close, right? Dallas is only about three and a half hours from Lawton and Six Flags over Texas is only about 30 minutes from that, so we’re headed there this weekend with our friends! Woohoo! We’re also going to the Texas Fair (thanks to the Gavina Family Blog for the recommendation!!). We had so much fun at the Oklahoma State Fair that we’ve decided to check that out while we’re down there. Mmmmm fried things and roller coasters. Doesn’t get much better than that! Except if you mix those things…then you’re having a really bad day…
Ahem.
So, there’s what’s coming up for us. To make up for last week’s kitchen adventures (or lack thereof), tomorrow I’m whipping up a Southern classic. Having been reunited with my cast iron skillet *happy sigh*, I’m making country fried steak. If you are afraid of: gravy, oil, frying, calories or deliciousness OR you aren’t lucky enough to have lived in the South and have no idea what that is, skip tomorrow. Just skip it. Come back after the weekend or something. Eat an apple and some whole wheat toast and just sit this one out. But Husband asked for it and who am I to say no when cube steak is on sale and the Pioneer Woman just happened to post about the same meal? I can’t argue with fate. Battlestar taught me that. So I’ll be going with the flow and whipping that up tomorrow night!
Okay, so making this became quite the adventure.
The original recipe, found on this blog (which has tons of other great recipes) calls for ground chicken as the main meat.
Okay.
I’ve met ground beef, pork, lamb, and turkey before but have never in my life seen or heard of ground chicken. Assuming I had just overlooked it in the meat department, I set out for “Hollywood” (Lawton’s finest WalMart) to get the necessary protein.
Then I set out for Country Mart after the meat people at WalMart looked at me like I had two heads when I asked where the ground chicken was.
Country Mart pointed me to ground turkey, assuring me that must have been what the recipe meant.
I can read, y’all. It says chicken.
But seeing no solution, I got the turkey, which is listed as an alternative on the original recipe, and came home. I’ve made lots of meatloaf in my life, but never a turkey loaf. I was worried that it would be dry like stereotypical turkey burgers and the like, but baking it in the loaf pan really helped to retain all those yummy juices and it wasn’t dry at all. Did it taste like chicken/turkey parmesan? Well…a little bit, but there’s really no substitution for a hunk of pan fried chicken doused in pasta sauce is there? I liked that it was so easy to throw together, only dirtied up one bowl and one pan, and made a perfect amount for Husband and I to enjoy dinner and have lunch made for him tomorrow.
As a side note, I didn’t have the heart to grate another onion and traumatize my eyes again, so I used some dried onion flakes I had in the pantry, soaked them for a little in some olive oil, then added them to the mix. The bottle claims 2 TBSP is the equivalent to a half onion, but I thought it was a little too much…next time I’d only use about a tablespoon at the most.
I baked mine along with the Easy Oven Roasted Potatoes I’ve made before because I think potatoes of any kind are the perfect thing to go with meatloaf…other than that, I think this would be fun to have with some pasta as an homage to the original recipe. Because I’m not lucky enough to have that new double oven I keep seeing advertised on Food Network (oh, it’s a beauty…), I set the oven to 375*, put the meatloaf on the bottom rack first with a 40 minute timer set and baked the potato slices for about 25 of that on the top rack. The potatoes were not as crispy as the last time I made them, so if I made this again, I’d bake them after removing the meatloaf from the oven and just cover it for the 15 minutes the potatoes need to cook and cranking up the oven.
All in all: easy to throw together, tasty, perfect amount of food for us. I’d definitely make it again, and it’d be great for a crowd because it’s inexpensive and easy to double or triple. The original recipe does have freezing instructions if anyone does freezer ‘cooking.’
Okay, really: the first thing on my Christmas list this year is a real camera.
I promise these tasted a million times better than this picture makes it look. Thanks iPhone!
Moving on.
Grilled Cheeseburger Wraps are an ingenious way to enjoy all the flavor of a cheeseburger without actually having to make cheeseburgers. I hate touching raw meat, so anything that allows me to skip that rather morbid step is alright in my book. Instead of mixing spices and forming patties, you just toss ground beef in a skillet and break it up. That’s it. The original recipe calls for Worcestershire (thanks, spell check…) and ketchup, along with onion flakes and salt and pepper. I followed this, and it was definitely delicious, but I’m willing to bet these could easily be made according to everyone’s different tastes: add some grill seasoning, maybe, or taco seasoning and pepper jack or salsa for Mexican burger wraps? We had the usual suspects to top ours: lettuce, tomato, Colby Jack, mustard, mayo (for me), and ketchup (for Husband). For different combos, I bet avocado would be nice (Husband wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole)…or peppers…or caramelized onions…or bacon…mushrooms…mmm.
Now I can’t wait to make these again with different toppings. This is a really versatile recipe that can be easily customized to fit your favorite burgers.
As a side note, I used my Griddler to panini these suckers. I think you could probably skip this step if you don’t want to drag out/aren’t in possession of a Griddler, grill, or panini maker, but the meat is really juicy and sealing the seam and ends helped keep all the tasty bits secure in the burrito.
As an added bonus, for anyone counting calories, the original recipe has only 330 calories per wrap. I had that much in mayo alone, so let’s just skip that part.
All in all: super easy, ready in about 15 minutes total (yes, really), great flavor, lots of ways to make differently, and Husband ate it up and asked for another for lunch tomorrow. Definitely a keeper!
The Oliver's Twist 
