We got together with some college friends to reminisce and eat a traditional college meal. Now this meal is made with the cheapest ingredients, which is why as college students this was well a perfect meal. Though I’m not sure that I would call it a well-balanced meal. But it’s college so you know how that goes. Anyway they are called Tongan Pancakes. The name comes from our friend, Aaron who introduced it to us. He while on his LDS mission had Tongan roommates who would make these, so that is what he called them. Anyway, you take ramen, lunchmeat, an egg, and bread. Now since Aaron was My Mr.s friend and this traditional meal was introduced to Spencer during B.C. (Before Cheryl) I will turn this post over to him to give you a detailed recipe and exact cooking directions so if you ever want to try this yummy, odd meal out for your self you can.
The Tongan Pancake
Ingredients: 1 package of ramen noodles (the square, brick kind. Pick the package that is the most solid. You want one solid piece of ramen, not a bunch of crumbs). 3-4 thin slices of deli ham 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese 2 slices of bread 1 egg, beaten, in a shallow dish Sauce of choice – I prefer barbecue sauce, but ranch works very well also.
Directions: Bring a small pot of water (that old pot you typically cook your ramen in) to a rolling boil and add the seasoning packed from your ramen noodles. Feel free to snack on the dry ramen crumbs in the bottom of the package; you only want the main, solid ramen piece for the sandwich.
Put a large frying pan on the stove on medium heat, grease the bottom with 1 Tbsp butter or a spritz of non-stick cooking spray.
Make your assembly line: Dry ramen -> Boiling water -> Egg plate -> Skillet/Fry pan -> toaster -> plate
Read through these directions before starting. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!
Place the ramen in the boiling, seasoned water. Just drop it in, and leave it. Do not submerge, do not stir. Count to eight. Yes. Eight seconds. No more. No less. (Unless you’re an experienced Tongan pancake maker, then you may develop a different preference here). Flip the ramen, and count to eight again.
Pull the ramen out _carefully_ with two forks and let it drain above the water, then drop in into the egg in the shallow dish. Your almost soft, thirsty ramen will soak up about 1/3 of the egg. Now flip it over and repeat on the back side.
Pull the ramen out of the egg and place it in your hot fry pan to cook. Now the surgery begins. Using a pancake spatula (or similar), find the seam in the ramen. (If you didn’t know, that brick of ramen is actually a long, thin brick folded in half lengthwise.) Slide the spatula into the seam and pull the ramen open lengthwise so you have a long, thinner strip of ramen. Pour the remaining egg dredge onto the now exposed ramen insides.
Place your cold cuts into the frying pan next to the ramen to heat. Put your bread in the toaster.
Flip the ramen to cook the other side. Once the other side is finished, add your grated cheese on top of the ramen, and cover that with your now hot cold cuts.
Use the spatula to cut the ramen in half so you can place on half on top of the other. You should now have a nice sandwich shape, ramen with egg, cheese, meat, ramen with egg. Keep that in the frying pan until your toast is done. You remembered to put it in when I told you, right?
Place the ramen sandwich inside the two pieces of bread, and either add sauce liberally to the top of the ramen before topping it with the bread, or leave the sauce on the side as a dip, which is what Cheryl does.
Consume. And wonder how you ever did without this recipe before.
One day while driving the congested roads home from work I was sitting at a light watching the traffic build up in front of me. In my peripheral vision I felt like I could see my neighboring car passenger staring at me. I was getting a little creeped out; you know you want to look but at the same time you don’t because well it’s creepy! Finally my inner debate ended and I gave in and I turned . . . . this was my sight. A big yellow lab totally relaxed and completely ignoring me. I was shocked and let out a laugh. Couldn’t help but snap a photo of this odd event for me to remember.
We didn’t forget May the 4th. Nope westill celebrated Star Wars Day with style and made some delicious themed sugar cookies. I got this sugar cookie recipe from a friend (thanks Rose) and it has become our new favorite, it’s good even without frosting. If you want to try it let me know and I’ll share it! Some of the ingredients for these were sweetened condensed milk and cream cheese. Whatever the case the mixture is really yummy and we can’t get enough. With the dough made we rolled it out and began stamping with our Star Wars cookie cutters, which I think I need to get more of in different shapes (add it to the wish list). Our cookie cutters of Yoda, Vader, Boba Fett and a Storm Trooper we were set with our characters, though if they have Han, Leia and Luke stamper somewhere out there I would be thrilled to get those. Anyway we baked, cooled and sat down to watch Return of the Jedi. Perfectly celebrated May the 4th I think. Gonna have to throw a party next year! May the 4th Be With You!
While visiting the tulips we stopped by a little dive diner called Mr. T’s. I walked in and instantly thought I was on a movie set for one of those down home cooking places with mismatched furniture and 1960′s look. To top it off our waitress was sassy commenting when a regular customer who arrived after us “Oh Romeos here!” Seriously she was so lovable! The ambiance was palpable. We ordered from our sassy waitress 2 traditional meals with eggs hash browns, bacon and toast. Along with My Mr’s kielbasa sausage he was served a biscuit the size of a softball, no kidding! We sipped on orange juice and listened as Saturday regulars walked in and the volume increased. Though it was a grimly little place and the food was probably your entire caloric intake for the day it was a fun experience! Another memory made with My Mr.
(Picking the photos for this post was really hard, I might have to post again about these because they are so pretty!)
We headed north back to Roosenguard to finish the flower tour we started last month with the daffodils for my b-day, remember here? The tulips are really the main event for the area and the highways, smoke stacks and murals in the area are well . . . all about tulips. We decided to avoid the crowds as best we could and headed up early, we learned that maybe it was a little too early but I’ll share our breakfast adventure with you later. We arrived to the same sign I had my photo taken at last time only the entrance was now covered in rows and rows of tulips! It was like a mini Holland! I was blown away by the sheer amount to see, it was incredible; all the unique kinds. I had no idea there were so many varieties. From the tradition tulips to many variegated colors, thin tulips, tulips that were covered in ruffles and so many colors. Tulips that looked almost dangerous with spikes all along the edges. Even the original tulip shape had its differences being double or triple the size of a regular store bought tulip, here’s My Mr’s hand next to the blossom to give you the idea of how totally huge some of these are. I couldn’t believe the colors and rows and rows of flowers. In their display garden they had created elaborate designs created in tulips. I fell in love with this white pink and green tulips mixer tulip. They look beautiful closed and continue to look amazing as they unfold into a beautiful full flower. I wanted to lay down in them they look so full the perfect bed. It was a flower explosion and after 2 and a half hours of wandering through we had our fill of tulip absorption and were ready to call it a day. My Mr purchased a bouquet for me of one of my favorite kinds and we headed home. This is an amazing site to see, and the largest exporter of tulips on our continent. Perfect way to ring in May!
Over the weekend My Mr and I celebrated our 8th anniversary. Without going into all the cheesy details of our relationship just let me say that I couldn’t have picked a better partner to spend my life with. He is my best friend and as we have gone through the twists and turns of life I have been glad to have him by my side. I’m so grateful that he choose to spend his life with me.
Does it make me a kid if I admit thatI love theseand eat them on the regular? They are just so handy and delicious. When recently restocking at Costco I noticed they had added an apple berry concoction to the mix! You know I bought a box of those. These are great snacks and easy to just leave in the car for after you get out of the gym! Only thing is My Mr.is allergic to apples, even though he loves them, such a bummer. So I feel bad eating them in front of him, but their just so good!!
Our young women’s group has had an opportunity to learn some Chinese art forms from a student in our area. For one of our classes we did leaf art. Where you create intricate designs and scenes on leafs. You can do this by creating a design on the back of the leaf and then taking an exacto knife and carefully cutting out you design. Which is much harder then it looks! Our young women made some incredible designs on their first try’s! From geometric designs, symbols, and a little BYU pride – Go Cougars! Some created tree like outlines, an owl on a branch, or a bird. I mean it was so cool to see the creative things they can up with. Some of these I felt should be framed and put up as art. I’m thinking this summer I may have to find some big leafs and make some to put in frames around my house. A fun DIY Project!
Yeah my friends this pretty bad photo is of aDeLorean! Yes the same kind of car from Back to the Future! I had such a crush on Marty McFly! And yes I was only a year old when this movie came out but is was a family favorite at my house. I saw this car at a local high school picking one of the kids up, and it wasn’t until I saw the car door raise to the side that I realized what that car was!!! I hurried to get my dang camera phone up to get a photo with the door opening but no luck my friends. It is as good as is gets. I hurried and texted My Mr. informing him of the sighting. He texted back,“I bet it had a flux capacitor and everything!” I of course laughed about that, and texted back,“1.21 gigawatts”It was a very cool sighting, I have been watching for it again, but no such luck. I’ll be sure to keep you all up to date if I spot it again!
Apparently our family is just so famous this week! But I have to give Paxton credit he was on TV first. I entered the photo above in a pet contest on the local Fox TV Station. Now honestly I thought if we won that we might get you know a gift card or something dog care related. I know that’s selfish but I mean who doesn’t love free stuff. Well anyway the prize was that the winning dog would be on the news in the weather section. I was pretty excited to get an email saying they picked Paxtons photo to share. So even though I didn’t win anything at least my photo and my dog made it on the news! Hopefully this will be the end of our TV careers!
Pull the ramen out _carefully_ with two forks and let it drain above the water, then drop in into the egg in the shallow dish. Your almost soft, thirsty ramen will soak up about 1/3 of the egg. Now flip it over and repeat on the back side.
