Ready for lunch and deep fried football

I ran across the old plaid lunch box that I used in elementary school. It had been my sister’s before that, so I considered it a relic of pride. It came with drawings inside of children playing safely and picking up litter. I covered it in stickers. It’s now a little rusty, so I ran it through the dishwasher. The best part was inside, and I forgot about it. Remember those tapes you’d run through a clicker and dial out our message that would get stamped onto the tape? Inside I’d used one of those to spell out “Debbie is Great.” And, I must have loved her a lot, because I used the fancy wood-grain tape that looked like a station wagon door.

Debbie is still great.

Fry up some football

The Dallas pages are offered in the spirit of Thanksgiving, for cowboys and city slickers: Deep Fried Turkey, Deep Fried Stuffing and Deep Fried Mashed Potatoes in Gravy Batter.

Texas Tots on the Houston spread offer a “Taste as big as Texas,” along with John T. Gueseman.

His handy little book is “Driveway Chef’s Cookbook for the Football Season: A Deep Frying Cookbook” and works just as well in driveways outside of Texas.

Our neighbors in New Orleans get a recipe for fried Angel Food Cake, a heavenly food for any Saint.

Gusemen has humor and fry skills, serving up Raven’s Eggs for Baltimore fans. With easy steps and photos of finished feasts, he’ll guide you through frying up meat loaf, spaghetti, apples, potatoes and other touchdowns.

Here’s a quickie “gateway food” to represent St. Louis:

Fried Ravioli

2 pounds ravioli, cooked

Garnish, marinara sauce

Deep fr cooked ravioli for 2 to 3 mntes, depending on the size of your ravioli, stirring often, then drain.

Garnish in a saintly fashion.

Deep Fried Pineapple

1 can lemon lime soda

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon sugar

2 20-ounce cans sliced pineapples, drained and patted dry

Garnish: Powedered sugar

Mix the soda, four and sugar to form a batter

Dip the pineapple slices into the batter

Deep fry for 2 minutes, turning after 1 minute, then drain.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve like you are the best of the best.

ddoiron@panews.com