Our Go-To Good Condiments

The other night for dinner, I made some fish fillets and fries, and lo and behold, we didn't have any tartar sauce in the house. We also didn't have the ingredients on hand to make homemade tartar sauce, so we turned to the number one condiment 'round these parts . . .

2. Ranch dressing! It's not just for carrot sticks or chicken nuggets anymore. My kids will dip almost anything into ranch dressing and eat it without complaining. We use it on tortilla wraps and sandwiches, and with those pillowy puffs of pizza dough goodness known as beer nuggets - an NIU favorite! Three out of four of us in the family will actually use ranch as a salad dressing. Which reminds me of a silly joke: What did the bottle of ranch say when someone left the refrigerator door open?
"Hey, close the door! I'm dressing in here!"

We discovered that fish fillets are not too bad with ranch dressing. Then, we discussed our other must-have-in-da-house condiments (Yes indeed, we have quite the intellectual dinner conversations.) Anyhoo, here's our other favs:

3. Ketchup! (or if you prefer catsup) No big surprise there. Who doesn't like ketchup?

1. Barbecue sauce! I love Sweet Baby Ray's the best, but we did bring some home from a BBQ joint in Toledo that was really tasty. We use BBQ sauce on grilled meats like ribs, for pulled pork or chicken, on mini-meatloaves, in chili, and as a dipping sauce of course.

What are your go-to good condiments? Do you like salsa?

Toledo Good Eats

One of the best parts of being on a road trip is finding good eats, and finding them off the beaten path without a GPS is even more fun and challenging. Not really, but we enjoyed some good food at these three places in Toledo last week.

1. Schmucker's. Not much to look at, but this 63-year-old diner served up heaping helpings of homemade goodness including one of our favorite desserts P I E!


The kids under the Schmucker's road sign. A enjoys chicken and biscuits. Coconut cream pie! T's Wimpy burger platter.


2. The original Tony Packo's. This place came highly recommended by Brian, who appears to be a connoisseur of fine hot dogs everywhere. Although I skipped the chili and the special hot dog sauce, the hot dog had a snappy, tasty bite.


And where else can you get a hot dog with a side of mashed potatoes or a chili dog with a side of chili? Extra touch: celebrity-signed hot dogs buns displayed all over the walls. T even got a souvenir beer glass, and Miss O licked her mac and cheese bowl clean. Now that's good eats!

3. Deet's BBQ - located south of Toledo in Maumee. We stopped at this restaurant on our way out of town. Yummy, tender pulled pork sandwiches with sweet BBQ sauce and creamy coleslaw. We loved the sauce so much we bought a pint to take home, and had it on some baby back ribs the other night. Messy, yummy goodness!



Homemade goodness, highly-recommended hot dogs, and sweet, delicious BBQ - three good road trip eats!