Gravy, Alfredo and Ranch Dressing

So this past weekend we made an unexpected trip back to Michigan for my great-aunt's funeral. I actually prefer to think of it not as a sad funeral but more of a celebration of her life, seeing as she lived to be 101 years old. Aunt Stel was a rockin' lady and a fantabulous cook and baker. World reknowned for her paczkis (or at least reknown in our family). She also made sure to tell Grammy that I needed to use fresh poppy seeds for my poppy bread, so I will try the bread again with new fresh poppy seeds and see how it turns out. I therefore made it a point to at least get some new recipes when I was back in Michigan celebrating her life. Of course I managed to forget them all at my parents house (mom, can you bring those with you next week?). But none of this has to do with gravy, alfredo and ranch dressing.

In typical fashion, after the ceremony we go for lunch at a hall type place. It was a buffet lunch and we were informed (immediately after grace) that we would be having roast chicken, salad, penne pasta in a cream sauce, mashed potatoes, meatballs and "chef's extras" (which mostly included random salads: bean salad, potato salad, lots of pickles and olives and things). Seeing as I never make real meatballs, I was uber-excited for those.

Our turn FINALLY came when our table got excused to go up to the buffet and I made a bee-line for the meatballs...well, after filling my plate with salad (with ranch dressing), about 2 cups of mashed potatoes and a pile of penne alfredo. I balanced the meatballs on top of my mashed potatoes, poured on the gravy and headed back to the table. My mouth was watering like Water Works as I dug in to my lunch, and in typical fashion I started with the salad. I made my way around the plate ending up with the pile of meatballs on the mashed potatoes. I went to town on those bad-boys and found myself left with nothing left on my plate except all the remaining saucy juices. And since the food was so good I knew I needed to get every last nugget of fatty goodness. Luckily, I was thinking ahead and saved half of my roll (that was oozing butter), for just this occasion. I wiped my plate clean, pulling a "kurt" as we call it (or I guess, as I call it), for my brother-in-law who notoriously cleans his plate such that it doesn't even need to be washed.

Just as I finished wiping my plate with my roll my aunt looked up from her plate and commented how well all of the various sauce components of the dishes went together. I couldn't have agreed more. The beef gravy, the ranch dressing and the alfredo sauce mixed in perfect harmony on my butter oozing bread (although we agreed it would be better without the pickle juice). And I'm not even being sarcastic, I'm 100% serious. It was delicious! It's funny how well some of the most unexpected things come together. I'm not sure I'll ever make a dish with a beef gravy, alfredo and ranch dressing sauce on top, but it's a good lesson, you never know what combination of things is going to work well together!

Another lesson learned thanks to Aunt Stel.