Holiday snack: Alabama fire crackers

My friend, Julie Reinhardt, excels at many things. She is a prominent physician, a fabulous cook, a dedicated wife and mother, and a real whiz at leading Children’s Chapel at St. Paul’s. But her real achievement is that she brought Alabama Fire Crackers into my life. They are salty and spicy and crunchy. Dip them in sour cream mixed with taco seasoning and you will not want another Christmas cookie ever in your life. This will be it.

Julie brought these into the kitchen during the English Tea last year. I have never seen so many women put down the leftover cucumber sandwiches to get to those crackers.

Alabama Fire Crackers

1 cup vegetable oil

1 envelope ranch dressing mix

1 envelope Italian dressing mix

3 tablespoons red pepper flakes (crushed)

1 pound Ritz crackers

Whisk the vegetable oil, dressing mixes and red pepper flakes in a bowl to combine thoroughly. Put the mixture in a 2-gallon plastic zipper bag. Place the crackers in the bag, seal, and turn the bag over to cover the crackers with the spice mix. Let the bag sit for about 1 hour, then turn again. Repeat several more times until the crackers are well-coated with spice mix, and allow the bag to sit refrigerated overnight. Remove crackers and serve.

Zesty Dipping Sauce

16 ounces sour cream

1 package taco seasoning mix

Combine thoroughly and chill for at least an hour.

2 Comments

  1. Julie
    JulieReply
    December 22, 2012 at 6:18 am

    Catherine, you are so sweet-you know I love being mentioned in your blog!! And the funny thing is last night you were at our dinner table: Len said “Catherine would be proud” . We FINALLY got our range hood working and I used the tepanaki grill to cook some homemade porky goodness that I bought from one of my patients: smoky pork sausage that he puts in linen bags, not casings. anyhoo, sliced, fried, served with fried egg on toasted raisin bread (in my case with a slice of American processed cheese food.) Delicious and made Len think of you for some reason….guess it was the porky goodness.

    • Catherine Mayhew
      Catherine MayhewReply
      December 22, 2012 at 2:30 pm

      Oh, that sounds good! I used to get that same kind of sausage in the cloth casing and it was just divine.

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