NORTH BALTIMORE — Ryan Delaney is known among friends as the Reuben dip guy.
The one item he can make — Hot Reuben Dip in a slow cooker — has become so popular that he is expected to
supply it wherever he goes.
“Every party we go to I am the Reuben guy now. I never thought I’d be the Reuben dip guy.”
Delaney is superintendent of schools in North Baltimore, a post he has had for “four wonderful, glorious
years.”
Looking for an easy dip for the beer crowd at the upcoming Super Bowl game? Make this dip.
“It’s a great party dip,” he said.
Or need a quick potluck dish for work? Make this dip.
It’s so easy — and Delaney doesn’t cook, at all. Even beginners can master it.
It’s the only recipe he has; he got it from his Grandma Kara, who lives in Findlay.
“I only have one thing I can share with you,” she told him.
He has converted those who share the district’s administration building.
“I really like it,” said district Treasurer Steve Stewart.
“I’m going to do this now. It’s easy,” said Sandy Stewart, Delaney’s secretary.
“The prep is nothing,” Delaney agreed. Five minutes prep time, toss it into the slow cooker, and 30
minutes later you have a dip that tastes just like a Reuben sandwich, especially if it is served with
rye Triscuits or rye/pumpernickel marble bread.
The Thousand Island dressing is a must; he tried it once without and blah.
“I think it would go over very well with my group,” said Sandy Stewart.
It’s a good thing it’s so easy because it is the only dish Delaney has mastered.
“It’s the only thing I do make.”
With wife Debbie gone for months at a time for her job as vice president of an international sales
company, he has become a pizza connoisseur. He orders at least four times a week from Mak &
Ali’s downtown. He also is partial to the tomato basil bread at Cygnet Pizza.
But the best pizza ever is a DiCarlo’s, in the Ohio Valley and Hilliard. The crust and homemade sauce are
cooked in a 500 degree oven and the cheese and toppings are put on cold. The pizza steams in the box;
two minutes later the cheese closest to the bottom is melted and the top layer is warm yet stringy.
With his wife gone, he spends much of his time in the schools or at events.
“I don’t have anything else to do. If I’m not there, they are upset.”
Delaney also is a magician and can make a piece of candy disappear in no time.
“Every day I get mugged,” he said about walking into the schools. “It gets exhausting at the end of the
day.”
He says he does 80-100 tricks every day. He honed the craft while bartending. He put himself through
college bartending and doing magic shows.
As a seventh-grader, he was making $40-$50 a day doing magic.
Delaney was superintendent at Claymont City Schools in Tuscarawas County prior to moving to North
Baltimore.
He was an educational development speaker for Quality Tools and Initiatives workshops for 16 years,
traveling every weekend. He estimates he has spoken in front of 250,000 people.
“Now I’m in North Baltimore, I’m happy as could be.”