Mini Corn Dog Muffins

Pin It I saw this idea on Pinterest, and immediately had to try it! They are the perfect bite for appetizers, a quick kid-friendly dinner, or as a snack. I like to make a bunch and then stick them in the fridge for my three-year-old. They are even delicious cold!

Mini Corn Dog Muffins

Ingredients:

1 recipe Cornbread batter (see below)
1 package Hot Dogs
Cooking Spray
Ketchup and Mustard for dipping

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a mini muffin pan with cooking spray. Prepare corn bread batter according to directions below. Cut hot dogs into 1"-2" pieces (I cut each dog into 6 pieces, using a total of 4 hot dogs) Spoon 1 tablespoon cornbread batter into each muffin cup. Press hot dog piece into each muffin cup until mostly covered by the batter. Repeat until all muffin cups are full. Bake at 400 for 15-17 minutes or until mini corn dog muffins are golden brown. Remove from oven and cool slightly before serving. Dip in ketchup and mustard.


Variation: You can also make full size corn dog muffins, just place 3 hot dog pieces into each regular muffin cup and bake for 18-20 minutes or until corn dog muffins are golden brown.

Cornbread

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Beat milk and egg in a large bowl with a beater. Stir in melted butter and stir into wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Use batter for corn dog muffins as above (or for regular cornbread, bake in a cast iron skillet or baking dish with extra melted butter in the bottom at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean).

Monkey Bread

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When I heard about Monkey Bread, I knew I had to find a recipe for it. Caramelly rolls made from fridge biscuits? Yes, ma'am! As I hunted around the InterWeb, I found The Pioneer Woman. I guess a lot of people really like her recipes, so I thought I would give it a try. This recipe isn't actually hers, but a friend of hers. I guess I will try one of her own in the future. Anyways... I made a few changes to the recipe I found, but you can find the original here. 

Monkey Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
2 sticks of butter (1 cup)
Bundt Cake Pan (be sure it's a one piece pan, if it's two pieces, you will have burnt sugar and butter all over the bottom of the oven!)
2-3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cans of Buttermilk Biscuits (the non-flaky ones)
1 cup Sugar

3/4 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Preparation:

Preheat that oven to 350. Open up the cans of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters. Next, combine the 1 cup of regular sugar with 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon in a one gallon ziploc bag. 3 teaspoons makes for a very cinamonny bread, so it's up to you on how much to use. Drop all of the biscuit quarters into the cinnamon-sugar mix, along with the nuts. Once all the biscuit quarters and the nuts are in the bag, seal it and give it a vigorous shake. This will get all those pieces nicely coated with the cinnamon-sugar. You might have some excess sugar left over and that’s okay. Spread these nuggets and nuts out evenly in your Bundt pan. Next, melt the two sticks of butter together with 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Stir together over a medium-high heat until the butter and brown sugar are fully combined. Once the brown sugar butter has become one color, you can pour it over the biscuits. Bake this for about 30-40 minutes until the crust is a deep brown on top. Allow this to cool for about 15-30 minutes before turning it over onto a plate. If it doesn’t slide right down onto the plate, give it a few taps until it comes out. Serve warm.

Beer Bread (knockoff of another very popular beer bread)

Pin It Just about everyone I know has been to or hosted a sales/catalog party where there are lots of food samples. I have been to many, and hosted many. Almost every time the little booklets are passed around to purchase the full size version, I usually gasp at how expensive the stuff is! So, I went on a hunt to locate a (cheaper) knockoff of that delicious Beer Bread. Many different sites list the exact same recipe, so I can't give any real credit, since I have no idea who came up with this recipe.

Beer Bread (knockoff of another very popular beer bread recipe)

Ingredients:

3 cups self-rising flour**
1/2 cup granulated sugar
12 ounces beer (or really any carbonated beverage, like soda)
2 tablespoons melted butter

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix all ingredients except melted butter together-stirring just until blended. Pour into greased bread loaf pan. Spread melted butter over the top of the bread during the last 10 minutes of baking. Bake at 350°F for 1 hour.


** If you don't have self-rising flour, that's fine. It can easily be made with the following recipe:
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Mix well. You will need to triple this for the Beer Bread recipe.

Chocolate Mousse

Pin It My husband got this recipe for me from a friend of his. The measurements are European, but American measuring cups have markings for mL, so it is easy to make. For the chocolate, I used semi-sweet baking chocolate, which I found in the baking aisle at the grocery store. The sugar is listed as caster sugar, which is basically superfine sugar. You can grind up regular white sugar in a food processor to make it finer. If you do this, make sure to measure after you grind it up. I have made this recipe with regular sugar, and it tasted just fine. So, if you skip that step, it's no big deal.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

400 grams dark chocolate
8 Tbsp caster sugar
8 eggs
500 mL heavy cream

Preparation:

Separate egg whites from yolks. Mix egg yolks with sugar in a small bowl. Beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Beat egg whites until stiff. Melt chocolate in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds or so, until smooth. Let chocolate cool slightly. Mix chocolate with egg yolk/sugar mixture. In a large bowl, fold together whipped cream and chocolate mixture. Once mixed, fold in egg white fluff until well mixed. Refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.

Indonesian Beef Stew

Pin It This is a wonderful crock-pot stew that I found in my Williams-Sonoma Slow Cooker Cookbook. The original recipe can be found here. I couldn't find unsweetened coconut at my local grocery store, so I used sweetened and omitted the brown sugar. Cumin and Coriander are not spices I had used before, so I had to purchase them. I was able to find smaller jars for less than $3 at Target. I figured I wasn't sure if I would use them frequently, so that was a small price to pay to try something new! As I was making this, I was thinking that this stew would be equally good (and cheaper) if I used chicken breast instead. Just a thought. Without further ado, here is the recipe!

Indonesian Beef Stew

Ingredients:

1/4 cup canola oil
3 lb. boneless beef chuck, cut into 2-inch cubes (I used the pre-cut "beef for stew" found in the meat section of the grocery)
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cups unsweetened shredded or flaked dried coconut (I used sweetened)
1 Tbs. firmly packed light brown sugar (I omitted this because of the sweetened coconut)
1 Tbs. ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. salt, plus more, to taste
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper, plus more, to taste
4 cups coconut milk
Steamed white rice for serving

Preparation:

In a large fry pan over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add the beef and onion and cook, stirring frequently, until the meat is no longer red and the onion has softened, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle with the coconut, brown sugar (if using), coriander, cumin, the 1 tsp. salt and the 1 tsp. pepper. Continue sautéing until the meat and coconut are browned and the spices are fragrant, 5 to 7 minutes more. Transfer the mixture to a slow cooker.

Add the coconut milk to the fry pan, increase the heat to high and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up the browned bits from the pan bottom. Bring the coconut milk to a boil, then pour it into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper. Ladle the stew over steamed rice and serve immediately. Serves 6 to 8.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast Series, Slow Cooker, by Norman Kolpas (Oxmoor House, 2007).

Tiramisu!

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I love dessert. Pretty much all kinds. Tiramisu is a delectable Italian dessert, generally made with Lady fingers, and filled with Mascarpone egg custard, coffee and rum. I made a few changes to a terrific recipe I found on Allrecipes.com. Find the original recipe here. I don't drink (and I have a 3 year old), so I omitted the rum. I also couldn't find Lady Fingers, so I found a super easy pound cake recipe, and used that instead. It is a very rich dessert, perfect following a lighter Italian meal. I know you are excited to find out how to make this delectable dessert, so I will get to it!

Tiramisu!

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks

3/4 cup white sugar

2/3 cup milk

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pound mascarpone cheese

1/2 - 3/4 cup strong brewed coffee, room temperature

2-4 tablespoons rum (I omitted this)

1 pan of Cake Mix Pound Cake (recipe below)

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well blended. Whisk in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil gently for 1 minute, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Cover tightly and chill in refrigerator 1 hour.

In a medium bowl, beat cream with vanilla until stiff peaks form. Whisk mascarpone into yolk mixture until smooth.In a small bowl, combine coffee and rum (if using).

Slice cooled cake in half lengthwise, and then slice into 1/2 inch thick pieces (about 1/2 inch x 1 inch x 4 inches in size) and drizzle with coffee. Arrange half of soaked cake pieces in bottom of a 9x13 inch dish. Spread half of mascarpone mixture over soaked cake, then half of whipped cream over that. Repeat layers and sprinkle with cocoa. Cover and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours, until set.

Cake Mix Pound Cake (original recipe here)

Ingredients:

1 package (18 ounces) white or yellow cake mix

1 package (4-serving size) vanilla instant pudding and pie filling mix

4 eggs

1 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray one 13 x 9 pan with vegetable spray.
In large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water and oil; beat at medium speed with electric mixer for 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake 30-35 minutes for round pans; 35-40 minutes sheet pan. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling grid and cool completely.

Capellini with Olive Oil, Lemon, and Parsley

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This is another one of those recipes from a cookbook that I have had for a while, but never cooked from. As I leafed through the pages of my Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast Pasta cookbook, this one caught my eye. It looked light, fresh, and pretty easy. And it was! Find the original recipe here. I topped it with shredded Parmesan, and served it with cheesy bread and a romaine salad. For dessert, I made Tiramisu with fresh baked pound cake (recipe in following post).

Capellini with Olive Oil, Lemon, and Parsley

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil

4 large garlic cloves, minced

1 lemon, zested and juiced, with all of the zest and half of the juice reserved

1 tsp. plus 2 Tbs. salt, plus more, to taste

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

1 lb. cappellini or spaghettini (I used angel hair)

1/2 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley (I didn't use a full 1/2 cup, still tasted awesome)

Shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

In a large fry pan over low heat, warm the oil. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant but not golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon zest, the lemon juice and the 1 tsp. salt. Season with pepper. Transfer the sauce to a large serving bowl.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the 2 Tbs. salt and the pasta to the boiling water. Cook, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until al dente, according to the package instructions. Drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking water.

Add the pasta to the sauce along with the parsley and toss to combine. Add as much of the cooking water as needed to loosen the sauce. Season with salt and pepper, top with Parmesan cheese, and serve immediately. Serves 4.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast Series, Pasta, by Julia della Croce (Oxmoor House, 2006)