Corn Dogs, Anyone?

With the county fair in our rear-view mirror, I was feeling the need to fry up some comfort food and drown my sorrows at having missed it. (Okay, not really - I'm just stretching for a segue. None-the-less...)

And what better deep-fried goodness than the humble corn dog? Being in possession of a deep-fryer, I thought it would be great fun to make corn dogs with homemade batter. I selected a recipe, on trusty all-recipes, read the reviews for tips & tricks, then grabbed my camera to chronicle what was sure to be a stunning success.

I was surprised to find that I had, on hand, everything I needed to make corn dogs from scratch.  

Corn dogs wouldn't be corn dogs without cornmeal.

I mixed in flour, salt & pepper, sugar and baking powder.

Then added an egg and some soy milk.

And stirred up a nice batter.

At this point, I had read some different ideas in the reviews as to how to make the batter stick on to the dogs best.  I decided to try just dipping them in (as the original recipe calls for) as well as rolling some in flour first as some Allrecipe members had suggested.

So I inserted the bamboo skewer like this...

and dipped the turkey frank in the cup of batter.

Other of the dogs got rolled in flour first, like so:

And dipped:

Without further ado, I placed the first two dogs in the basket of my deep fryer and gave them a dip.  


While they were frying, I assembled a small army of additional raw corn dogs.

Including my favorite, a half-sized dog:

This may be a good time to mention that I had no guests coming over to help me eat these, and my husband is not a fan of corn dogs either.  But what else was I to do with so much batter!?

Meanwhile, back in the fryer...

Ah... sweet success!  I just can't wait to pick those up, dab them off, and consume them whole.  (Well - maybe not the stick.)

Uh... wait a minute.

*tear*

"But they were tasty, right?"

Sadly, no.  They were not.  Even this cute little guy left something to be desired.

So this all leads me to my question: 

Does anyone out there know how to make good corn dogs at home??

Deep Fried Goodness

One thing I have been doing a lot of this summer is using my deep fryer to create delicious sides and snacks. Ok... so this isn't the most healthy way to spend the summer - but it sure is tasty once in a while to fry up some 'taters!

Bryan has a thing for Yukon Gold french fries (like the ones you can get at Burgerville) so that is mostly what we've been doing.

Once, I even made chips, just for fun:



And the Jo Jo is classic, too:


Stay tuned for something else I tried in my deep fryer this summer...

Mountain of 'Naners

Well, I'm at it again. Baking, that is. You see, it has just been far to hot in our little home to even think about turning on the oven. But then last week, it cooled off and I jumped back in there with determination.

But first, I have a confession to make. I can not seem to come home from the grocery store with the correct amount of bananas. Ever.

So when a cool day came, I emptied my freezer (guests had begun to comment on the number of 'naners in there) and this is what I faced:

So I broke out my favorite banana muffin recipe and got to work. (You may remember that I blogged about it before. If you haven't tried it yet, check out the recipe.)

It's been a while since I've blogged a good step-by-step, so here come lots of pictures:

I gathered my ingredients...

got mixing...

added a bit of vanilla soy milk...

and, of course, a healthy dose of mashed 'naners!

Next I stirred in the dry ingredients...

and the batter was ready to go!

I filled my new mini muffin tray (thx, Mom!) with the batter and impatiently waited for my oven to pre-heat.

Here's my new mini muffin tray just waiting to go into the oven.

Meanwhile, I thawed the bananas some and bagged them up to re-freeze in 1 cup portions.

And here are my darling mini muffins!

Aren't they just the cutest?

Yum!

Happy Baking!

Back to Bento

Here is the lunch I took today to rehearsal for Arsenic and Old Lace.

Contents:

• Ham sandwich on whole wheat bread (with cucumbers, of course!)
• more cucumbers mixed with grape tomatoes, with lemon juice and pepper
• grapes

These are the new containers I got at Freddy's for lunches this coming school year. The container I used above is actually for my husband. It really holds a lot of food. The other is a salad container and comes with a little sauce cup for dressing. And both hold their own utensils. Cute, right?


Happy Bento!

Hello again, blog-o-sphere!

Is anyone still checking here? If so, thanks! To you, the faithful (optimistic) few, I write this, my first blog entry in well over 2 months. (Yikes!)

Where have I been, you wonder. And rightly so.

Well, let's see... first my husband "popped" his Achilles tendon while playing soccer. So that kinda changed our plans for the summer. While he was having surgery, my parents were in Africa for three weeks, and I was at their house taking care of my brother (who has microcephaly). So, very little baking or bento making happening.

Then I got the gardening bug and "played in the dirt" for about two weeks. The yard debris bin didn't know what hit it!

Then I started noticing that the inside of my house could use some attention. I found Fly Lady and have been flitting around throwing out clutter and cleaning up grime ever since.

Who has time for the computer!?

But, in anticipation of the coming school year -- I thought I better get back on the blogging bandwagon. And I actually bought a couple of bento containers last week. (More on that later.)

Hope your summer has been as productive and fulfilling as mine has been. And, thanks for reading!

Potatoes Please

The featured ingredient in this bento is potato. Yum!

Contents:

• potato salad
• mashed potatoes
• shake n bake chicken breast
• broccoli
  
• baby carrot
  

Happy Bento!

A Couple Bentos

Here are my bentos from yesterday and the day before. Yesterday I had spaghetti and fruit:


The fruit was a mix of cantaloupe and green apple:



The day before that was a simple sandwich bento (PB&J) with carrots and an oatmeal raisin cookie:


Happy Bento!

Bento #108

It has come to my attention, that my favorite food of all time, spaghetti, isn't particularly photogenic. But it is so tasty, I will continue to pack it for lunches quite often. My apologies.

This bento contains:

• spaghetti with lots of olives
• baby carrots
• kiwi fruit

Happy Bento!

Delicious Smoothie

The weather here has been so warm lately it feels like summer has started already. And when hot weather is here, what better way to cool off than a nice cold fruit smoothie?

This simple smoothie recipe is one I invented when I didn't have the ingredients on hand for the recipes I was finding online.

You will need:

• a blender
• 1 banana (fresh out of the freezer, if you've got em)
• soy milk
• ice cubes

and the secret ingredient?

• TANG

Here it shows that I started with a handful of ice-cubes. Don't. Start with the other ingredients and add the ice last. Trust me; it will blend better. (I ended up having to stop the blender and stir the contents about four times - a pain, and totally unnecessary.)


Darn those ice cubes right by the blades! But, moving on...

I used about 1/3 to 1/2 of the little scoop that comes in the TANG.


Ah... delicious, sweet orange flavoring. Adds a nice color, to. And I won't go into the vitamins it contains, but in our house, we look at TANG as a very good thing.

Next comes the soy milk. Pour it in. This is where the recipe is very adaptable. Start with a little soy, and if you want the consistency more fluid later, you can add some more.


Be careful if you are cutting up frozen bananas like I am here. (I only ended up using one, by the way.)


Looks kinda unappetizing just sitting there in the blender... but here is where the magic happens.


Set your blender to "smoothie" and blend until smooth.


Lookin' good!

Enjoy!

Cucumber Bento (and a question)

Another simple bento for me today.

I was showing it to a student and asking if I get points for having lots of vegetables (this is the same student that consistently asks me if my lunch is decorated - she also checks in to make sure I have veggies and fruit).


I told her I had carrots, cucumber, and even more cucumber in my sandwich.


This comment got a reaction from one of my co-workers.

"What kind of sandwich do you put cucumbers on?"
"It's a ham sandwich."
"Ham and cucumbers, huh?" (Now that she said it out loud, it did seem like an odd pairing.)
"Uh... yeah. I put cucumbers on most any type of deli sandwich."

I started doing this after realizing how much I enjoy them in my Subway sandwiches. The nice people at Subway wouldn't steer me wrong, now would they? But then again, I don't go around adding jalapeños (another Subway option) to my ham sandwich.

So I'd like your input. Do you put cucumbers on your sandwich? Does cucumber go better with a certain type of sandwich?

For myself, I will continue adding cucumber to just about whatever I like. It is so summer-y and delicious. But I am still curious if that is an oddity.

Happy Bento!

Shooting Star Bento

Every day one of my students asks, "Did you decorate your lunch?"

Finally, today, I was able to answer, "A little."


Bento # 106 contains:

• salad
• cucumber
• carrot
  
• broccoli
  
• tri-tip steak
• brown rice

Although this isn't near as fancy as the last time I brought brown rice, my student seemed contented.

Deep Fried Sturgeon

Well, my bentos may have lacked inspiration lately:


...but dinner is another story. Not that I can really claim any credit for the idea... it was my husband's. He wanted to serve his mom deep fried sturgeon for mother's day.

So we cut up the fish, dipped the pieces in an egg/soy milk wash and then shook them around in a Ziplock with the breading (which was a pre-seasoned mix we bought in the seafood section). We popped them into our little deep fryer, and about ten minutes later, we emptied the basket onto paper towels. Here's the result:


Finger food... yum!

Barbeque Season Begins

I am so happy that the weather has warmed up a bit and my husband has taken his place at the grill again. We eat such tasty food when he is in charge of the meat. *grin*

• cucumbers
• carrot stars
• mashed potatoes
• grilled chicken (with a baja citrus marinade)

Happy bento!

Bento 102

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted anything!

Here is a quick bento:

Fruit salad on top, mujaddara on bottom. Yum!

Now that Once Upon a Palace Purple is over, I have plenty of time to get back to packing bentos.