Mini Corn Dog Muffins

In my opinion you can not have chili without cornbread.  Since my husband was bringing chili (see post below) his potluck at work,  I wanted to make something with cornbread to accompany it.  I searched the internet and found the great idea of putting a piece of hotdog in corn muffins.  What genius can up with this idea, I don't know but I would like to thank them!  I love sweet corn bread so that is what I used for my mini corn dog muffins.  I found a great recipe here http://saffronstreaks.com/recipes/southern-honey-cornbread-muffins/  for sweet corn bread muffins.  I doubled the recipe and I got about 18 mini muffins.  Cut each hotdog into six pieces, fill each mini muffin tin with a 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop of corn bread mixture then press one piece of hotdog in the middle of each muffin. Bake and enjoy!

Recipe: Southern honeyed corn muffins

Summary: Sweet and tender cornbread muffins in southern style, with honey and sour cream results in more tender crumbs.

The recipe has been adapted from foodnetwork

Ingredients

• Yellow cornmeal : 1/2 cup
• All-purpose flour : 1/2 cup
• Baking powder : 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda : 1/2 tsp
• Brown sugar : 1/4 cup
• Honey : 1/4 cup
• Salt : 1/8 tsp
• Sour cream : 1/2 cup
• Egg : 1
• Butter : 3 tbsp melted

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven at 400 F.
2. Grease and flour mini muffin pan.
3. In a bowl sift the flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, baking soda.
4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg and add the melted butter, honey, sugar and sour cream and mix it well.
5. Add the egg-butter-sugar-cream mixture into the flour-cornmeal mixture.
6. With a cutting action mix the dry and wet ingredients together until well incorporated.
7. Do not over mix the batter, it should be lumpy.
8. Divide and spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.
9. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until done.

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Award Winning Chili

My husband was having a pot luck for Super bowl at his work and he signed up to bring chili.  I turned to the internet of course and found this recipe http://www.food.com/recipe/award-winning-chili-105865 It uses both black beans and kidney beans so I decided to try it out.  It didn't hurt that it got really great reviews.  Everyone at my husband's work LOVED it, I must say it is the best chili that I have had! 

Ingredients:
 

1 lb ground venison or 1 lb ground beef or 1 lb ground turkey  (I used 85% lean 15% fat ground beef)
2 onions, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 tablespoon jalapeno, finely chopped
1 (14 ounce) can Mexican-style tomatoes (like Rotel)
2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
2 tablespoons cumin
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika (smoked if you can find it)
1 (14 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup water (I substituted beef stock & only added about 3/4 cup because we like our chili a bit thick)

 

Toppings

sour cream
cheddar cheese
green onion

Directions:

1.  Cook ground meat with onions and peppers in dutch oven.
2.  Drain excess grease and add tomatoes, seasonings, and beef stock, bring to a boil.
3.  Add beans, cover and simmer 1-2 hours. (I like to cook mine for about 4 hours)
4.  Serve with toppings.

Enjoy!

Crepes

I love finding new recipes on Youtube because you can see people actually cooking things. I made these crepes on Christmas Eve after finding a great channel there. I have since made two other recipes from her channel that I will be posting and everything I have made has been amazing! Please do yourself a favor and check out her channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIc2E3uvBMA

Crepes:

Ingredients

1 cup of All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Granulated Sugar
¼ tsp Salt
2 Eggs
2 Tbsp Melted Butter
1 cup Whole Milk

Preparation

1) Place the first 6 ingredients into a blender, and blend until smooth and no lumps appear.

2) Preheat a 9 inch non stick skillet (or a crepe pan) on medium heat and spray with the nonstick cooking spray. Using a ¼ cup measuring cup scoop the batter into the pan tilting the pan in a circular motion coating the surface evenly .(the crepes take about 30 seconds a side to cook) Continue the same process with the rest of the batter.

3) Once the crepes are all done, top with your favorite toppings.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pancakes Tipped with Homemade Caramel Sauce & Chopped Pecans

I have a recipe for pumpkin pancakes and it calls for using the pancake mix in the box where you just add water. On Saturday morning my husband and I were so excited for these pancakes. I open the box and measure out one cup of mix, to my horror there are bugs!!!!! I was so upset but I was also so determined to make these pancakes. I saw that my new favorite place to get recipes, Laura In The Kitchen http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/arch/pumpkin_pancakes.html had a recipe for them and they were made from scratch. I did like this recipe very much and I paired it with my topping I normally make with my pumpkin pancakes, caramel sauce with chopped pecans. I am not a pumpkin fan but I do like these very much and it is awesome year round but especially during the holidays!

Pumpkin Pancakes: Serves 3-4 Ingredients 1 cup of Flour 1 Tbsp Brown Sugar 1 Tbsp Regular Sugar ½ tsp Baking Soda 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice ½ tsp Salt ½ cup of Evaporated Milk (you can use regular milk, just omit the water, this is what I did) ¼ cup of Water 1 egg 1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil ½ cup Pumpkin Puree Preparation, 1) Preheat a griddle or a non stick skillet over medium heat and spray it with non stick cooking spray or brush it with melted butter. 2) In a large bowl mix together all of the dry ingredients and set aside. 3) In a medium bowl whisk together the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together to make sure everything is well combined. 4) Using a ¼ cup measuring cup, pour your pancake batter on the preheated and greased griddle. 5) Cook for about a couple minutes on each side or until cooked through. 6) Serve warm drizzled with homemade caramel sauce with chopped pecans. Caramel Pecan Topping: Ingredients: 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream 1/4 cup light corn syrup 2 tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 chopped pecans Instructions: Put all of the ingredient except the pecans in a saucepan. When all the pancakes are done put them on individual plates. Heat the sauce until it boils. Remove from the heat and add the pecans. Drizzle over pancakes. Enjoy!

Tonkatsu

My husband and I miss Japan very much. Lucky for us we have friends who live there and they send us things that we miss. We love the curry chain CoCo Curry. If you are ever in Japan you need to try them! They also have a restaurant chain all around the world. Our friends sent us some CoCo Curry instant curry that you can purchase in the restaurant. I paired it with some Tonkatsu (Panko Breaded Pork Cutlet). You can also eat Tonkatsu with a special sauce they make for it which is a Japanese Worcestershire Sauce. We like the Bulldog Brand the best.

Ingredients:

Pork Cutlets (1/4 inch in thickness)
Egg
Flour
Garlic Powder
Onion Power
Salt & Pepper
Panko Bread Crumbs
Vegetable or Canola Oil

Directions:

1. Trip fat off the the pork cutlets and season them on both sides with salt, pepper, onion & garlic powder.
2. Start heating your oil.
3. Put your flour, beaten egg, and panko in separate dishes. Season flour and egg with salt, pepper, garlic & onion powder.
4. With each piece of pork, dip it first in flour (shake off the excess), egg, then panko.
5. Fry each piece until golden brown and place on a paper towel to soak up any excess oil.
6. Top with Tonkatsu sauce or eat with curry.

Enjoy!

Quiche

My dear husband attended a Superbowl party this year, so I made a couple of quiche for him to bring. Since we live in Japan the Superbowl was shown at 8 a.m. I am not an egg eater (I know it is weird) so I have no clue how to make quiche. I turned to the internet as I often do and ended up on http://allrecipes.com/Default.aspx . I found this one recipe in particular that got great reviews http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Clarks-Quiche/Detail.aspx. I made the following changes to the recipe.
1. Changed the servings from 16 to 8
2. I used light sour cream, fat free cheddar cheese, half egg beaters/half eggs, light Parmesan, and fat free half and half. I also left out the olive oil and used cooking spray.
3. I didn't layer it as the recipe states, instead I went with the suggestions of others. I mixed all of the filling together, then divided it up between (2) 9 inch regular pie crusts. Finally I put the egg, half & half, and parsley mixture on top and baked.

*Next time I think I would make this with Turkey Bacon

The quiche was liked by all that tried it. My husband especially liked it but I think that is because his wife made it. (wink)

BBQ Baby Back Ribs

I had to share these ribs that I made the other day with everyone. My friend gave me the instructions that had been given to her by her mother-in-law. I suggest you try these out you will not be disappointed!

Baby Back Ribs - cut into fours or threes (I got mine individually cut)
Sweet Baby Rays Honey BBQ Sauce
Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil (must be the heavy kind)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Cut a big piece of foil and smoother the ribs with barbecue sauce using a brush
Place ribs so the arch is facing down
Pull the top and bottom of the foil and fold down then fold each side to the center
Place on a lined baking sheet

Bake @ 350 degrees F for 45 minutes
then
Decrease the oven to 250 degrees F & continue to cook for another 3 hours

Enjoy!

Not A Sweet... But Still My Hobby

I normally only post my sweet creations on here, but what I made for dinner tonight was so good I had to share it. I had some boneless short ribs that I have never tried to cook before, so the search for a recipe began. I found a recipe which I had all of the ingredients for so I decided to go with it.

http://www.latimes.com/features/custom/holidays/la-fo-hanukkahrec5bdec05,0,6642536.story

*The only change I made was using beef stock instead of veal stock. *

I served it with steamed broccoli and

My husband was so pleased and said this was a definite do over. He also mentioned this was like an anniversary dinner! I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as we did.

Bon Appetit...