Corn-dog Muffins

Corn-dog Muffins

Corn-dogs are wonderful, greasy fair food - but often better left to the deep fryers and the commercial makers.  I've made corn-dogs in the oven.  The batter falls off the hotdogs - no matter how thick you make it.  They're tasty, but a bit of a pain.  

Recently while perusing the online world of food I found the suggestion to make corn-dog muffins instead.  The corn batter doesn't fall off the hotdogs when they're in muffin tins.  The grease from the hotdogs doesn't leak out of the corn muffin batter coating.  And they're easily packable for kid lunches.

The original recipe said to use prepackaged cornbread muffin mix.  That's not something I stock at our house.  So I went to the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book (you know, the one with the red and white checks) for their cornbread recipe.

Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book Cornbread Recipe:  DOUBLE IT!

1 cup AP flour
1 cup corn meal
1 Tbsp baking powder
2-3 Tbsp sugar (omitted for the corn-dog muffins)
2 eggs - beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil (down to 1/6 cup for corn-dog muffins)

ADD: 1 cup shredded cheese
6 hot dogs - quartered.


I doubled the original recipe and got 24 corn-dog muffins and 12 small plain corn muffins.  (or 30 corn-dog muffins and using 7.5 hotdogs)

Mix together all the dry ingredients, and make a well in the middle of them and add the eggs, milk & oil.  Mix the wet and dry together, fold in the shredded cheese.

Grease each muffin cup and fill about half full with cornbread batter - press in 1/4 of a hotdog all the way to the bottom of the cup.  It won't be completely covered but will be close when the batter rises in the oven.

Bake at 425 degrees F for 20-22 mins until golden brown and cooked through.

Eat hot or cold, dipped in ketchup, mustard, or plain.  Up to you!  Happy Munching!!

Home Made "Spaghetti O's"

Home Made "Spaghetti O's"

Or Alphabet Soup...

My kids had never had spaghetti O's before.  It was a thing from my past that I always liked when I got it as a "treat".  It was definitely not the normal fare at our house either.  I recently came across a recipe that was billed as tomato alphabet soup.  I decided to try it out - and it tasted really close to spaghetti O's.  Added a few of my own special touches and my kids loved it - and keep asking for it.  Time to share my tweaked recipe.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

Small Pasta Shapes (alphabet letters, O's, small shells, elbows, etc) - I usually use 1/2 lb of pasta, today I used a whole pound.
Garlic Powder - 1 tsp - to taste

Dried Minced Onion - 1 Tbsp - to taste

Basil - tsp or so - to taste
Oregano - tsp or so - to taste

Black Pepper - few turns of a grinder to taste

dash of salt

1 can Tomato Sauce (15oz)

4 - 6 cups chicken broth (or bouillon and water)

Shredded cheese for serving

Optional:

Make mini spoon-sized meat balls and cook in the soup until cooked through for an extra boost of protein.

Directions:

Get out a heavy bottomed sauce pan and heat on medium.  Add in the olive oil until it's shimmery and then add the dry pasta - yes, dry.  Toast it in the hot oil until it's nicely browned all over.

It's kind of like starting to make a rice pilaf.

Once the pasta is nice and toasted, add in the seasonings - garlic, onion, basil, oregano, pepper and salt and cook until the seasonings are fragrant.

7-8 cups of liquid with 1lb pasta

TURN DOWN THE HEAT and empty the can of tomato sauce and continue to cook until the pasta has soaked up a lot of the sauce and it's slightly reduced and darker red in color. (I forgot to get a picture of this step!  It was splattering all over on me and I got distracted.)

Pour in the chicken broth, stir, and bring up to a boil (add the meat balls now if using).

For the meatballs I put 1 chicken breast cut up in my food processor and ground it then pulsed in some garlic, basil, oregano, dried minced onion, and pepper.  Rolled it in small spoon-sized balls and put them in the soup while it was simmering.

Almost Done!

Simmer until the noodles are tender and the meat balls are finished cooking, if you added them. 

Let the pasta thicken the soup/sauce until it's nice and thick.  There will be very little liquid left when the soup is finished.

Time to eat!

Serve with shredded cheese on top and maybe a dollop of sour cream - yum!

To make this taste closer to spaghetti O's puree some cooked carrot into the sauce - gives it the flavor you maybe looking for from the commercial product ;-)

Recap of the recipe all together...

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

Small Pasta Shapes (alphabet letters, O's, small shells, elbows, etc)

garlic powder - 1 tsp - to taste

minced onion - 1 Tbsp - to taste

basil - tsp or so - to taste

black pepper - few turns of a grinder to taste

dash of salt

1 can tomato sauce (15oz)

4 - 6 cups chicken broth (or bouillon and water)

Shredded cheese for serving

Optional:

Make mini spoon-sized meat balls and cook in the soup until cooked through for an extra boost of protein.

Directions:

Get out a heavy bottomed sauce pan and heat on medium.  Add in the olive oil until it's shimmery and then add the dry pasta - yes, dry.  Toast it in the hot oil until it's nicely browned all over.  It's kind of like starting to make a rice pilaf.

Once the pasta is nice and toasted, add in the seasonings - garlic, onion, basil, pepper and salt and cook until the seasonings are fragrant.

TURN DOWN THE HEAT and empty the can of tomato sauce and continue to cook until the pasta has soaked up a lot of the sauce and it's slightly reduced and darker red in color.

Pour in the chicken broth, stir, and bring up to a boil (add the meat balls now if using).  Simmer until the noodles are finished cooking through and the meat balls are finished, if you added them).

Serve with shredded cheese on top and maybe a dollop of sour cream - yum!

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