Corn dog dressing bake

You want four words to describe The Homesteading Housewife's Corn dog dressing bake? How about " Om nom nom nummy!!!!" This was so good that after one bite Blockette exclaimed with a full mouth, "Mommy, you gotta make this again!" The kid was right. It's darn good. The sage makes it savory, but there is a scant amount of sugar that gives it just the right amount of sweet for balance. The hot dogs are chopped and browned in a skillet before adding them to the casserole. Never ever skip this step. It doesn't add that much time to the meal prep, but adds all kinds of caramelized crispy goodness.

The only thing I changed about this recipe was halving it and baking it in a 8x8 pan. I learned from my previous mistake with the baked ziti. A 9x13 pan of anything is just too much for us to eat without getting sick of it. The halved recipe was a great amount for us. There was enough for one meal and leftovers. Next time I think I will add a bit of corn. Mrblocko suggested adding a bit of mustard, powdered or prepared. I think he was on to something. I'll be experimenting with that next time around.

Corn Dog Dressing Bake from the Homesteading Housewife
1 cup celery, chopped finely
1 large onion, chopped finely OR 1 heaping cup of sliced green onion
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
2 pounds (2 packages) Hot Dogs.
two 8.5 oz. packages Corn Bread Mix (I love Jiffy Brand!)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons rubbed sage
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 400F. In a skillet, combine celery, onions & butter. Saute for 5 min. Pour into a large bowl. Cut hot dogs into fourths lengthwise. Then cut each hot dog strip into 4 pieces. Pour hot dog pieces into the same skillet you used for the celery/onion mixture, saute hot dog pieces for 5 min or until lightly browned. Add browned hot dog pieces into the celery/onion mixture bowl. In another large bowl, combine; eggs, milk, sugar, sage, & pepper. Add 1/2 hot dog/celery mix ans 1 1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese, into the milk mix. Stir in the corn bread mix.Spread mixture in 13x9 baking dish. Top with remaining half of hot dog/celery mix. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 c cheese over top. Bake, uncovered,35 min, til knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Gingerbread waffles

Today MrsThunder and her daughter came over for a play date. I made them Gingerbread waffles for lunch. Blockette often refers to them as "Black waffles" because the molasses makes them so dark. (Brown waffles are regular homemade waffles, while white waffles are Eggo. She won't eat the white waffles anymore. I guess I've ruined her with homemade ones. )

MrsThunder asked for the recipe, but as she doesn't have a waffle iron yet, I figured I'd link the recipe here. That way, when she gets around to getting a waffle iron, she doesn't have to search for a random email.

This recipe does make a metric ton of waffles, so, unless you have a crowd to feed, be prepared for leftovers. Luckily, the leftovers can be frozen and taste great reheated in the toaster, oven, or on a skillet. I prefer to reheat them on the skillet. It makes them just a bit crunchy, which I think makes them taste even better than the first time around.


Gingerbread Waffles from Rachael Ray
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, eyeball it
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter, plus some to butter the iron
Syrup, whipped cream or fresh fruits for topping, to pass at table

Preheat waffle iron. In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. In a medium bowl, beat eggs and brown sugar until fluffy, then beat in pumpkin, milk, molasses and melted butter. Stir the wet into dry until just moist. Do not overstir the waffle batter. Brush the iron with a little melted butter and cook 4 waffles, 4 sections each. Serve with toppings of choice.

Pucker up

I had chicken thighs that had been in the freezer forever so I decided to make Moroccan chicken with lemon and olives last night. I doubled the recipe because I had quite a few thighs. I should have paid closer attention to what I was doing. The original recipe called for 1 lemon. So if you double the recipe you should use 2 lemons right?

NO!!!! Wrong!!! Danger! Danger!!

I did this and wow, was it mega sour. Well, duh. Two whole lemons would make something excessively sour. The chicken itself was tender and tasty, but when I served it up I poured the sauce over rice. Bleck. I think the garbage can even thought the sauce was too sour.

Blockette asked me not to make this again. I think I will honor her request. There are plenty of other recipes that call for chicken thighs I'd rather try. In fact, just this morning I came across this recipe for Five spice grilled chicken thighs with blackberry glaze. It sounds delicious. Hopefully, when I get around to testing it, I will have better luck than with the Moroccan Chicken.

Moroccan Chicken with Lemon & Olives from A Good Appetite
1 lemon
1/2 T olive oil
1 medium onion, cut in half & then sliced thin
salt &pepper
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/2 T paprika
1 t cumin
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground ginger
1 c chicken broth
4 chicken thighs, on the bone with skin removed
10 green olives

Slice the lemon in half. Cut one half into 4 wedges. Squeeze the juice from the other half. Set juice & wedges aside. In a skillet heat oil over med-high heat. Add onions & season with salt & pepper. Sauté til golden brown. Stir in garlic paprika, cumin, cinnamon and ginger & cook while stirring for 1 min. Add chicken broth & bring to a boil. Add chicken thighs & lemon wedges. Cover & reduce heat to medium-low. Let simmer for 30 min, turning chicken from time to time. Remove chicken to a plate. Add lemon juice &olives to the skillet. Turn heat to high & let boil for about 5 min til slightly thickened. Serve sauce over the chicken.

Garden update

This is my experimentation with a photo montage. I'm not sure it worked out very well. I wrote on each pic what it was but on the blog it looks so tiny. I think if you click on the picture it will take you to a bigger photo. Anyhow the photos are top left: front garden, top right: violas and lobelias, bottom left: side garden, bottom right: the only zinnia that has survived long enough to bloom. I think it's looking pretty feeble.
These pictures are of the evil stump in the side garden. We got an axe on Sunday and the top photo is after Mrblocko hacked at it with an axe for 30 min or so. The bottom pic is what it looked like before, but he had been hacking away at it with the maddoc for about a month. The top pic gives you a better idea of the scale of the pic. Yes, Blockette is wearing my shoes. The stump is currently roughly 12x12". Mrblocko took out 3 stumps in the backyard that were a fraction of the size of the one in the front. He had some time to kill when he thought he ruined the mower by accidentally mowing over one of the stumps. Why the previous owners planted all these shrubs I haven't the foggiest. And why they never bothered to take out the stumps after they chopped down the shrubs will remain a mystery of the ages. We've been tripping over them, they must have too. It's not like we have a huge backyard.

Neapolitan Krispies

I made these bars for a get together this weekend. I wanted to bring a dessert the kids would enjoy eating. Ironically, it wound up that none of the kids wanted to stop playing long enough to eat dessert. So, you guessed it, there were a ton of leftovers. You can't tell the size of these bars from the photo, but they are monstrous. I used a pan that is slightly larger than 9x13 and each layer has 6 cups of rice krispies!

Blockette and I had fun making them. I think most of the fun on her part was from eating marshmellows that I "accidently" dropped. At one point I was measuring out the marshmellows and I slipped and half the bag wound up on the table. Her eyes got as big as saucers and she started cramming as many of the little guys in her mouth as she could. I had to tell her to stop because I really did accidently drop them, and if she kept eating them we wouldnt have enough to make the bars. She listened but I could tell she was having a dilly of a time restraining herself.

I originally saw this on Cookie Madness, but she had a peanut butter layer instead of the pink layer. The pink layer looked better visually due to the contrast between the layers, but I think the peanut butter would have tasted better. I used strawberry jet puffed marshmellows. I'd never had them before. They had this weird artificial taste. I don't plan on buying them again.

I modified the recipe slighly from what cookie madness has on her site. Here are the ingredient ratios I used, keeping in mind I used a pan that was slightly bigger than 9x13 (probably 10x14. I'm to lazy to search for a ruler). You won't get all the layers to fit in a 9x13 pan. I really had to smash down the layers to get them all to fit, and the bars were up to the top of my pan. I followed the rest of the directions with the exception that I found wax paper sprayed with cooking spray to be better than parchment paper for smooshing down the layers. The krispies kept sticking to the parchment which was rather irritating.

Layer 1:
3T butter
4 c mini marshmellows
6 c krispies (you could use cocoa krispies. I don't care for them. The regular kind worked just fine.)
1 c semi sweet chocolate chips

Layer 2:
3T butter
4 c mini marshmellows
6 c krispies

Layer 3:
3T butter
1 10 oz. bag of strawberry jet puffed marshmellows
6 c krispies

Baked Ziti and Easy Cheese bread

I guess you can't technically call it Baked Ziti since I used Rigatoni, but close enough. Head on over to the Crepes of Wrath for the recipe and great pics of the Baked Ziti. This dish reminded me a lot of lasgana. While no bake lasagna noodles make lasagna easy to make, this Baked Ziti was even more of a breeze.

Holy cow did it make a lot though. We will be eating leftovers of this for days. Good thing everyone liked it so much. Blockette plowed through her bowl. We didn't have to remind her to eat once.

Next time, unless I'm making this for company, (which I definitely will), I'm going to half the recipe, with the following changes: use a pound of meat and a heaping half cup of sour cream. I like my red sauce dishes to be meaty and the original 1 lb of meat to 2 jars of sauce spread it a little thin for my tastes. I also thought there was a bit too much sour cream. I didn't like scooping into the dish to find that white layer. The sour cream was a bit too thick to melt into the provolone. Stirring the serving eliminated the white layer, but for presentation sake I'd rather not have to do that if I was serving it for company. I'm guessing the thinner layer of sour cream would melt better into the cheese. I guess you could use ricotta. Ricotta would melt nice, but I'm not a fan of ricotta.

The Cheese bread from My Kitchen Cafe was really an after thought. I realized that I had forgotten to buy garlic bread and all we had was regular old sandwich bread. I wanted something that could sop up the red sauce a little better than that. (Or maybe we could blame Mrsthunder who was talking about how she was making garlic basil bread in her bread machine the other day.) I had debated on making the no knead bread but I didn't have enough time. I also didn't want to have the oven on for that long either.
I rummaged through my recipe folder and came across a few different ideas. Most of them you either needed a stand mixer or you had to knead by hand. I have bad luck kneading by hand so those were out as well. This particular bread recipe is technically a quick bread. There is no yeast and no kneading involved. Right up my alley!

Naturally, I didn't have the exact ingredients for this bread. I wasn't about to go to the store because, hey, if I was going to go to the store I could have just bought a loaf of garlic bread. I didn't have the sharp cheddar cheese to chop up. I did have twisted cheddar and mozzarella string cheese. I used that instead. I also didn't have whole milk. The recipe specifically says not to use skim milk but that was all I had. Would it have tasted better with the intended ingredients? You bet, but the end result of this loaf was still mighty tasty.

I think next time I might omit the Parmesan cheese. I couldn't get it to shred nicely. It all sort of crumbled into a coarse grit. That was more of a visual thing though. I don't think the way the cheese shredded had an effect on the taste of the bread. If you go to My Kitchen Cafe and look at her pic, the large grate of the cheese on top looks much better than the crumbled stuff on my loaf. The Parmesan made the bread rather salty as well. I think a different cheese could make just as pretty of a crunchy crust without the saltiness.

Baked Ziti from Crepes of Wrath
1 pound dry ziti pasta
1 onion, chopped
1 pound ground turkey
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce, dealer’s choice
6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
1 1/2 cups low-fat sour cream
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook until al dente, 8 min; drain and set aside. In a large skillet, brown onion and ground turkey over med heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 min. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and/or line a 9×13" dish. Layer as follows: 1/2 of ziti, Provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 sauce mix, remaining ziti, mozzarella and remaining sauce mix. Top with grated Parmesan. Bake 30 min til cheeses melted. Let sit for a few min before serving.


Simple and Delicious Cheese Bread from Mel's Kitchen Cafe
**If the toothpick comes out with what looks like uncooked batter after testing the bread for doneness, try again in a different spot since the toothpick may have hit a pocket of cheese the first time. You definitely don’t want to overbake the bread or it will be dry. According to the original recipe, the texture of the bread improves as it cools, so if you can, resist the urge to slice the bread while it is still very hot. I can attest that this leftover cheese bread makes excellent toast. Use a toaster oven or baking sheet in a 425-degree oven for 5 to 10 minutes (a conventional toaster can be messy because the pockets of cheese will melt and burn).**

3 ounces Parmesan cheese, shredded on large holes of box grater (about 1 cup)
3 cups (15 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
4-5 ounces sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese, cut into ½-inch cubes
1 1/4 cups whole milk (2% milk may be substituted but don’t use skim milk)
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 large egg lightly beaten
3/4 cup sour cream

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position in the oven and preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 5x9"loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray, then sprinkle 1/2 c of the Parmesan evenly in bottom of pan.

In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper to combine. Using a rubber spatula, mix in cheddar cheese cubes, breaking up clumps, until cheese is coated with flour. In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, melted butter, egg, and sour cream. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined (the batter will be heavy and thick). Do not overmix. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan; spread to sides of pan and level surface with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 c Parmesan evenly over surface.

Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, 45-50 min. Cool in pan on wire rack 5 min; invert loaf from pan and continue to cool until warm, about 45 min. Cut into slices and serve.

Peeved

Today Blockette and I went to the Library (Bookatorium for those of you in the know). As we were entering, another woman and her child were leaving. The woman and I were both holding onto the door to keep it open. (The Blockette likes to stand in the doorway and on more than one occasion I have assumed that she has passed through the threshold only to see the door smacking her in the face or butt. This happened less than a week ago and the door hit her so hard in the head it knocked her to the ground. Naturally, I was more concerned with my child not getting hurt than this random woman holding the door open. ) This lady turns around and in a snotty voice says "You're welcome."

EXCUSE ME??? How is it that you get to be rude when you are in essence scolding me for being rude to you? Hypocrite!!! The "you're welcome" said before someone says "Thank you" is one of my pet peeves. It's a sure fire way to piss me off. I don't even think you should do it to kids. It's much better to tell them to say thank you than to do the preemptive you're welcome. I think it just reinforces the rudeness cycle. No one needs that.

I was already not having the best day dealing with an uncooperative munchkin. This just tipped the scales to totally pooptastic. Thanks snotty lady! You're number 1.

I do have to say that I can think of one exception where I wouldn't be angry at the "You're welcome." If Mrblocko came up to me and gave me a peck on the cheek and said "You're welcome" in a loving voice, and then proceeded to tell me he just killed the King Kong of spiders in Blockette's room without her knowing. I would be totally OK with that.