Homemade Corn Dogs, Cheese Curds, and Funnel Cake!

To make this batter I've been trying and failing the last few times. I think I finally have it down! 3 cups of krusteaz buttermilk pancake mix and 1 cup of yellow corn meal.1 scrambled egg

And 2 cups of water!!

Mix but not too much, then pour in a tall cup.

I have kabob sticks that I have to cut to fit in the pot. Then I insert them 3/4 of the way in a hot dog.

Roll the hot dogs in a little flour to make the batter stick. Be sure to bring the hot dogs to room temp, also a tip to keep the batter on. Then dip into the batter.

Wiggle the stick in a circle to cover the whole hot dog and a little in the stick. That little crunchy part on the stick is my husbands favorite part! Haha.

Pull out and let drip and push the tip back in to flatten the top.

Slowly drop into the hot oil. I put mine at 350°

Then let it drain on a rack

For the cheese curds I put in a bowl 1 cup of flour and 2 eggs.

3/4 a cup of beer

1/4 a cup of milk then whisked together.

Put flour over the cheese curds so the batter would stick

Dropped them into the beer batter and with a fork I coated them, then dropped them into the oil at 350° for a couple minutes. Some of the cheese ran out so I think next time I would freeze the curds so they wouldn't melt as fast.

Delicious!

For the funnel cakes I combined 2 cups milk, 1 egg, 1 tsp of vanilla in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, I put 2 cups of  flour, salt, 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tbls of sugar and gradually added it to the wet ingredients. I beat with a mixer until it was smooth then added 4 tbls of melted butter and put that in a squeeze bottle.

Put the oil temp at 350° and poured the batter in squiggling to make a funnel cake pattern.

Then sprinkled with powder sugar while still warm!

So good!!

Homemade Pesto Chicken Pasta with Roasted Asparagus, Sun Dried Tomatoes, and Mozzarella.

I stopped to feed Zara in the car during a shopping trip! She loved bouncing on my lap and watching the cars drive by.

Spring is here! Yay for cute clothes!!

This is a delicious pasta salad that tastes so fresh and yummy! I made a homemade pesto sauce that was very easy to put together and you can save it for lots of other recipes! It's also a good way to use up your homegrown basil.

For the pesto I started with 3/4 a cup of Basil in a food processor. Then grated 2 cloves of garlic into the bowl.Then I added 3 tablespoons of pine nuts.

1/3 a cup of grated Parmesan, 1 tsp of salt and some cracked black pepper.

As I processed it I slowly poured in 1/3 a cup of extra virgin olive oil.

For the pasta salad I started with 1/3 a cup of sub dried tomatoes that I julienned. Added them to a large bowl.

I roasted a package of asparagus at 400° for 20 minutes with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Then cut into inch pieces.

I took a package of boccichino mozzarella and cut them in half and added those to the bowl. 

Added the asparagus, I didn't use all of the stems of the asparagus so put in how much you want of them.

I pan seared a package of chicken thighs with evoo. They were sprinkled with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. And then I diced them up.

Add those to the bowl.

I cooked 8 oz of small pasta and put that in the bowl.

Next I added 1/2 a cup of pesto. I like how it looks like a heart!!! Cute!

Mixed then tasted for salt. The Parmesan is salty so taste first!

Delicious!

Home Ground Burgers with Chuck, Bacon, Onions, Garlic, and Thyme. Also homemade french fries and baked beans.

For the amazing burgers I started with a pound of Chuck and cubed it into inch pieces.I chopped up and sautéed 6 slices of bacon.

Put the cubes in a bowl.

Once the bacon is crispy and most of the fat is rendered I added half an onion chopped.

Sauteed till softened then added 2 garlic cloves sliced and a tbls of chopped fresh time.

Then I let this bacon onion mixture cool and then dumped it into the cubed Chuck meat.

Added a tbls of worchesterchire sauce, a tsp of salt and some black pepper.

Mixed then let meld together in the fridge for an hour.

I set up my meat grinder that attaches to my stand mixer and passed the meat/bacon/onion mixture through it.

I tried my best not to mix so it wouldn't toughen up. Then formed the patties.

I put them on a plate and covered with Saran Wrap and put in the fridge for another hour.

For the French fries I peeled and cut 3 russet potatoes into French fries. Then put them in a bowl of water to get as much starch off of them as possible. I set this in the fridge till I was ready.

When I had the oil up to temperature I took out the potatoes and laid them on a dish towel and covered with another to dry them out as much a possible.

When the temperature is 350° I put in a batch of the fries and fry for 5 minutes till they are softened and pale. Then put on a paper towel to dry off. I forgot to take a picture but then you double fry them by bringing the temp up to 380° and throw them back in in batches until they are brown and crispy! Yum!

The beans I have made before so I didn't go into detail on those. I topped the burgers with a garlic herb Monterey cheese slice, avocado, tomato, and a slice of bacon!