Squeakin' By's Open Salon Blog

Home Made Corn Dogs

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:04:28 -0400

Well, it looks like I may be back to dumpster diving soon. In the mean time, here is a cheap dinner. Get yourself a pound package of mystery meat hot dogs. (Bar-S brand perhaps) and a package of corn meal muffin mix. Cut hot dogs into 48 pieces. (To the muffin mix add 1 cup flour, 3 eggs, 1/8 cup oil and half a cup of milk then mix) Add hot dog pieces to muffin mix and bake. You can get six 8 mini dog servings out of this. My total cost was $2.47. Use a mini muffin pan.

Since I was reared in the South, the wife, who is of German heritage, was a bit put off when I put syrup on my corn dog minis. Be a man and try it anyway. Your kids will love ot too.

Foodie Tuesday a day early: Ice Cream Tacos!!!!!

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:04:04 -0400

Well, of course, there's the Choco Taco, but my son came up with this "recipe" and it is such a fun idea I thought I'd share it. This would be great, though messy, for kids parties.

It's an ice cream taco that we make with blina as the (soft) shell. You can also use thinned pancake batter. The chocolate sauce is home made and the recipe for that goes back probably 100 years--I think it is delicious and you can taste the love.

First, you make the blina. The wife's recipe is on the fly and does not include baking soda or yeast which basically makes it a crepe. Here is a basic crepe recipe:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter, melted
3 eggs
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Process the flour, butter, sugar, eggs and salt in a blender until the mixture is smooth. Add the milk 1/3 cup at a time, until the batter is a liquid consistency. Set batter aside for 20 minutes.

Melt a little butter in a crepe pan or large skillet over low-medium heat. Add 3 tablespoons of batter to the pan and swirl until the bottom of the pan is covered with batter. Cook the crepe for 1 minute, or until the crepe is slightly moist on top and golden underneath. Loosen the edges of the crepe, slide the spatula under it, and then gently flip it upside down into the pan. Cook for 1 minute and transfer the cooked crepe to a plate to keep warm. Makes 8 servings

For the fixins, we used home made chocolate sauce, mini M&M's, caramel, chopped up Pop Tarts and whipped cream.

Fixins:

And the final product:

Put some vanilla ice cream on the "shell" and add the toppings. Pick up and enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chocolate sauce recipe:

1 cup sugar

2 tblsp flour

2 tblsp cocoa

1 cup water

2 tblsp margarine

Bring water and margarine to a boil then slowly add dry ingredients. Cook for about 2 minutes on low, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add 2 tsp of vanilla. Consistency will be thick.

Alternate Recipe:

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 tlbsp flour

2 cups of milk (less for thicker sauce)

1 stick of butter (not margarine)

About 3 tblsp cocoa

2/3 tblsp vanilla

Melt the butter, then add remaining ingredients and stir frequently over medium heat.

Home Made Yogurt

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:02:56 -0500

Homemade Yogurt (This is a good recipe)

You will need:

1 gallon milk (I like whole because it makes the creamiest and I want my kids to get the fat of it, but you can easily sub any variety of milkfat)

2 c. plain, greek yogurt (you will use 1/2 cup of starter yogurt for every quart of milk) After you make your initial batch, you can use your jarred yogurt as starter for the next batch. I have the best results with greek yogurt, but you can use any kind of plain yogurt.

accurate food thermometer

jars (canning jars or even washed jelly jars) If I use a gallon of milk, I almost get 5 quarts, so have one jar more than the total milk you used (ie 32 oz of milk will yield @ 40 oz of yogurt)

Method 1. heating pad and towels

Method 2. a small cooler and towels

In a stock pot or pan, simmer the milk till it reaches 180 F, stirring regularly (turn it off a little before it reaches that point b/c it will climb a bit after you turn off the heat)

Let it cool on the stove in that pan till the temp reaches 110 F. Watch it carefully. Temps are important!!

Once it has cooled to 110F, add your yogurt starter and whisk well.
Ladle yogurt mix into your clean, sterilized jars.

Method 1. on a baking sheet, place a heating pad on High. Set your jars evenly about the pad. Lace a towel through the jars and over the top to insulate them as they incubate. Do not seal with the lids yet.

Method 2. place your filled jars in a small cooler. Fill the cooler (half-way up the sides of the jars) with boiling water. Do not seal with the lids yet. Close the cooler and cover the cooler with a warm blanket or towels.

Let yogurt jars set for 8-10 hours. If I use method 1 (which I prefer) I make sure I am home to watch the heating pad. Method 2 works great overnight. This is so creamy, I don't even have to strain it.

Once complete, you can add flavorings as you like. Put your lids on and keep in the fridge. It will keep @ 2 weeks (don't know about longer as we usually go through it by then).

The next time you make it, it will only cost you the money you spend for the milk. Pretty cool!

Delicious Onion Soup

Sat, 4 Feb 2012 20:02:39 -0500

The wife was kind enough to make this for her undeserving husband.

For the stock: (You will need 6 pounds of onions total, the sweeter, the better, but you will only use 3 medium onions for the stock.)

Medium Stock Pot:

2-3 pounds of beef bones w/some meat remaining on them.

One bag of carrots

One stalk (Bag) of celery

Three medium onions

One bulb of fennel

One bulb of garlic

Peel and quarter onions, quarter the fennel bulb-leave most of the greens on, rough cut the carrots and celery and remove and halve the garlic cloves. Put all ingredients into the pot, which you have filled 3/4 full with water, and simmer for around three hours. Strain. For extra flavor, discard the beef bones, keep whatever meat is left, and puree the vegetables and meat with a strong blender and return them to the stock.( You could probably toss in a couple of beef bullion cubes if the urge hits you)

Now for the caramelized onions:

6 pounds of onions, less the 3 medium onions used for the stock.

6 tablespoons of butter

2 teaspoons of coarse salt.

1 tablespoon of sugar

In a heavy soup pot, melt butter over med. high heat.

Add onions and salt. Stir often until onions are softened, about 30 min., reduce heat to medium and add sugar. Lower heat if necessary to prevent bottom from scorching. Cook onions for another 40 minutes or so until they are a jam-like (I.E. caramelized) consistency and golden brown in color.

Combine onions with stock, simmer until hot. Owing to the wife's German background, she puts a few shots of worcestershire sauce in her bowl as well as some sour cream.

If you really want to get country with this recipe, thicken the soup with flour.

Make your own fabric softener.

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 15:02:52 -0500

If you do not want to use straight vinegar as a fabric softener, my wife has come up with a hybrid recipe that works:

6 cups warm water

3 cups white vinegar

2 cups hair conditioner (Suave or Dollar Tree brand is fine)

1 cup baking soda (Optional)

Mix 2 cups warm water and baking soda until until dissolved. Slowly add the vinegar as it will bubble up since it reacts with the baking soda. The baking soda is a freshener, but you will lose some of the softening due to the acid neutralization. Add the hair conditioner and rest of the water. Mix well. Shake before each use.

Yields 96 ounces. Use 4 ounces per large load. Do the math. It's cheap.