Corn Dog Corn Muffins with Cheese

The reason that I blog is because so many of the best memories of my life are strongly associated with foods (and I want to keep track of said memories and foods)! Sweets with Pap-Pap, cafeteria lunches with grade school friends, dinners with Mom and Dad, holiday meals with our whole family, and so on. One of the earliest of my food memories is ritually getting a corn dog at the mall with my Mom. It's the little things in life, right?! I'll have to ask her exactly what mall it was that had the prized corn-dogs and just how many times we enjoyed shopping and high-class dining together, although that may just ruin my happy little memory!

Fast forward to last weekend - we were going to our annual Penn State tailgate at Aloha Stadium and I needed a food offering that was liked by many yet easy to transport and eat. That's when I found Iowa Girl Eats' take on a mini corn dog muffin! She, too, agrees that these are a football food. (In case you missed it, Penn State crushed the Iowa Hockeyes this weekend! Iowa Girl I hope you're not a Hockeyes fan.) I un-mini-ed her muffins, added cheese, and used Lil Smokies.

Corn Dog Muffins with Cheese

Makes 24 (standard size) muffins

Cheesy Stuffed Potatoes and Other Melted Things

Yesterday I was compelled to make something using potatoes since we had so many of them. Our friends were coming over so I thought some stuffed potatoes with cheese would be perfect finger food.

I cleaned the potatoes and preheated the oven.

Normally I put foil around my spuds when baking them but the good-old-Better-Homes-and-Gardens-cookbook said it wasn't necessary, so I didn't. Hooray for not wasting! After about 20 - 30 of the 45 minutes required I heard a funny sound from on top of the stove. It was the sound of the candle falling to its death!

White Bean Dip and Homemade Pita Chips

Happy New Year! 

We're three weeks into 2012 so far and I've been doing a great job of eating healthy lately. Not because it's my "resolution" but because we're getting married in the next year and we just got back from the longest and most gluttonous vacation of our lives! See here, here, and here - and I'm not even close to finished with the posts from the trip yet. Homemade and healthy, refreshing foods are so welcome in my life!

Don't judge this cookbook by it's dirty cover, it's one of my favorites! Honestly - who doesn't love Giada? As a fellow Italian with a gigantic mouth and passion for cooking, I certainly can admit my fondness for her and this cookbook. 

As you can see it was a Christmas Gift of mine from 2007 from my dear cousin Josephine! (You may remember her because she's the one who let me know about the don't-watch-the-Godfather rule.) 

I love books - especially giving or getting them as gifts with personalized notes. I also like to make little notes in my cookbooks for when my future self opens them! Thanks 2008 Ang for reminding me about this recipe. I remember borrowing a food processor to make it then, oh the joy of being a broke college student :)

White Bean Dip and Pita Chips
Adapted from Giada's recipe

white bean dip
2 - 15 ounce cans of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed well
1/2 cup of fresh flat leaf parsley leaves
juice of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves
olive oil

pita chips
1 package of pita bread
4 tablespoons sunflower oil
2 tablespoons dried oregano
salt & pepper

Giada makes her chips first, then then dip, but I like the dip to be chilled by the time the chips are ready!

In a food processor (your own or a borrowed one!) combine the beans, parsley, lemon juice, garlic, and salt & pepper. Pulse until the mixture is combined. Slowly add olive oil until the mixture is creamy. Add salt & pepper if need be. Refrigerate the dip until the chips are ready to go!

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Brush each pita half with sunflower oil on both sides. Using a pizza cutter, slice each pita half into 4 wedges and arrange on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with oregano, salt & pepper and bake for about 15 minutes, turning them once halfway through.

Once the chips are finished, get the dip from the fridge and enjoy! This is a simple and light recipe for an afternoon snack or a potluck. Of course the store-bought pita chips or crackers would work, too.

When someone asks me about this odd-looking green dip, I tell them it's basically hummus made with white beans! Is the color awesome or intimidating?

Here's to an awesome 2012!

Not Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

Today I bought myself a snack.  Two of my very favorite things, licorice and chocolate, combined to make one treat.  It sounded very promising!

WRONG (ANNOYING BUZZER SOUND)

My instinct was very wrong.  Chocolate coated licorice is NOT greater than the sum of its parts. 

I ate one piece and hated it, the flavor was too sweet and very strong.  It tasted a little bit like a chocolate covered cherry, but in a very bad way.  I ate just one more piece to see if I could get used to it.  No, not at all.

I asked 5 people in my office if they wanted to try.  4 of them looked at me like I was crazy!  Why did they know it would be gross and I thought I'd love it?  1 person tried it.  She took the smallest bite I've ever seen, then said "it's very strong!"  I assured her I wouldn't be mad if she threw it away, and that's exactly what she did.

I don't like to waste food.  After this lovely description - does anyone want a bag of chocolate coated licorice?  There are only 3 pieces missing!

I was going to take a picture of the actual candies, but they look like... you can use your imagination!  That's why they used an illustration to make them look so cute on the front.  Maybe that should have been my warning!

Potato Fries for Beer Drinkers

Monday is back again.  How does it creep up so quickly week after week?  Friday afternoon rolls around, work ends, I blink, and it's Monday morning again.   Today I packed my lunch and ate it at my desk, but still needed to get out of the office for a bit.  With Macy's and Ross right across the street, I can do some major retail damage on "just a break from the office", but today I needed a few things at Long's, our local drug store.  That's when this unique treat caught my eye!  They're potato fries - ever heard of them?  Not I!

As the label proudly professes, they're selected specifically for a beer drinkers enjoyment.  So I grabbed a six pack and went back to work... just kidding!  

The packaging sure is fun!  Is that Big Bird chasing a detective, who's chasing a teenager, who's chasing a man in a tie wearing tennis shoes?!

They're tomato ketchup flavored, which is good with me.  Have you ever tried ketchup on your chips?  I highly recommend it.

Here they are...

Before we dive right into the description, let me tell you that I gave up french fries for Lent.  Of course, this thought didn't cross my mind until I was ready to take a bite.  My office roomie is also Catholic so I traded her a Potato Fry for her opinion on the matter.  We agreed that they are not actually "french fries" since they're dried, crunchy, and sold in a bag in the drug store, they're more like chips.  God won't be mad at me unless I break my promise of not eating potatoes that have been properly cut, fried in greasy fat, and highly salted.  

That being said, these odd little "fries" are good!  They're not hollow, as I expected them to be, but solid through.  They have a crinkle cut-like exterior, does that make sense?  The flavoring does indeed taste like ketchup in a very good way.  They're not too messy on your fingers, like Cheetos or Doritos.  

As we must do in Hawaii, I asked myself "Where in the world (literally) are Potato Fries from"?  My guess was Japan... (annoying buzzer sound) wrong!  They're from the Philippines.  After a little online research I've learned that there are other flavors: Plain Salted and Cheese Flavor.  The brand, Oishi, even has a facebook page!  None of which is in English :)

Let me know if you've heard of, or tried, these lovely little snacks, provided that you haven't given them up for Lent :)

Hello Panda

One of the things I'd like to do to improve my blog is feature more "Hawaii foods".  Here's a snack that I grabbed at lunch the other day that I've never seen before.  They're from Japan but are popular here in Hawaii, as many Japanese items are.  

I grabbed these little "biscuits with milk cream" at the drug store on my lunch break because they looked... well, interesting!  Hello Panda.  Being fairly sure they weren't actually made from cute cuddly panda bear meat I decided to try some.  They had both milk cream and strawberry flavor.  Where's the chocolate?  As you can see on the packaging, these aren't just any Hello Panda Biscuits with Milk Cream, they have NEW SPORTS PRINTING!

And that was not a gimmick, you can clearly see the little pandas playing golf, soccer, football, and even shooting a bow and arrow!  I'm not sure what all of the activities are but I know no American snacks look anything like these!  Is the bottom right image a sword?

Not only are these cute and creative, they were pretty tasty!  They weren't as sweet as I expected them to be but they were a nice little snack.

Has anyone ever heard of these or tried them?  Let me know if you want some, I'll mail them to you :)