Qapla'! How star trek led me to corndogs

the trees are turning, the air is crisp, and it's almost my birthday. that means it's nearly fall! that also means that the summertime foods are soon to be a memory.

i found myself at the thinkgeek website oogling the kitchen goodies (it is almost my birthday, after all)--more specifically, the star trek cookie cutters--and i stumbled upon the corndog factory. the mister happened to walk into the room right when i said, "ooooOOOooocoooorrrrrndoooooog" ... and he had no idea what i was talking about. lo! I had to show him the video.

this is the face he made


shock! horror! disbelief! "you EAT those?!" well, yes. i mean, i have not in a long time, but yes, i enjoyed corndogs in my youth. i explained how they were fried and didnt involve bacon. i got mine at the local A&W. (true fact: A&W rootbeer came from lodi, where i went to high school. true fact: i made the swiss mister try a root beer float when we were visiting california but it was waaaay tooooo rich for him. the swiss guy. who has chocolate and cheese pumping through his veins.)

still in shock, he skulked away, probably to cleanse his palate with fancy cheese. he was not going to be home for dinner, so i decided to give myself a little treat: corndogs! and what goes with corndogs? beans!! and what else? coleslaw! i decided to give myself one last summertime cookout dinner. except for i cooked in. and baked the corndogs.

i plundered the local market and got some veggie dogs. then i gathered the following and mixed them together:
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

i also amassed the liquid ingredients:
3/4 cup/180 ml milk
1 egg
1 tbsp greek yogurt

the two were combined, and the batter was born!

they were to be baked at 400°/205° for around 15 minutes-ish.  sadly, the first batch was way runny.  fear not! i simply added more flour and tried again.  Qapla'!

these turned out tastily delicious! but what made dinner super awesome was not the corndogs alone, but the combination of corndogs and side dishes.

and cookies. but we'll get to that.

first! the beans.  i used my trusty bbq bean recipe


next up? slaw!
i used:
1/2 head cabbage (chou)
a few carrots
1 apple
a little lemon juice
2 healthy splashes of white vinegar
1.5 containers honey greek yogurt

i gingerly coaxed the cabbage into the slicing and dicing machine. then i shredded the carrot and apple, dropped in some raisins, and mixed the whole lot together.

the dressing was a combination of the juice, vinegar, and yogurt. the bonus honey was just perfect.

i mixed the dressing together and drizzled it over the veggies and gave it a stir. then i stuck it in the fridge to chill while the corndogs were corndogging.

the corndogs might look a little wonky, but boy howdy, did they hit the spot.

and then i thought, you know what? it's been a long time since i made cookies. i should make cookies. i used to make chocolate chip cookies in china sometimes, to share. see, it's cultural.

inspired by a post i read, i went ahead and made some holycannoli delicious cookies.

i used:

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup browned butter
a little less than 1 cup raw sugar
2 large eggs
1 heaping tablespoon honey greek yogurt
chopped up chocolate (the chocolate "chips" here are square. and weird.)

these tasty treats were baked at 175°/350° for 10 minutes and then sprinkled with alp salt, the swiss version of sea salt.


the mister came home late from work to a divine smelling house.

it had been way too long since i made chocolate chip cookies.  way too long.  i do not think i'll wait so long again.