CORN FRITTERS AND TENNIS

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These are my corn fritters. YUM

I was so hungry for junk food last evening so I went ahead and made these even though I was home alone, and would have to eat the whole batch by myself...kidding, I refrigerated them for the boys and hubby and toaster ovened them back to hot when they finally go home late last night. they turned out pretty good.

I tweaked this recipe, as I always do..those who know me, know that I never follow directions (my high school teachers would testify to that lol).

I got this recipe from a Taste of Home email, so I thought I would include it here, in tact, so that you could make it the way it was meant to be or make it your own.


I switched up the peppers and made it with HOT peppers from my garden. I like spicy in anything and everything...so do it your way, but my way is HOT. I think they turned out pretty good..but I will definitely tweak this some more. I have a really good PA Dutch recipe book on ALL things corn so I am sure I can find a few recipes in there to take bits and pieces from.



This took no time to make. Very little mess. I am out of grapeseed oil, and have to get to the Mennonite store to get more,cheapest place around for a bigggg can of it. That is my oil of choice to fry...second is avocado oil..pricey! I was out of Canola oil too and well, I do not fry things in Olive Oil...that's just not right! lol. So I used LARD...Paula Deen would be so proud of me! lol. I told you I was hungry for junk food, I didn't say I was eating healthy!
Of course, I didn't measure either...just eyed it up, looks like 1¼cups to me, because that is how I measure. I am too lazy to wash measuring cups and spoons unless I am baking. I know, I said that before. YAWN.

Here's a pic of it on my plate with my fork just to show ya the size I made them.

This picture above their recipe is THEIR fritters...notice mine are smaller (and theirs too perfectly uniform in size..hey, I was not playing food stylist, or photographer, I was hungry okay?..I wanted mine more of a Corn Nugget like corn fritter, as the picture at the top of the page shows. I like my corn fritters pancakey when I am in a pancake mood and when I am in a mood for junky fried food...I like them small and crispier.
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Peppered Corn Fritters
Cumin complements the corn and peppers in these fritters Precious Owens, Elizabethtown, Kentucky, shares.

Taste of Home
SERVINGS: 4-5
CATEGORY: Side Dish
METHOD:
TIME: Prep/Total Time: 30 min.
Ingredients:
1-1/4 cups fresh or frozen corn, thawed
1 cup finely chopped sweet red pepper
1 cup finely chopped green onions
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup milk
Oil for deep-fat frying
Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the corn, red pepper and onions. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cumin, salt and pepper; stir into corn mixture. Gradually add milk, stirring until blended. In an electric skillet or deep-fat fryer, heat 1/4 in. of oil to 375°. Drop batter by 1/4 cupfuls, a few at a time, into hot oil. Fry until golden brown, about 2 to 2-1/2 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. Yield: 13-14 fritters.


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I sat munching on them in front of the TV watching the US open, happy about Miss William's win (that should be plural, they both won, but I only caught the Venus match), but not too happy about Nadal beating out Keifer..only because I thought Keifer was so good looking lol. It was a win win though, watching two hot men battle it out for three hours on the tennis court! They were playing in Flushing, NY and it was past midnight when the match ended..I was tired just sitting on my sofa while watching them lol.

You go girl, I could watch the William's sisters play tennis all night.

Nicolas Keifer (Germany)..very nice eye candy!

Check out that brace on his knee..never saw anything like it.

And of course, the winner in the Keifer/Nadal match...

Rafael Nadal

Oh, one last note...Will Farrell was in the stands..funny, during the one play, someone yelled something hard to understand and it included Will Farrell's name...Nadal bounced his ball a few extra times to regain his composure as the crowd laughed.

Kitchen Monki

I came across this great new site on facebook and joined. Its free.
http://www.kitchenmonki.com/ If you love to cook, I highly recommend joining. If you join, please look me up. (Shannon Dillman)
You can look up recipes, post your own, mingle with other cooks and so much more. There are meal planning calendars, shopping lists, even one for your mobile phone that you can check off items you got, as you grocery shop right on your phone.
I posted two recipes on it yesterday but didn't have a lot of time to post more yet,but plan to. I can't wait to play on it later today.

I tried to post the video here of the mobile feature in use but seem to be having a problem with my blog page today so here is the link to see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyJ1KNLHlnk I had great interaction with the moderator and this is a wonderful site! I hope to see you on KitchenMonki!

Seven Layer Dip and then some!

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This is a great dish to take to pot lucks. My sister in law made the first one I ever tasted years ago, and it was so good.

This version, I tweaked (I can never just leave well enough alone lol) and I added guacamole,hot peppers, black beans, and corn expanding it to more than 7 layers. Make two dishes, so you can make one hot for the people who like their Mexican food the way its meant to be...HOT!

You can make it in a bowl also, or a fancy schmancy dish. Below are some serving dish ideas. I am thinking of putting my gigantic margarita glass to good use for my hot and spicy one for my next "partay". And surely, the spider one at Halloween.


Seven Layer Bean Dip

You will need:

refried beans

Whole black beans (opt)

16 oz homemade guacamole

diced olives

shredded cheddar cheese

Corn (opt)

diced tomatoes

diced green onions

1 cup of sour cream

1/2 cup of mayonnaise

1 packet of taco seasoning

Shredded Lettuce

diced jalapeno or poblano peppers (opt, I like it hot)

Serve with tortilla chips and have a jar of spicy taco sauce nearby for anyone who might want to top it with that too.


Layer the following ingredients in a 9x9 pan.

1st layer- refried beans and black beans

2nd layer- 1 tub of guacamole

3rd layer-combine 1 cup of sour cream, 1/2 cup of mayonnaise and packet of taco seasoning

4th layer-shredded lettuce

5th layer-diced olives and corn if desired

6th layer-shredded cheddar cheese

7th layer-diced tomatoes, hot peppers

This is a super idea for a Halloween Party! Use a plastic baggie with the tip cut off or an icing piping bag and draw a spider web on it with sour cream...top with olives cut into the shape of spiders.

You can make a big dish or it, or, for a small crew coming over..




Cutsie Patriotic one for Memorial Day, 4th of July or for a party for a Soldier.

Lunch Box fun

Making lunch fun and interesting will help your child, or hubby, or even you own day a little bit better. My kids are homeschooled, but when they did go to school 8 years ago, they always had fun lunches packed. My friends would ask how i got my kids to eat veggies...they just always did...as toddlers, fresh broccoli was little trees. We would bite the top off of the tree, pretending to be a dinosaur. lol....silly but simple things to make eating healthy, fun.

My kids love sushi, yes even the sashimi, raw fish...but of course, taking fish in a lunchbox is not very safe unless you have early enough lunch and/or you have a place to keep it VERY cool,. but making sushi is fun, and really rather easy...and you can make it with just veggies or have tofu in it also. You can get a book on it at the library or just watch on you tube...my family loves to make it, 15.00 worth of sushi grade fish stuffs us all, and a restaurant it would cost that to tease one person. I am sure you could make sushi with fish and keep it cold enough, just be certain not to rely on an ice pack that is too small. It must be kept very cold...I recall the scene in the Breakfast Club where Molly Ringwald takes sushi and Jud Nelson comments on it.

Another alternative is to make basic wraps (lunch meat, even pb and jelly) and cut them into spirals and arrange them to "look like sushi" in a container. I made wraps like that for a picnic and everyone that walked up to the table asked if it was sushi...Its best to make the wrap, and put it in the frige a few hours before you slice it into spirals. It will keep its shape better. I like to flavor cream cheese and use that as the base before I add meats or chicken salad or even just veggies...green pepper, cucumber, spinach, whatever floats your boat. And of course they have tomato and spinach wraps to make it even more interesting. Blt spirals are so yummy and refreshing.

You could put the Sushi or the Spirals in a sandwich container or better yet, a cool bento box. They come in all shapes, sizes and materials they are made with. You can even get stacking stainless steel ones if you do not use plastic...I try not to use alot of plastic, but I pick my battles, sometimes ya just gotta use it!

Also you can put juice or some type of drink in a small canning jar with a lid. I use small canning jars in my cabinets for juice glasses to save space. We dont' use plastic cups or plastic storage containers in our house. Canning jars are my only food storage containers and I have all sizes for big and small storing jobs. The wide mouth small are cute for drinks and you could cushion it in a can huggy in the lunch box or even wrapt it in a cloth napkin, using it as the lunch napkin can help save the planet just a little more.

Another thing my kids love is a twist on the cream cheese sweet bologna spirals. Spread cream cheese (and if you flavor it with spices, even better) on a piece of sweet bologna, put a whole or even spear dill pickle on it and wrap it. Put in frige for about an hour and then slice them into spirals. I am telling you, this is sooo good.

And why not a little treat in the lunchbox. SUSHI CANDY!

Here are some fun sushi pics I found.


And this gives me a brilliant idea!!!!! (the sushi cake)...that is another post!

I totally had this lunch box when I was a kid!

Creating Memories

My grandmother, we called her Dar (short for Doris) and my grandfather, Poppop Henry when they were younger. Aren't they beautiful, they look like a sitcom couple.

One of my fondest memories as a child was playing in grandmom's bathroom medicine cabinet..it was huge...it covered the whole wall over the double or triple sinks they had in the bathroom. She sold Avon and had tons of fun makeup and cold creams and even wigs on top of the cabinet..she was a show girl when she was younger, so she had all of the cool stuff..she was pretty hip as far as grandmoms go! Of course, fond memories cooking with both her and mom, summers at the pool, I just reminisced about with an old friend, and too many other memories to mention here. I would not want to bore you, they are my memories, you probably don't remember doing them lol.

We are always creating great memories and no matter who bad you thought your childhood was, there have to be some warm memories that you just love! I am sure my boys have many fond memories of growing up, unfortunately they weren't hanging at grandma's like we did, my grandparents lived across the street from us growing up so we got to see them every single day.

My nieces came over this morning, to hang out while my sister had something to get done. It was early, we ate cereal and then watched The Bee Movie and while we were watching that, I was thinking...I don't want the memories of Aunt Shannon's house to be watching tv bored...so I got out my jewelry making supplies and had them make an anklet and bracelet. I did not give them any advice, I gave them two trays of supplies to pick out of and design their own jewelry.

Taylor made this adorable anklet (hard to see in the pic) using pink seed beads, little pearls, butterfly shaped metal beads, and a heart charm.


Brianna made this yummy bracelet with multicolored glass beads, metal butterfly beads and also a heart charm...(I told her it looked like edible candy)

Pico de Gallo

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I made Pico de Gallo in less than 5 min from my garden veggies this morning and am now eating it non stop with tortilla chips.

I guess if you serve it on italian bread rounds, you can call it Bruschetta..with one or two adjustments...omit cilantro, replace with olive oil and oregano, basil..

I did not have any fresh cilantro in my garden, so I had to use dried..I better work on that!

Let me start of by raving about my Wolfgang Puck immersion blender..this thing can go in a pot to make soup, or you can use the handy little chopping container it comes with. I use this thing every single day of my life!
I love this thing.
I buy steak and chicken thighs and breasts and chop them myself to make my own ground beef and ground chicken...who knows what is in that stuff they put out at the store...I know what I put in mine...I use it for nuts, and veggies. I could go on and on about how much I love this thing.
I make a brussels sprouts and bacon and shallot hash for a side dish and this does all of the work for me.
You can make Margaritas, or any drink, mayonnaise, and even slushies, the sky is the limit.

I do not make any money on this product, but want to note, every kitchen should have one!



I started off using a bunch of grape tomatoes (they did get big, didn't they?)

Of course, hot peppers...WITH SEEDS...the seeds add heat (we want that!) and they contain alot of nutrients! I leave the seeds in my peppers and tomatoes...nutrients.

Three pulses of the immersion blender stick...and....this is what you get!

Why not, some green peppers.

Gotta have one of these tomato corers! Pampered Chef sells them too, I have one somewhere from them, but I have a few from the restaurant store too..costs about a buck!

quarter them....then chop

Dumping it all into a glass bowl as I go.

Onions

Now before we stir this....


Squeeze the juice of a lime into it...and some cilantro goes in too...I buy my limes in bulk at Sams...because I love lime in my water too...always have lime on hand...I am even growing a key lime tree in my kitchen...I threw a few seeds from a key lime I was cutting, into a pot and plopped it on my kitchen counter...its big now..no limes yet...but its young.

And the finished product!