There comes a time in one’s life where it’s ABSOLUTELY necessary to make homemade corndogs. Let me just put it out there that I do realize that I just publicized that Molly and I researched recipes, purchased ingredients, and set time aside in our day to make, yes that’s right, corndogs.

For those of you who do not appreciate the occasional Cookout late-night or delicious carnival treat, I don’t think you’re going to enjoy this one. But since I gave up sweets for Lent, this recipe was one of our indulgent outlets. Also, we made these for a crowd and not just for ourselves

Luckily, we found this yeast-based recipe from KohlerCreated that makes a **hEaLtHiEr** corndog (whatever that means) because these are baked and not deep-fried. While others brought cookies and guac (equally as delicious), we went out of the box, as can be expected of us, and brought a gourmet snack. Also, this is just one of the most fun recipes to make with friends. One, you get to play with dough and wrap little hot dogs up like they are in a cocoon and two, they are just a fun food! Happy Junk Food

a mix of brown sugar, olive oil, and cornmeal before you add in the yeast+milk mixture

milk and cornmeal mix – the yeast and warm milk mixture sits for a few mins before adding to cornmeal

HEY Molls!

FAST FORWARD: after kneading the dough for a few mins, we let it sit aside for 1 hour. If I were making this again, I would let it rise longer so the dough gets puffier. Then we rolled it out to cut into little strips for each mini-dog

Yes I realize this looks bizarre, but you baste them in an egg wash after wrapping up all the dogs….and here ya go

So it was much harder than I thought to find a good king cake recipe. That’s probably because it is much easier AND prettier to buy it at the store. Also, apparently king cake is just a southern thing?! I found this out as many people gave me a puzzled look when I told them of this galette des rois. This recipe is originally from saveur.com but I found it on the Huffington Post Taste page. Instead of using buttermilk for the glaze, I just ended up using regular 2% milk and powdered sugar. I find it dumb to buy whatever “sanding sugars” are just for this one cake, so we just put yellow sprinkles and mardi gras beads in the center to decorate!!

If you are familiar with the king cake tradition, most people hide this little plastic baby in one piece of the cake. And then (literally I’m googling “baby in king cake tradition” to figure out why we do this)…the person who receives the baby gets “special treats or obligations”??? Much to the surprise of my roommates, we didn’t have a miniature baby figurine. As I tried to suggest that we stick a dried edamame bean in as a replacement, everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Right, because a dried edamame bean is creepier than a baby in a cake??

Anywho, here are some pics from the adventure! We had a delightful Mardi Gras dinner including mac ‘n’ cheese, kale salad, Jo-Jos, carrot cake, KING CAKE, fruit salad, chicken fried rice and lots of other snackies.

This was my last night of sweets…giving them up for Lent!!

Start with some wet and dry separately

Cinnamon roll-y yeast dough made the night before. I highly suggest a mixer if you have one (I DONT)

Filling of pecans, lemon zest, cream cheese, cinnamon and SUGAH

SO FUN: after mixing fillling, you roll out the dough, cut a hole in the middle and spread around

Starting from the outside, roll the dough over and over again, pushing the filling to stay in, until it forms a ring

Bake at 350 for 25-30 mins, YUM

Powdered sugar/milk glaze on top with sprinkles and beads!

My friend Jordan summed up yesterday very nicely: “You know it’s gonna be a good day when Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer comes on the radio”

Weeeellll she’s right. Yesterday was a wonddderrrful day of spontenaeity. With Valentine’s Day coming up shortly, my friend Andrea decided she wanted to celebrate by making chocolate-covered pretzels for everyone she loved! Luckily, I also happened to have some strawberries on hand for those feeling a little more romantic. (or healthy?)

Dousing sticks of pretzels in chocolate and drizzling the opposite color over each turned out to bring much enjoyment and carried us through much-needed giRL tALk

What are YOU doing for zee day of love?! 

What a cutie

My 3 cookbook Christmas presents are currently my prized possessions. And if you come over to my apartment, be wary that I WILL make you look at them. My friend Kelly proceeded to bookmark all of the recipes in my new Smitten Kitchen cookbook that she wanted us to make together. I’m so glad she did, because it’s making us dedicated to actually making plans.

This galette, paired with a spinach salad, was the perfect hearty winter meal. The dough has only a bit of whole wheat flour, yet it tasted really grainy (so it cancels out the 2 sticks of butter in the dough, right?). As you may see in my other posts, I love to cook with others as a bOnDiNg activity. This one is great, because if you’re good at the pastry stuff, go for the dough. But if you aren’t, someone can take charge of the chopping, grating, and stove-top cooking.

I love actually putting the galette together, because you’re anticipating this beautiful wreath but it takes a bit of work to get there!

Here’s some pics of our adventure:

Butternut squash gets roasted at 400 and thinly-sliced onions cook on low-med heat for 25 minutes

fontina + asiago cheese