Homemaking Homesteader

Homestead Kitchen:

Well it is Friday again and it is Homestead Kitchen Day here at Homestead Blogger so I thought I would share a couple of recipes that I tried this week.

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The first recipe was for homemade corndogs.   I know that hotdogs are not a good food for you, but occasionally I sucuumb to my children’s pressure and buy a few.  I was reading a friend, Casondra’s, blog and she had a link to a recipe for corndogs (thanks Casondra for the great recipe links!).  I took that basic recipe and made healthier choices on the ingredients.  My kids loved them!!

Here is the recipe (this is the healthy version):

Corn Dogs

1 c corn meal, freshly ground

1 ¾ c whole wheat pastry flour

2 t. baking powder

2 t. salt

1 egg (farm fresh, if possible J )

1/3 cup cane juice crystals

milk, enough to make batter a pancake like consistency

hot dogs, amount desired (I made 15 corndogs and still had batter leftover)

wooden skewers, I used shish kabob skewers

Oil for frying,  I used canola oil

Before you begin heat up a couple of inches of oil in a fry pan to above 300 degrees.  Combine the first 7 ingredients to make a batter that is the same consistency as pancakes.  As I experimented, I found that if my batter was too thick the coating fell off or cracked and if too thin slid off the hot dog before I could even get them in the oil.

After you have made your batter, insert the skewer on the hot dog.  Dip in batter.  Lay in hot oil, I let it cook for a few minutes on one side and then using a fork I gently flipped the hotdog over and let it cook longer on the second side.  Sometimes the batter slid a bit, but it all cooked and stayed on the hot dog after doing the second side.  It does take some practice getting this down and by the end my corn dogs were looking pretty good!!

As for taste..  my kids loved them!!   They can’t wait for me to do this again.  If you try this recipe I hope you enjoy them as much as we did! 

Now for another recipe..  actually this is more a how to rather than a specific recipe.

Pepperoni Bread

I made a 2 loaf batch of my homemade bread.  I rolled it out into a thin rectangle, like I would cinnamon rolls.  I beat 1 egg and spread this over the bread and then place pepperoni slices on top of the egg, then sprinkled a generous amount of mozzarella cheese over this, and then sprinkled parmesan cheese and a little Italian seasoning over the mozzarella.  Starting at the small end of the rectangle I rolled up the whole thing and pinched the end to seal it closed and laid this on a large baking sheet that I had sprayed with a non-stick spray.  I repeated this with the other loaf. 

I let it rise until it had doubled in size and then baked it in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes.

We sliced this for lunch and I served it with soup and fruit.  It was a huge hit and my 6 kids managed to consume both loaves!!