Mini Corn Dog Muffins

 My extended family was recently in town, and I had them over to celebrate...well, each other.  Since they won't be here for the 4th....I decided to throw a little patriotic bash.  For some reason I did a lot of 'minis'....maybe b/c two mini family members were in attendance.  I made these little sliders, and these corn dog muffins I've seen around the net over the last year.  I don't know why this is 'American'....do the little star condiment cups I filled make it patriotic?  Is cornbread and hot dogs an American meal, or are they whipping these up in France for dinner tonight?  The folk tale goes....corn dogs were created at the Texas State Fair....clearly, Texas=Patriotic=nobody protested this on the dinner table, so it works.  I love these.  Clearly, I have a discerning and elegant standard for meals...not....but I do know good food, and these are good.  I probably won't pull them out if the Queen ever comes for a visit, but...Brad Pitt, or Oprah....you better believe these make the menu. 
I found this recipe via allrecipes.  I adapted it a bit, and....this is how I'll make it from now until eternity come. 
Mini Corn Dog Muffins
Ingredients:  2 (8.5 oz) pkgs cornbread mix, 2 T brown sugar (packed), 2 eggs, 1 1/2 c. milk, 1 c. grated cheddar cheese, 3 cans of Vienna sausages, cut the mini hot dogs in 3rds (you can also use real hot dogs, but....I loved it 'this way.')
Instructions:  Mix the cornbread mix and brown sugar.  Add the eggs and milk, fold in the cheese.  Spray the muffin tins with cooking spray.  Fill 2/3 full, add 1/3 of Vienna sausages to the middle of the muffin. 

 Bake at 400 for 12 minutes, or until golden brown.  I uses a fork to gently ply these out, just make sure you grease them well and they should pop out without too much residue.  These make 48+++mini muffins.

Mini State Fair Corn Dog Bites

The only thing better than a corn dog...is a mini corn dog, it perfects the batter to dog ration. 
In honor of the State Fair of Texas, and the famous Fletcher's Corn Dog...aka, my first stop at the fair, I decided to whip together a little version of these dogs.
Corn Dog Batter:  
Mix 1 c. flour, 1 T. sugar, 1/2 t. baking powder, 1 t. salt, 1/8 t. garlic salt, black pepper, 2/3 c. cornmeal, 2 T. oil, 1/4 t. tabasco sauce, 2/3 c. milk, 1 egg.

Dip wieners in mix (instead of hot dogs, I used small appetizer weiners).  

Fry.

Enjoy.
 

The Texas State Fair

Howdy Folks,

I L-O-V-E the State Fair of Texas.  No, really, we are in love.  Forever.  'Til death do us part.  I've been more than thirty times.  I know, because I go every year.   Please, don't do the math.    I've been more than once a year on many occasions.  This year, we had musical tickets, so admission was free since we were headed inside to see the evening show of Shrek.  I have to just expound upon one very tragic event.  I forgot my camera battery.  I did not, however, forget my camera or the two additional lenses weighing well over ten pounds that I had to lug around all day without benefit of any pictures to show for it.  My Mom, by some miracle, brought along her digital camera, rare, since I usually take 8,123,543 shots an hour.  So....I semi-got-over-it, but am pretty sure I need to go again to REALLY get over it.  Then, I need to spend a month to 5 years in therapy to talk about my feelings a little more in depth regarding this tragic event.  The weather could not be any prettier to go and stuff your face at the three week/four weekend extravaganza.  I don't spend a lot of time on the Midway....minus a stop or three for a corn dog.

...but I love all the colors, games, rides, and noises as I use it as a pathway from one building to the other. 

The thing Texas is known for is the Fletcher's Corny Dog.  If you have known me for more than five seconds, you also know this is not a topic you should discuss with me because it will open a whole can of obnoxious.  I will say, each year the fair has a 'fried food' contest to see what's new and innovative in the world of friend food.  From fried twinkies, to fried s'mores, fried poptarts, fried coke, fried butter, fried bacon, fried beer, fried margarita, fried cheesecake, and my favorite this year, fried frito pie. 

These don't even scratch the surface of fried heaven/AKA a hospital's future cardiac wing. 

There are tons of buildings to look in as well.  They all have the 'Art Deco' Design...

Food and Fiber, Barns, Shows, Woman's Museum, Science, History, Food (yes, two),  The Cotton Bowl (With weekly rivalries.  Go, Baylor!), two buildings filled with the newest car models, and my favorite, the crafts.  The crafts include everything you'd expect from fellow crafting Texans, and live cooking competitions. 

Sign...Me...Up, (to be a judge, that is).  They also have a blue ribbon cookbook they sell every year filled with the previous year's winners.  I have bought copies the last five or so years, so I guess you could say it's a new/old tradition.

...and just in case I forgot to mention it, I love the State Fair.  A Lot.

P.s.  So guess what, despite the fact that I didn't have 'my camera this year' I threw a few of the pictures I did take online, this picture ran in Friday's paper (Neighbor's Go) along with three others from people who entered photos. 

It's not the winner, but it's always fun to see a paper in print!! 

One other fun note, my photo that did win last year runs on all the pages advertising the photo contest, and is online as the button to go to the State Fair links.  They don't run my name near it anymore, but I'm OK just knowing he's my corn dog face. 

Fletcher's Corn Dog Cupcakes

Raise your hand if you lo-ove times the 45th power-the Texas State Fair.  :Frantically waving hand!:  Despite some pretty ridICulOUs rumors, Fletcher's corn dogs were born at the TEXAS state fair.  I would like to nominate myself the ambassador for Fletcher's Corn Dogs....I mean, really, go to the search and put in the words "Fletcher's Corn Dogs" and you'll probably see 19 prior post about these little fried sticks of wonderfulness.  So, with the annual opening of the best state fair on planet earth looming....it only stands to reason it was time to merge my fried friends with my iced friends, and thus-the corn dog cupcake was born.  At work, we have a big 'fluency' push before our first fluency test of the year (each student is tested three times a year to check fluency/comprehension), and we try to throw together some activities to help teachers prep their students (especially after a long summer of...umm...unstructured reading?).  All the stations this year to help review are State Fair Themed....ooops, wonder who was in charge of putting those together?  To introduce the teachers to these stations, I made these cupcakes to smooth the way.  I had several boxes, they look like this all huddled together (compliments of my iphone, and minus some baggies, I had to use syran wrap to cover some of these, oops, ran out of baggies).

Here is a close up.  The tag is just a reminder about the dates the stations will be out in the hall. 

Unwrapped. 

As for the process to putting thes together, no special corndog flavor, but that would be one INTERESTING flavor.  I have about 4,567 million strange, different, new, old cupcakes planned over the next lifetime I live on planet earth, so I decided just to decorate these and have fun, and worry about the new flavors...tomorrow.  Next time, I'd dye the cupcakes pink to look like a dog when you bite inside.  Maybe add some crumbled wafers or graham crackers for kicks. 

I slipped three mini-cupcakes on a bamboo skewer. 

And then I iced, and added a line of 'mustard.'  And thus completes another post dedicated to the corn dog.  It won't be  my last.  The fair runs for three full weeks.  That's a lot of opportunity.

Linking To:

Cupcake Tuesday