Pretzel Challah

Mr. Incredible is a good sport when it comes to wearing ridiculous costumes of my choosing and asking him to pose for photos. Last year, I was obsessed with the show "The Tudors" and wanted to dress up as Queen Catherine of Aragon. He of course, had to be Henry VIII...he already had the red beard.

We were invited to a friend's costume party again this year. I liked the idea of coordinating costumes

so when I proposed the concept of him dressing as a Bavarian guy he seemed open to the idea.

Then the costumes arrived...

 ...and he put on the shirt...


...and then the knee high socks...

...and then the lederhosen.

Verdict: Not my favorite look on him.

But I did love my Fraulein dress with the double layered petticoat!

This is a picture of Mr. Incredible and I dressed as a Fraulein and Bavarian guy.


The Wurstfest is next weekend. I wonder if Mr. Incredible will want to attend in costume this year :)

In other news, I made pretzel challahs! These would be the perfect accompaniment to some beer cheese soup. Yum.

Fried Macaroni and Cheese Balls

The majority of the meals I make are my efforts to disguise leftovers so Mr. Incredible will eat them without complaint. Last night's macaroni and cheese was reincarnated this morning into breaded, fried mac and cheese balls, which Mr. Incredible gobbled up happily. Can I get an Amen?!

He has already requested the next time I make them to incorporate bacon and jalapeno. He's definitely my soul mate :)

Quick Puff Pastry

Remember back in the spring of 2010 when I made croissants? Me neither. I was almost too embarrassed to give you the direct link. I cringe at my food pornography photography skills back then. Cringe.

Sometimes I forget what recipes I've blogged about. I was fairly certain I had already written about making puff pastry, but it was croissants. Both are similar in that it calls for insane amounts of butter (not that there's anything wrong with that) and requires a lot of rolling, folding and chilling. It's the folding process that results in the flaky layers this pastry is known for...but is time consuming.  

With Quick puff pastry, the butter is cut into the flour like pie dough, making it different from the traditional puff process. This resulted in a tender, flaky pastry that went well with all the chocolate I stuffed in it :)

Perfectly Moist Cornbread

  

Do you hear that? Those are the football heads' cheers echoing from their man caves, for the football season is upon us...

Pre-season football counts right? Right.

This gave me an excuse to test out some yummy football eats. Last night, I tested a copycat Wendy's chili recipe that was scrumptious (recipe and post to follow). But, what good is a bowl of chili without a chunk of cornbread to go with it?

I needed a cornbread that could withstand the amount of butter that would be slathered on it and the amount of honey it would be drowned in. This moist cornbread sopped up every last bit of the honey and butter I threw at it. Perfect!

King's Hawaiian Bread

I've come across numerous copy cat recipes for King's Hawaiian Bread. Some had the additions of potato flakes and flaked coconut. While these versions sound interesting and delicious, I settled for the recipe that was the simplest and which I had all the ingredients in my pantry. The original recipe is written below, however I did substitute half of the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour. The rolls turned out light, buttery and sweet...just how they should be :)

Cherry "Boy Bait" Cake

If you're looking for a basic cake recipe to use with fruits of the season, this is it. The original "Boy Bait" cake is moist, flavorful and works well with any fruit you chose to incorporate. Today, I had some fresh sweet cherries on hand. I made some changes to the original recipe and used all brown sugar and topped the cake with a crumb topping made of oats, nuts and cinnamon. I was pleased with how the cherry variation turned out and have been fantasizing about trying it with chunks of peaches the next time around.

 

Meatballs in Marinara

It's hot outside. Let's make something that does not require the use of the oven, shall we? Nothing makes me say Mmmm louder than a good meatball. I was thrilled to see this recipe from "Can you stay for dinner" because it didn't require pre-frying the meatballs before placing them into the sauce. The raw meatballs are submerged in the marinara and slow simmered for an hour. The flavor of the meatballs ooze out into the sauce making it more flavorful. Brilliant!

The original recipe says it yields 15 meatballs, but I was able to get 24 1 inch balls. Serve these with pasta and a chunk of focaccia bread (recipe here). Or you can skip the pasta all together and make meatball marinara subs topped with mozzarella cheese. I'm really glad I have leftover meatballs in the fridge :)