Corn Ball Pick Me Ups

I saw. I want. I made.

That's pretty much the story behind this little find here. It was one of those day when we wrapped up dinner and sat down to watch my fav channel - Food TV and my little one's fav show - Good eats by Alton Brown. He as usual had a hilarious episode while trying to use up left over corn tortillas. He called these Masa Tots.

And then he made these. And my heart stopped. Well..not really. But I just had to eat these. And it was perfect timing as superbowl sunday was just coming up and this was THE dish for me to make.

These are super easy to make. While Alton used his left over tortillas, I went and bought a pack of yellow corn tortillas from the store. Who's got time to wait for leftovers?

Tear them up or if you are OCD like me, you can cut them into long bits.

Add the cut bits to a food processor with a chop blade and just chop fine.

 

Get it to almost this stage.

Then, keep processing and add about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of just plain cold milk to bring it all together into a big mass. Don't add too much milk and make it watery. No good. Add enough - maybe in drops so that the corn mix comes together and starts forming a ball.

Alton added an egg here - but I just skipped that. These remind me of corn pakodas and we desis never use eggs for our pakodas. So this should work fine without that too. Right? You bet.

Can you see how find this has been ground up because of the milk? Now, add salt to taste for the corn mix.

Then add about 1 tsp of paprika powder or red chilli powder to the mix.

Throw in some finely grated carrots and about 1/2 onion finely chopped to the mix.

Here comes the kicker. Add about 2 jalapenos roughly chopped. Alton of course wore gloves while doing this. But we are hard wired to take this heat on our hands. Ah..nothing. Sissy matter. 

Mix all the ingredients well and make small balls. The pic you see below is actually before I added the jalapenos. I made a few of these for the kids first before I added the spicy stuff in.

 Fry the corn tots in hot oil until golden brown.

These were super soft to eat inside. I had a feeling while watching the show that it might be a hard one to bite - but was totally wrong. Loved these little balls. And they were awesome when eaten right out of the oil. Aaah..perfect!

I used up all the tortilla. There were 30 small ones and this gave me about 55 corn balls. Perfect to share. And I was good and I did share. Took it to my friends house to watch the big game together.

You could enjoy them just as is.

Or make them prettier and attractive. Poke a little toothpick and serve. The kids and the grown up kids both get a little lollipop.

Thank you Alton. You know we all love you here at our home!

Enjoy. Peace out!

Spooky Gross Witch Fingers!

Happy Halloween to all of you!

I had posted this recipe last year. Reposting it again as it is a great recipe for Halloween and I'm planning to make them again for our neighborhood potluck. Some neighbors remember me only as the lady who got the awesome witch finger :)These little fingers actually have their own fan following! This time I'm planning to break up the batch and maybe mix some funky halloween colors and make multi colored fingers coz we do have green and orange witches flying everywhere this season!

Update: I did make them colorful this time. Here's a quick picture. I also made some cute Witch Hat Cupcakes. Used a cake mix and made the cupcakes and topped off with some Betty Crocker's Whipped Icing and then decorated them with mimi M&M's and some Twizzlers! And top off with an ice cream cone for the hat. Easy Breezy and so much fun to do! And all the kids loved it!

Our neighborhood has an annual potluck party every year. We all meet up, eat and then take the kids out trick or treating. So, for this potluck I made these spooky witch fingers and some monster cupcakes!

The witch fingers are so gross looking - they are perfect for Halloween. And its a really simple and easy thing to make. I got the basic recipe from this site - http://www.fabulousfoods.com/recipes/article/105/17893Thank you to Cheri Sicard for the recipe!

Ingredient check list -

Butter: 1 cup
Sugar: 1 cup
1 Egg
All purpose flour or Maida: 2 3/4 cup
Baking Powder - 1 1/2 tsp
1/2 tsp Salt
Vaniila Extract - 1 tsp
Almond Extract - 1 tsp
Almonds without skin - about 30 - 40. If you have the whole almonds, just boil them in water for about 5 mins - the skin comes right off. 

Here's my butter getting chopped - I'm in the halloween mood!

Mix the sugar, softened butter, egg and the vanilla and almond extract and beat together well.

This is getting all fluffy.

Make a mix of the flour, baking powder and salt together. Now, slowly add this to the butter mixture a little at a time and mix well.

When you're done, you get a nice dough mix like this below. When done, put this in the fridge for about 30 mins.

After 30 mins, take the dough out. Take a small ball and roll it out into a long strip.

Use a fork and press down on the dough slightly to make the marks.

Arrange them on a cookie sheet. Press down an almond on the top of the finger and that would be the evil witch's nails!

Does this not look gross?

 

Bake them in a preheated oven at 325F for about 15 mins or until the base starts to get brown. This would bet the halloween idea of a witch getting burnt in hell!

Here they are...yuck and awesome!

 A close up shot of the spooky fingers. Did I tell you she was a fat witch?

Arrange them together and voila...you got yourself a great gross treat!

 Here they are along with my Halloween Monster Cupcakes! Happy Halloween!

 

 Enjoy! Peace Out!

Summer Fun for Kids: Make your own Fresh Fruit Bouquets!

It is still summer time here in the US. Which means, no school. Which means bored kids at home. Which means as a mom you've got to do something about it. Which means, doing real fun stuff to try to keep them away from Dora and Mickey!

Here's my project to keep my daughter busy for a few mins. After a few mins....I don't know. But, for now, at least these few mins will last a while! Even though the actual work time here is say, 10 mins, the excitement and dancing around to do this is 30 mins and then once this is done, the happiness and calling everyone she knows to let them know that she made this - another 45 mins! And then eating it up proudly - about 10 mins.  That's enough time on my hands that I welcome! Wait..not really. I get the clean up part and that takes all of it away! LOL!

A fun hands on kitchen project for the kids - with adult help only for the cutting with knives part! 

Pick your favorite fruits - watermelons, grapes, strawberries, cantaloupes, blueberries etc - anything that can go on a stick.

Let your kids use cookie cutters and cut them into cute shapes.

And then skew them on sticks. 

Make as many as you want.

Just to show that someone cannot even reach the counter yet...

Some more here...mix and match as you want - its all fun here!

You can even take this further by dipping them in chocolate and making a chocolate dipped bouquet.

Place the skewers upright in a cup or bowl or a flower vase of the right size.

And let them just be proud of their creations!

Enjoy! Peace Out!

Sinfully Decadent - Chocolate dipped whaaaattt??

Well...its Chocolate Dipped Potato Chips. Yes Sinful. Yes Decadent. Yes my knees go weak!

I saw this in a Real Simple magazine and was immediately attracted to it. Talk about fatal attraction! And then I saw it again on food network in an episode of cupcake wars. That's it - I just had to make it. And it so happens, a girls only party came around - and my dreams came true. So, here we are...

Its funny how I follow up a healthy quinoa post with something like this. Life is all about balance people.

This recipe can't get any easier - but somehow I still end up with so many pictures! Pardon me.

Pick up some Ruffles potato chips from your store. If you can find a thick cut potato chip - that would work great too.  I got the lightly salted variety which is 50% less salt than normal. But, I did make up for it - you'll see below. You'll also need some chocolate chips - either semi sweet or milk chocolate is fine. Dark chocolate would be good too. And then you'll need about 1/2 cup of heavy cream for the ganache. (optional again)

Take about 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream for about 1 cup of chocolate chips. Boil the cream until you see it rolling up with bubbles. Now, pour the hot cream on top the chocolate chips and let it just sit for a min.

If you don't have cream or would like to skip that, just melt the chocolate chips on a double boiler until it reaches a good consistency where you can dip easily. I used it because I had it handy. And I always love a ganache!

Then, pick up a whisk and stir in that chocolate. You can see the silky smooth ganache forming immediately.

Now, just pick up that chip and gently dip it in the ganache halfway. You can also do a full dunk - but then use tongs to make it a little less messier.

Arrange on a baking dish lined with parchment paper.

Yes. I confess. I ate a few while doing this. And I bet you will do too when you try this out.

And now for the kicker. Here's a little history - on one of my numerous trips to Trader Joe's - I saw this thing there. Its called Himalayan Pink Salt Crystals. And it just looked so pretty - and was about 2 bucks or so. I just had to have it. And then it sat in my cabinet for a few weeks - so I thought this might be the perfect occasion to use my pretty salt! I tasted these - it is salt yes, but its a little less salty than normal salt. I Like it! And it comes with its own grinder for a nice fresh flavor.

And so I used that grinder..you can't really see the pink but yes, it was pink.

Let the chips just cool down until the chocolate solidifies. I actually did put it in the freezer for like 5-8 mins. Don't put it for longer or the chips will start to soften up. 

And there they are ..ready..and sinful..and decadent.

As for the taste, the saltiness and the sweetness combine so gracefully and it just tastes plain old good. No qualms about it. This was the big hit of the party! All my friends loved it! And like peanuts or pistachios, you can't just stop at one.

Wanna grab one? Go ahead.

Enjoy. Peace out!

Cute Halloween Monster Cupcakes and their lives!

Happy Halloween my dear friends from all of us monsters!

Halloween is such a fun time for little kids! All that sugar rush and candy loot and dress up - its one of the best times in a kid's life. Maybe in some mom's life too - like mine.

This halloween I wanted to make some fun cupcakes! And oh what fun I had making these! Absolute fun!

These cupcakes are more for fun - so I really did not bother making the cupcakes from scratch. I used a store bought cake mix and made the chocolate cupcake. I used the german chocolate cake mix and made batter as per the instructions.

Line up a cupcake pan with fun Halloween paper liners.  Scoop the batter to 3/4 the paper liner.

Bake them as per the instructions and voila - here are the cupcakes!

I also got plain vanilla icing from the store and mixed up different food colors to make all color icing.

 

Here's my artists pallette...let's get to the fun part!

 

And my painting brushes - put all the icing in piping bags and give each one of the bags a fun icing tip.

After 30 mins of pure fun...here are my little monsters. Unleash your creativity and give the monsters all kinds of funky faces and fun features.

My little monsters need their 5 minutes of fame. Here's an up close and personal look at each one of them. And a little about their fun monster lives!

This is Olive. She loves to wear purple lipstick and is kind of a hot shot at school. Such a show off drama queen!

This is  Lionel. He smashed his nose one time and got a nose job done. The doctor thought it would be fun to give him a spiked nose. Became a style statement in monster town!

This is Mike Wazowski. He saw the Monsters Inc movie and loved Mike Wazowski so much in that and transformed himself into Mike. And also changed his name to Mike Wazowski. I can't tell you his real name or else he'll eat me up!

 

This is Daniel. He's just a cool kid - very loving and kind too. 

 

This is Mr. Patrick. He's a wise ex Navy guy - likes to walk around town and give everyone instructions on how to be a good person. Kids love to listen to his war stories!

 

This is Prof Kurt. He always has a very stern look on his face. But is sure a loving guy when you get to know him.

 

This is Ms. Spidy. She just loves to hang in there and has a very infectious laughter. Hahahhaha..

 

This is ex Captain Ron. He is a mummy now if you can see.  Well.. he did live a good life.

 

This is Mrs. Ron. She was do devastated after Mr. Ron passed away - she ate all the spaghetti in town and got sick and passed away soon. Her wish was to be mummified along with her love.

This is funny Tony. He loves his spike hair dos and always wants to make a fashion statement with his hair. He is one of the silliest guys around in monster town.

 

This one is terrible Tran. Not that he is terrible - but he is always terrifed. Look at that look on his face. He is just scared to be around the other monsters! Somebody help Tran!

 

 

This is sweetie pie Silver. She is pretending to be bald this halloween - that's actually her wig costume. 

 

This is just a game of tic-tac-toe that the monsters play in monster town.

 

This is Big Mo. He is a tall and handsome guy and loves to show off his mustache!  He has famous friends and always makes use of that anytime he needs it.

 

This is Sean. He is very much into sports and loves his games. Has the biggest screen television with an awesome home theater system in all of monster town.

 

This is Ms. Spidy's first cousin.  They love to go shopping together always. They are the most happening monsters in the malls!

 

This is Zak. He always picks fights with the other kids in school and the last time around broke half a teeth in one of the fights. Poor Zak!

 

This is Ryan. He's too thin - does not eat much - thinks veggies and fruits will make him sick. Eats worms occasionally. 

 

This is Dylan. Just the opposite of Ryan.  He eats anything and everything that walks, talks and sleeps. While I was busy taking pictures - he just ate an orange monster that was next to him - he's got the crumbs to prove it!

 

There's my monster town folks with the Spooky Gross Witch fingers.

Happy Halloween Human world!

 

 Enjoy. Peace Out!