Crazy Gourmet Hot Dogs!

 

Oh Monday... why do Monday's have to be so hard? Do you feel like you're seriously dragging your behind on Mondays? Because I sure do!!! So, to make myself feel better, I checked out some of my recent food photos and came across these babies! If these don't cheer you up on a blah Monday, I'm afraid nothing will!

 

I came across the idea for these in the magazine Everyday with Rachael Ray (July/August 2013 issue). Normally I'm not a fan of Rachael Ray or her recipes, but I'm glad I gave her another chance - this magazine was jam packed with great ideas and recipes. I will definitely be buying this magazine again. You should check it out!

 



 Be sure to start with some amazing, all natural hot dogs and some oversized, extra-fresh buns. Then you can go hog-wild with the toppings! Seriously! Go crazy! Some of the craziest sounding flavour combos are often the most delicious.

For our gourmet dog night, we picked two flavour combos to try out.

The Natcho Dog: Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese, top with guacamole, pickled jalepenos and crunched up tortilla chips.

Pimento Cheese Dog: Spread with store bought pimento cheese, then sprinkle with crushed ritz crackers, drizzle with some franks red hot. (Note-Pimento cheese wasn't available where I live, so I took a package of imperial cheddar and blended it with some cream cheese and some red jalepeno pepper - it did the trick!)

They were delish, but I think the Natcho dog was my favorite!

 

 

Some other flavour combos listed in the magazine that sounded soooo good to me were:

 

Deli Dog: Top with egg salad, fresh diced pickles and freshly cracked black pepper.

 

Hummus Deluxe Dog: Spread with hummus then top with sliced roasted red peppers, sprinkle with smoked paprika.

 



Yep, we'll probably be making these again soon - just an excuse to try out some more flavours. :) Hope this brightened your Monday night! You can do it!!!

Happy Cooking my Friends!

Super Bowl Recap

I hosted a small Super Bowl gathering at my place tonight. I made enough to feed an army... but isn't that always the way? I'm going to keep this post short because I will go into more details regarding some of these items in posts later this week. :) For now though, just a preview of what is to come this week - just some quick photos I snapped with my iPhone.

 As you can see in the photo above, I made some football themed chocolate dipped strawberries. Not perfect, but they're cute! And easy!

Cute little mini meatloaf bites - mini meat loaf brushed with bbq sauce with creamy mashed potatoes piped on top and then sprinkled with bacon. These were a hit! Recipe will for sure be posted this week, so definitely check back soon.



These were the strawberries, post dip, but pre-decorating. They look beautiful as is, but it was fun to do the extra step just in keeping in theme with the Super Bowl/ football thing!

Then I made some individual seven layer dips (but mine only had 5 layers because I'm fussy and don't really like veggies on top of my dips!! They were delicious. I made salsa (again, recipe will follow this week) and guacamole for these bad boys and topped with some Tillamook Sharp Cheddar and they were a hit.

Also made a couple of other things tonight that I didn't manage to snap some photos of with my iPhone. Made an amazing Reese's Peanut Butter & Oreo Frozen Pie (recipe will be up this week... sooner rather than later because it was sooooo good!) that was an absolute hit!

And the favorite cocktail of the night was Raspberry Beer Cocktail. Check out this easy recipe here.

Oh yeah, and we had some spectacular weather this weekend! So I got out with the dog on Saturday morning at one of our local parks and enjoyed it (yep, that pic is from our walk).

Oh yeah, congrats to the NY Giants on their win! They played hard and it was definitely a nail-biter toward the end of the game... I totally thought New England would pull through for the win, but I guess it wasn't in the cards this year. Sorry to any of you New England fans out there!!

What did you make for your Super Bowl get together? Do you make the same thing every year, or do you try to mix it up?  I would love to hear from you!

Happy Baking my Friends!