Bite Size Corn Dogs

I am always looking for easy recipes to make for my daughter and I for lunch. She is a big fan of finger foods and she loves hot dogs so I decided to make her mini corn dogs but I wanted a baked version. I came across this recipe from Weelicious and I loved her idea of using a muffin tin to make them but I didn't need to make 40 corn dogs. Instead I decided to use the corn bread recipe on the back of the corn meal box I had. They turned out delicious, even when reheating, and my daughter loved them. This recipe yields 12 mini corn dogs and only uses 4 hot dogs.

Bite Size Corn Dogs (Makes 12 corn dogs)

Easy Corn Bread Mix from Quaker

1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup corn meal
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup skim milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg

1. Heat oven  to 400 degrees.
2. Combine dry ingredients.
3. Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing until dry ingredients are moistened.

Bite Size Corn Dogs Preparation
4 hot dogs
Non stick spray

1. Spray your muffin pan with the non stick spray and set aside.
2. Cut each hot dog in thirds, so one hot dog will give you three parts.
3. Scoop a small amount of corn bread mix into each tin, add hot dog in the center, and add small amount of corn bread mix on top.
4. Bake 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown.

Recycled Dinosaur Crayons

I know that recycled crayons aren't anything new, in fact they are an old idea, but I decided to make some for my daughter's Easter basket. She loves dinosaurs so I found a cheap mold on eBay and luckily it arrived promptly (all the way from China). This was my first time making crayons so I decided I would share with you what I learned.

First of all making them is super easy and my daughter loved her crayons. I think they turned out pretty cute too. Now I have a bag of broken crayons that I collect over time. It's easier if you peel each crayon when you put it in the bag instead of having to peel an entire bag of broken crayons at once. I used all crayons, even restaurant crayons, except for dollar store crayons.  I heard they don't melt as well so I didn't even bother using them.

The first thing I did was to separate my crayons into similar color piles. I thought it would be nice if the crayons had different shades of the same color.

Next I put each color pile into a sandwich bag and used a hammer to break them down into smaller pieces. Now remember to break them on a hard surface, I used my granite counter, and don't worry you don't use much force to break the crayons so your surface shouldn't have any damage on it. But always do to a small test to be sure. Fill your mold with broken crayons, try to shove as many crayons as you can into your mold.

Put them in the oven at the lowest temperature, my oven was set at 275 degrees, and check them after 10 minutes. Pull them out once all the crayons have melted and let them cool for about an hour before you pull them out of the mold. Remember the smaller the pieces of crayon are the quicker they will melt.

Easter 2013 Recap

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, my family and I sure did! The whole family gathers at my mom's house to do an egg hunt and to have water fun. It's already hot here in AZ so we usually bust out the water balloons and the slip n slide for the kids. This year my mom was out of town on Saturday so we colored the eggs at my house.

We used the eggs my mom's chicken lay, which are lots of different colors and mostly not white. We were having trouble getting them to change colors until I added some vinegar to the cups.

We got lots of beautiful bright colors when we were done and my daughter became an expert at using the egg scooper. I will have to remember to use vinegar next year too. My mom ended up making my daughter's Easter dress, thankfully since I have no energy left nowadays, and of course it came out beautifully!

Of course my daughter was NOT in the mood to take pictures ALL DAY so I picked out the best of the bunch. My mom used an old Daisy Kingdom pattern and vintage, circa 1990's. You can't see it from this picture but the bottom is actually a scalloped edge.

A close up of the front and the cute fabric. I really love the pink piping details she added.

And lastly a picture of the back. I know you can't really see the back but it's the best picture I could find.

Easy Fancy Cupcakes

Sorry for the lack of posts but my third trimester is here and I have been feeling less than excellent these days. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, I sure did, and I hope to be posting some Easter pictures this week. My husband's birthday just passed and I usually make him a cake. I had a cool Batman cake design picked out for him but of course the flu hit our house again and I was in no condition to bake him a cake. Instead my daughter and I decided to make him cupcakes. I purchased the cupcake mix, vanilla frosting, and Wilton decorating icing tubes at the store.

I decided to make them fancy by layering the inside of the cupcakes different colors. You will need to make the cake mix according to the directions. I then separated the mix in half. I colored one half blue and left the other half yellow. I lined my cupcake pan with liners and I used my scoop to place the blue cake mix in each liner. Let them sit for 5 minutes and then add the yellow cake mix on top.

Now bake the cupcakes according to the directions. Once they are baked you will have a layered look. Sorry I don't have a picture of the inside of the baked cupcake, they went fast! Once they cooled I iced them and I used a star tip to create flowers and the leaf tip to make stems. If you use the Wilton decorating tubes you will have to put the icing inside of a decorating bag because the tips DO NOT fit the tip of the tube.

My Etsy Shop is Open

I just wanted to let you all know that my Etsy shop is now open and restocked. I have added some vintage sewing patterns as well as vintage linens. I still have lots more vintage sewing patterns to add and some vintage lace sewing trim as well. Come and check it out at Dulce Princess.