Jacob asked me to share this with you. Jacob thinks that Howie seems to perk up at the word “Rhino”…and he does. But I’m not sure it’s the word as much as the inflection in his voice.
Jacob enjoys watching funny dog videos on You Tube. His favorite series of videos is of Mishka the Talking Husky.
He asked me to upload this to You Tube and has been tracking the hit count all day. We’re up to a whopping “7” as of this writing. Help us up the numbers some!
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
Wow, it’s been a while since I did a food-related blog post. I used to do them quite often, but I hadn’t done anything too blog-worthy lately…
…until today.
While Timmy’s in New York enjoying some Grammy and Grampy time, Jacob’s been enjoying a rare moment of “only-child-ness” here. Today at the commissary, I asked Jacob what kind of snacks he might want, and his answer was “funnel cakes like at the ball park”.
Sigh. I was expecting an answer like “tortilla chips” or “Nutter Butter cookies” or something more normal like that.
But in typical Major-Mom-the-Overachiever fashion, I said “Okay!”. Whipped out my handy-dandy iPhone and surfed for a basic recipe so I could gauge what ingredients I might need to pick up while at the commissary. Looked like all I needed was some vegetable oil (since I had just enough to fry up the cakes).
So here we go. In this case, I wasn’t looking for anything for mass production or anything super complicated in terms of batter preparation. This recipe seemed to fit the bill:
Easy Family-Portioned Funnel Cake Recipe on Cooks.com
Let’s start with the “hardware”, as Alton Brown would say: my trusting cast-iron skillet and a bottle of Crisco oil. Pardon the schmutz in the skillet, it’s burnt kalbi marinade from when the grill ran out of propane in the middle of cooking and I had to break out the skillet. Like I said, trusting!
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
Instead of a traditional funnel, I figured I’d have some fun with a decorator piping bag fitted with my wide tube metal tip:
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
Then I put together the batter, which was so easy, you guys don’t even need step-by-step photos. Just combine everything and mix well, like a pancake batter:
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
While you were making the batter, you should have filled the skillet about halfway with oil and began to heat it at medium heat (at least, that’s what I do with my electric range). Use a test droplet of batter in the oil to gauge readiness — when the droplet of batter bubbles animatedly, you’re ready. This should be about 370F or so, but I can’t find my candy thermometer to check absolutely, sorry.
Filling the piping bag is pretty tricky. You can also use a quart-or-larger sized zip-top bag with a corner cut out to do this. I used a cup and propped the piping bag in it, then filled the bag and QUICKLY moved it to the batter.
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
By squeezing the bag, I could control the flow a bit, better than with a funnel.
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
I didn’t use enough oil today…the funnel cake stuck to the bottom at first, and I used my cooking chopsticks to nudge it off the bottom of the pan and let it float to the top.
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
Unfortunately, when I flipped the first funnel cake over after about 90 seconds, the golden-brown-deliciousness was marred by flakes of burnt kalbi-marinade. Oops.
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
So we’ll just pretend those flecks aren’t there from here on out:
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
Remove the funnel cake to a brown-paper bag or papertowels (I prefer the brown paper):
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
Dust with powdered sugar or Hershey’s syrup, and you’re all set:
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
Did I mention Jacob has been the photographer for this blog post so far? Even Jacob knows I like showing off the details:
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
But here’s one of Jacob enjoying his snack:
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| From 2010 07 29 Funnel Cakes! |
So in conclusion, making funnel cakes is pretty easy, and you know what ingredients are going into the batter. I personally don’t care for frying foods in the house, but this time it didn’t seem to horrible. Monitor the frying closely and if you don’t overcook the cakes, it won’t be an oily mess — unlike what you probably get at the ball park or state fair.
The next stop on our trip was our alma mater, Penn State University! The Department of Meteorology had a 75th Anniversary celebration weekend, and Dave and I took advantage of our time without the kids to have a good old fashioned party weekend!
We took a scenic route from Niagara down to State College, and had a chance to see what will soon become the extension of Interstate 99 from I-80 near State College up to I-86 in Corning, NY. It’s currently U.S. 15 and it’s really beautiful.
The heat wave was still in force, and Dave and I began to wonder if it was a good idea to book our accommodations in Irvin Hall. But that’s what our arrangements were, so we were sort of stuck. After all, it was half the price of all the other hotels in the area…more bar and souvenir money, right?
So here we are, Irvin Hall! This is the dorm I lived in all 4 years of college, Dave lived here his junior and senior years. It’s one of the oldest dorms on the campus, but the central location made up for the lack of A/C, old-school hot water radiator heat and small rooms. Remember, it’s all about location.
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| From 2010 07 09 PSU Meteorology Reunion |
Here’s Dave checking in, like going back in time almost 20 years ago!
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| From 2010 07 09 PSU Meteorology Reunion |
So…where was I? Oh yes…we had just spent a great day in Niagara Falls! We topped off the evening with a very nice dinner in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The next day, we took a road trip to Toronto. About 50 miles up the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW), a large interstate-style highway that curves around the western edge of Lake Ontario. Lots of lake views, plenty of nurseries, vineyards and fruit orchards to admire until you hit the Toronto suburbs. When the skyline came into view, the traffic slowed down some and we were staring at the CN Tower for quite some time:
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| From 2010 07 08 Toronto Visit |
We parked underneath the Rogers Centre (formerly the Toronto SkyDome, where the Blue Jays play). This put us in convenient distance from several touristy attractions, so first things first: the CN Tower!
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| From 2010 07 08 Toronto Visit |
I’m sitting here watching Julie & Julia. Again. Adorable movie. About a girl and her blog. And lots of decadent cooking. It inspired me to get onto my own blog and bring you guys a bit up to date on things.
Our summer break is plodding along here. A slower pace than last month, which is a welcome change. It’s hard to believe my boys only have about a month left before Jacob starts 2nd grade, and Timmy starts KINDERGARTEN! I still can’t believe both my boys will be in school in a month!
Anyway, this past month, from mid-June till mid-July, was full of travel! First Dave took the boys to Pennsylvania for the Vollmer family reunion, then I took a TDY with my reserve job, then hopped in our truck on July 3rd with Dave, Timmy and Howie (Jacob was in NY visiting Dave’s parents) and declared “EASTWARD HO!”
First stop: My parents house in West Virginia. We spent a couple days visiting with my parents, my sister and her kids. We arrived on July 4th, and brought so many fireworks with us!
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| From 2010 07 04 Vacation Day 1-2 |
After 2 days with my parents, Dave and I headed up to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. This would be Dave’s first visit to Canada, but I had been to Toronto in 1992. We stopped in Buffalo for lunch, and met an old Air Force friend from Florida, Rich:
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| From 2010 07 06 Anchor Bar & Niagara on the Lake |
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| From 2010 07 06 Anchor Bar & Niagara on the Lake |
This week I’m volunteering at a fireworks stand. For those saying “Wow! How?”, let me explain a little.
The state of Nebraska allows 10 days per year for free-for-all fireworks sales/use. There are some exceptions: none of this is legal in the Omaha city limits, and Lincoln only allows sales for 2 days. So starting on June 25th, you hear the explosions as everyone’s having a good time with their loot. In our neighborhood, it’s only really loud till about 10pm…except for July 4th, I know last summer we were launching till midnight, at least!
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| From 2009 07 04 July4thBlockParty |
In Bellevue, and perhaps in other cities (but I don’t know for sure), local non-profits can pay the licensing fees and sell the fireworks as a fundraiser. I got an e-mail from the Bellevue Soccer Club looking for volunteers to help man their club’s fundraiser fireworks stand up the road from us. My first thought? DISCOUNTS! Even though I was TDY at the beginning of the week, and we’re leaving on vacation at the end of the week, I still thought it’d be a fun thing to do, so I volunteered to do 2 four-hour shifts.
I did my first four-hour shift yesterday and it was fun. Not super crowded, but not bad either. A steady stream of customers.
Anyway, the point of this blog post is to share some of the hilarious names for these fireworks. These are all multi-shot small mortar shells. You light it one time and it launches 25 or so shots in succession.
Some are benign. There’s no doubt what this is, right?
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| From 2010 07 10 Fireworks Packages |
Some are sillier. And we start to lose any sense of what’s in the packaging.
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| From 2010 07 10 Fireworks Packages |
Some are adrenaline-packed! Forget about a description of what this is.
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| From 2010 07 10 Fireworks Packages |
And this one made no sense to me whatsoever. Are these even fireworks???
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| From 2010 07 10 Fireworks Packages |
And here are some others…enjoy!
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| From 2010 07 10 Fireworks Packages |
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| From 2010 07 10 Fireworks Packages |
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| From 2010 07 10 Fireworks Packages |
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