Homemade Dagwood dogs (corn dogs), yum, yum!

After making these yummy Dagwood Dogs, I can’t believe that I have never made them before!

They taste exactly like the ones that you would get from your local show!

Now yes, they do not look exactly the same but I am telling you, the taste the same!

As soon as you put one up to your mouth, you are transported to a time when you were a little kid & tried your very first one!

Georgia was not happy that I took this photo because all she wanted to do was eat it, not pose for the camera!

I won’t tell you just how many we all ate but I can disclose that it was a lot!

Cooking these babies is quick & easy.

So here goes……

1 packet of pancake mix (I used the Coles home brand packet)

1 cup of corn meal (polenta)

2 cups of water (you may need to add a little more)

2 eggs

1kg of frankfurts

bamboo skewers or wooden chopsticks

Put the pancake mix into a large bowl. Add the corn meal & whisk it all together.

Add the eggs & water, mix well with a whisk until there is no lumps.

The batter needs to be thick enough that when you dip the frankfurts in, it coats them well.

Heat up enough canola oil to be able to submerge the Dagwood dogs in a large pot or deep fryer.

Insert 2 bamboo skewers or 1 chopstick into the middle of the Frankfurt.

Pour the batter into a tall jug & stand the frankfurts up in the batter.

Carefully drop the Dagwood dogs in to the batter one at a time. I only had 2 in the oil at any one time as to not crowd the pot.

Drain well on a paper towel.

Enjoy with your favourite sauce.

See how easy that was!

The girls are already asking when we can have them again!

I think this could become a regular weekend treat!

Pink ribbon day cake pops

Monday the 24th of October is

We all have been touched by the effects of breast cancer in some way. We either know someone or some of you have even fought the bravest battle of all.

In support of Pink Ribbon Day, my daughter & I made Pink Cake Pops.

This is a quick & easy treat that you can make to take to a Pink Ribbon event or to have at your own

Make sure that today, you wear pink!

I will be wearing my pink ribbon locket & pin.

Now, on to the cake pops.

Strawberry & white chocolate cake pops.

You will need

230g of cake (we made a buttercake that had a few drops of red colouring to make it pink)

1/2 cup of white chocolate

Strawberry essence (flavouring)

red food colouring

paddle pop sticks

1 cup extra of white chocolate

hundreds & thousands

Break the cake in to pieces & process in a food processor until it resembles bread crumbs.

Place the cake crumbs in a bowl.

Melt 1/2 cup of white chocolate & stir in 1/2 teaspoon of strawberry essence & 3 drops of red food colouring.

Add the melted chocolate to the cake crumbs & knead it with your hands until it forms a dough.

Roll tablespoon sized balls of the cake dough mixture & place on a tray or in a mini muffin tray.

Place a paddle pop stick in the middle of each ball & place in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Melt the extra chocolate & add enough red food colouring to make it turn pink.

Dip one cake pop at a time in the chocolate, then the hundreds & thousands.

We then placed them in some florists foam so they would stand up.

I then cut up some of the floral foam, placed it inside a little metal bucket & arranged the cake pops in it.

Make sure that you buy some pink ribbon day merchandise today & support a great charity that does such an important job!

2 tier cake & sweets stand

Look what I made!!

After seeing a lot of these 2 tier cake stands on pinterest,

I had to make one for myself.

I had brought these fantastic plates a couple of months ago at my local market.

I love the fact that I have never seen plates like this before! They are kind of funky with the rippled edge & chequer board design. I love all things retro, funky & unique so these plates were screaming, "Buy me!!" So I did!

To keep with the funky theme, I painted some gold ceramic candlesticks, a hot pink colour.

I asked my lovely husband, very nicely, if he had any liquid nails, luckily he did!

I just put liquid nails on either end of the candlestick, sat the candlestick on top of the large plate & placed the smaller plate on the top of the candlestick.

I let the liquid nails cure for 1 week & now I have a set of beautiful cake & sweet stands!

Festive Friday, #6

To help you remember just how many sleeps there is till Christmas, why not make one of these!

All you need is an old picture frame & some chalkboard paint.

I did give this frame a quick spray with purple paint to give it a new lease on life.

I painted the piece of mdf that was in the picture frame already, with chalkboard paint

At this point, I should have done a couple of coats of chalkboard paint but for some reason, I didn’t!

I would suggest doing a couple of coats of paint & use a roller, not a paint brush.

I suppose this tutorial should be a “don’t follow what I did” tutorial!

I am going to be showing a few different things that you can do with chalkboard paint over the next few weeks so if you buy a can for this project, you will get your use out of it!

My favourite dress, a tutorial with no pattern needed!

This is a tutorial on how to make my favourite dress.

(Please excuse the photo! My 12yr old took this photo & I think we may need some lessons on how to take flattering, not un-flattering photo’s! Giggle!)

It is so simple, easy & trust me, you will want to make more than one!

I now own 4 dresses in this style, all in different colours.

You can make this a very elegant, free flowing dress that would be perfect to wear to a wedding or function.

Make it from a light voile & wear it over your togs for a beach to the shops look.

A closer fitting jersey stretch fabric for a “got to do the groceries, pay the bills & pick up the kids from school” look.

You are only limited with your imagination with this dress.

This is the first post in a series of posts about this dress.

From time to time, I will post again about this dress & show you all the different ways you can change it just by your fabric choice & accessories.

I will now show you just how easy it is to make one…

To make a full, free flowing dress, I use voile & use the full width of the fabric.

Here is the basic pattern…

Cut 2 of the above rectangles.

Measure the length from the top of your bust (where you want the top of the neckline of the dress) down to the bottom of your bust.

(Please excuse my kindergarten drawings! Giggle!)

Take that measurement & add 2 inches.

Measure from the top of the 2 rectangles down the amount of your bust plus 2 inches.

Cut along that line that you have just measured from the top of the fabric.

(This is the material that I am making my next “fave dress” from)

Sew up the side of the small rectangle (bust) & the side of the large rectangle (bottom of the dress)

Pin the top half to the bottom half like this

Sew along the red line as in the diagram above. Make sure to make the seam allowance 1 inch as this will form the elastic casing for under the bust.

Over lock or zig zag the edge of the seam allowance.

Iron it flat so that the edge of the casing points towards the bottom of the dress.

Pin it flat & sew along the outside edge to for the under bust casing.

Make sure to leave a 1 inch opening so that you can thread the elastic through.

Fold down the top of the dress to form an elastic casing along the top of the bust.

Sew along the length & remember to also leave a 1 inch opening again so that you can thread the elastic through.

You should end up with something that looks a little like this…

Cut 2 lengths of elastic that is around 1cm wide.

The first is for on top of the bust, make sure it is not too tight but just sits snuggly.

The second is for under the bust, this is what will give the dress shape.

Thread the elastics through the casing & sew the ends securely.

Sew closed the openings in the casing that you threaded the elastics through.

You can hem the bottom of the dress or use a rolled hem as I did to give it that floaty look & feel.

At this point you can leave the dress strapless or add straps, it is up to you.

I chose to out straps on this dress as I am a little busty & don’t want to be worried about showing too much!

The above photo is shows the shape of the dress.

I added a wide black belt in the next photo to give it another look.