Halloween's Finale Recipes: Heart Attack Hotdogs and Devilish Cupcakes

Halloween is, funnily enough, a holiday my family friggin' loves.

We eat it up. Seriously. The costumes, the kids strolling through our neighborhood, the candy... the entire silliness and scariness of this spooky holiday charms my family completely.

And as if the candy wasn't enough, there is a Luby tradition to make Halloween Hotdogs that is done each and every year.

And they are so scary good, so ghoulishly packed with cholesterol, you may need to try these bad boys as a part of your own Halloween tradition. Or you know, your next Monday night.

What we have here, ladies and gentleman, is a Heart Attack Hotdog. Mouth is watering just thinking about it... 

What that means is, this is an all beef hotdog, sliced open and stuffed with american cheese, wrapped in bacon, and baked into delicious submission.

Yep. Yeppppppppp. Phenomenal. 

Exact recipe directions:

Preheat oven to 350, line a 9 by 13 pan with foil. Slice open each hot dog to the middle (not all the way through the dog, part way.) Stuff with american singles to liking (I usually use half a piece of cheese per hotdog but, I know other family members use a whole slice for optimum cheese gooiness). Wrap in a piece of UNCOOKED bacon. Place in lined pan, bake 45 minutes or until bacon is cooked (red/crackling). 

Allow to cool slightly so you aren't biting into hot grease. Place on toasted bun and top with confiments. I always do mustard, ketchup, relish if I have all 3. Tomatoes, onions, and pickles couldn't hurt.

Yum. Nothing could really. These guys are so rich, such a shock to the system, that once a year is more than enough to make them. I do think they are well worth a try though.

And now, devilish cupakes!

I adore how they look like little murder victims :)

Lots of you were wondering how I made the knives. I wish I could say I did but, I didn't. I bought them in a package at AC Moore. They were sugary and delicious and I am SURE we could replicate them with fondant ourselves. Pretty simple design! 

We COULD make them... but we could also buy them. Which is easier/cheaper, ha. And just as cute.

I used this recipe with chocolate cake/chocolate pudding for the cupcakes and they were a smash! Poor little murder victim cupcakes were also eaten, brutally, on Halloween night. 

I know we have 11 months but, cannot wait for next years Halloween already! 

Luckily, I have far more cheerful holidays to keep me occupied this month :)

My First Ever Cookbook Giveaway! & Walkin' Tacos (The Epic End of Summer o' Stress 2011 and Beginning of a New Era: Fall)

It's fall here in DC and suddenly I find myself looking around in confusion wondering where summer went. I have stopped travelling long enough to have all luggage and bags unpacked. I have finally tackled the laundry and unpacked all the moving boxes. The next wedding I have to plan into my life isn't until New Years Eve. I look back at what transpired this summer and in my head all I see is a chaotic blur of equal parts fun/fab friends/sunshine/adventures/many lovely Weddings that all choked me up.... and stress/moving boxes/airplanes/hospitals/floods/hectic-ness.

I am both sad it's wrapped up and amazed I survived. Torn between savoring every photo and moment and trying to block it out. In the bad sides, the only thing missing was the plague of locusts. On the good, the only thing missing was more time to savor each blessing that came my way. Of which there were/are many. Or more time at the beach with my family.

Definitely that last one but, even if I had spent my whole summer with my family at the beach, I am sure I would still be grumbling that it wasn't enough time. I am a very lucky, very blissed out, gal when it comes to the blessings and people in my life. Especially my family. I only spent one week going around Chicago/Wheaton/Wisconsin this summer with my family and it was definitely not enough time.

The point of all that rant I suppose was these 3 things. 

1) I am sorry I vanished at points throughout the summer and then again for end of August/Apparently ALL of September. We'll just pretend September didn't happen. It seems like it was on fast forward anyway, I'm sure you all understand.

2) I love you all for being so patient with me and understanding of the few inches away I was from cracking under stress and grasping at the summer fun moments while I could. I know you all never ask anything of me as a writer/foodie/blogger but, the few posts I promise you need to be provided. The lack of consistency is my fault and I apologize. I know I come off as foodie/flake but! I am trying.

3) While at our lakehouse though, my mom organized one of the coolest meals I have ever seen. Pioneer Woman did a post on these recently too, (although hers were more involved and called "pie" which I don't get). They are a great, summer, meal that I look forward to for my next (hopefully calmer) sunshine season.

Walking Tacos.

What's that you say? Just an ordinary Fritos bag. But why is there a fork sticking out of it?

A Doritos bag? That's still not food, Meaghan! You've been gone from blogging too long and don't know what you're posting about!

Okay, I'll stop writing in the 3rd person/being weird. What appears to be an ordinary bag of chips is no such thing when you peek inside! Ta-da!

The insides reveal something akin with a taco salad but wrapped up inside individual chip bags! Basic idea: make all the fixin's for tacos but neglect to get tortillas or hard shells. Simply set up a taco bar for you/your friends/your fam and let people dump taco ingredients into bags of gently crushed chips.

Holy yum.

These pics are from the Walkin' Taco bar my mom set up at the lakehouse from 4th of July weekend. Yes, that's how long it has taken me to upload the pictures and write a post. I've already felt guilty enough, ok! Give me a break. 

The lovely thing about Walkin' Tacos is that you can make the meal disposable for easy clean up without feeling like a giant waster for using paper plates and napkins. It's just using the chip bags as dishes! Our lake is usually filled with 30-40 of our friends and family (mostly family, yes we are Irish Catholic) so meals like this one keep my mom sane. We chopped up some watermelon, cooked about 4 lbs of taco meat, and set up the taco bar for everyone's enjoyment.

Trust me/look at how good that looks. No one was complaining. I tried Doritos and Fritos (2 bags, but this is a safe place, no judgement) and both of them were amazzzzzing. Want to give it a try with chicken instead of beef and Ranch Doritos sometime soon too. Yummmmmmmm.

Alright, that's enough of that now. I am sure you will all be anxious to make Walkin' Tacos so I can stop talking about their amazing factors and we can talk about my giveaway! That's the good part, after all! 

Despite my own guilt/reservations about my skills as a blogger, for some reason Joy Bauer (for those of you who don't know, that's the nutritionist from The Today Show!) and her people think I am doing something right because they offered me a chance to promote her new cookbook on my page! I was so excited, I probably spent the most spastic response back they've received to date and so the cycle of confusing e-mails began! Ha, eventually though it was accomplished that they would send me Joy's book Food Cures and I could give a copy away to my readers after a review. 

My readers being you guys. 

So get excited! I am pretty much excited FOR you! This book is INSANELY cool- it has all kinds of recipes to create a flexible diet to any stomach/health issues (lactose, gluten free, etc) as well as an index of foods to help with certain nutrional balances, stomach/health symptoms, and descriptions of the overall science behind food working within your body.

A serious hat's off to Joy and her team for doing all this research and creating such a great book. To whoever wins this, it's a great treasure in the kitchen. I really want my own now that I have been sneaking peeks into the reader copy!

To enter for a chance to win the giveaway, you have to "like" my page on Facebook if you haven't already (click here or on the icon in the sidebar) and leave a comment on the page about either your interest in the science of food or your personal need for more nutritional balance! Make sure to leave your full name (if it's not on your facebook account) by 12 PM EST on Wednesday, October 12th and later that night for my birthday post (yes, 10/12 is my bday! To quote Hannibal, I love it when a plan comes together), I will reveal the winner! I'll then ask you to e-mail me and we can work out the minor details like where you'd like me to ship you Joy's book.

  Best of luck to all of my readers! If you don't have FB or you have questions regarding the contest, write me an e-mail at clutzyscribbler@yahoo.com and I can enter you that way or answer whatever I've neglected to explain. I am sure I am forgetting something, this is why I shouldn't be allowed to drink Diet Coke. Hyperactive blog posts are always my most scattered/least informative.

I look forward to hearing from all of you guys and can't wait to reveal the winner! Good luck to all of you and SO EXCITED to be back in the blogging game!

Thank you again to you readers who continued to support me, write me, and believe in me through my absence as well as a big thanks to Joy Bauer and her team for believing my blog to be a good spring board for their amazing cookbook and supporting me throughout this process. 

Giveaway #1! Here we go :)

Mini Garlic & Mushroom Burgers

This recipe came about by an extremely happy accident. I was hungry and my roommate was hungry and we both were about to make dinner. "What do you feel like?" I asked, and my very complacent roommate told me whatever. Something fast. Something yummy.

Let me tell ya, these were yummy!

I had dinner rolls and mushrooms, my roommate had some mini burger patties she had bought because they were extremely cute.

What? We're girls. We sometimes buy things just because of their "cute" merit.

Anyway! So, we decided to join forces and cook food. My roommate cooked up the patties on a skillet while I went to work on the toppings. 

So so so good. Happy accident, I'm telling you.


I sautéed the mushrooms with butter (approx 2 tbsp) and a sprinkle of garlic salt. I had some minced garlic in my fridge, so I put a spoonful of that in and let everything meld together.


While my mushrooms were browning and simmering, I took 3 tbsp of mayo and 2 tbsp of cream cheese and blended until smooth. I then mixed it with 1/2 tsp dried basil, oregano, and 1/4 garlic salt. I added salt and pepper and some of the oil from my minced garlic jar in the fridge.


With a couple stirs, I had a delicious garlic-cheese spread.

To assemble the burgers, put the patty on bottom of the bun, (which, by the way, we used white dinner rolls). Put a hefty dollop of the mushroom on patty, then smear the top of the burger bun with a big blob of garlic spread, and place on top of the entire thing. These are very precise terms, dollop and blob. But, when you're done, you'll have a delicious miniature sandwich.

Yum. Divine. Try not to eat more then 8. I feel like that could be horrible for your health.

Kosher Beef Brisket & Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Once again, I've made something of Pioneer Woman's and thought I should share. I also used one of my own recipes though! Garlic mashed potatoes. Fluffy and delicious ones! So, I promise this is still my blog. Mine, mine, you hear me! All mine! Bahahahahaha!

Moving on.

I made this brisket for one of my mother's friends who is so lovely and such a part of our lives, I consider her to be an Aunt. My Aunt Karen is Jewish and I wanted to make her a dinner she would appreciate. The brisket is Kosher, the potatoes when paired with the brisket shown here are not, but if you wanted to make the meal traditionally kosher, it's an easy fix.

The brisket was delicious. I got rave reviews for a recipe that I simply tossed together and threw into an oven for approximately the entire day. The potatoes were also a "smash" (ha, get it?!). The green beens are just steamed up on the side, no recipe needed.

Karen appreciated the food more then anyone else seemed to, giving me lots of overly kind compliments. When you make this for your friends and family, I hope you have as lovely a dinner as we all had together.

It was a pretty great night. Hope you guys are up to the challenge :)

PW's Kosher Brisket Recipe

Ingredients:

-1 whole Beef Brisket, Trimmed Of All Fat (5 To 8 Pounds)

-1 bottle (24 Ounce) Ketchup Or Chili Sauce (make Sure It's Kosher)

-1 package Onion Soup Mix (make Sure It's Kosher)

Place trimmed brisket into a large baking pan.

Mix ketchup with onion soup mix. Add 1 cup of water or more to make it slightly thin.

Pour sauce over the meat, cover pan with foil, and marinate 12 to 24 hours in the fridge.

Place covered pan into a 275-degree oven and walk away for 6 to 8 hours, depending on how large the brisket is. Check tenderness when brisket has been cooking several hours: stick in two forks and pull in opposite directions. Meat should come apart easily.

When meat is done, remove from oven and place on a cutting board. Slice against the grain; don’t be disturbed if meat totally falls apart! That means it’s good.

Either return the sliced meat to the sauce until serving, or place meat on a platter and spoon sauce over the top.

If you want to keep it kosher and NOT mess it up with my potatoes, choose some new sides. Such as a kosher-for-passover noodle kugel!

Garlic Mashed Potatoes:

Ingredients:

• -2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled, quartered
• -4 cloves garlic, minced
• -1 (8 ounce) tub PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese Spread
• -1 tablespoon butter or margarine
• -1 teaspoon salt
• 
  
• Cook potatoes and garlic in boiling water in large covered saucepan 20 min. or until potatoes are tender; drain. Mash potatoes until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients until well blended.

Steak Marinated in Teriyaki Sauce & Garlic Roasted Potatoes

Ah, steak and potatoes. The epitome of the traditional meal. Delicious, comforting, and satisfying.

Working out of an apartment with no grill, I decided to make pan fried teriyaki steaks, baked garlic potatoes, and steamed snap peas with honey for the occasion of final meals in Apartment 431. Everything turned out to be delicious, particularly the potatoes which are a family favorite of mine and endlessly delicious.

The teriyaki marinade is also well used and loved in my family. I am typically one to shy away from ginger but, in this recipe it doesn't make itself known in an overpowering way.

The snap peas are just to be unfrozen as directed with a teaspoon of honey mixed in once they are finished steaming. Simple and simply delicious.

The marinade and potatoes are slightly more complicated but, still in keeping with the easy cooking theme. Make these two recipes together or not, either way both are a treasure. Make and enjoy :)

Teriyaki Marinade

-1 cup brown sugar

-2/3 cup ketchup

-2/3 cup vinegar

-1/2 cup soy sauce

-1/2 cup veg oil

-5 cloves chopped garlic

-2 teaspoons ground ginger

In a medium bowl, combine ingredients and mix well. Marinate steaks overnight.

Garlic Roasted Potato Wedges

-1 bag red potatoes

-1/4 cup butter

-1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

-1 tsp. minced fresh garlic

-1/2 tsp. salt

-1/2 tsp. pepper

Heat oven to 425. Cut potatoes in half, length wise; cute each half into wedges. In saucepan, cover potatoes with enough cold water to cover. Bring to full boil. Cook until tender (8-12 min), drain. In 9x13 baking pan, melt the butter in oven. Stir in remaining ingredients. Add potatoe wedges, coat with both sides in butter mixture. Bake for 10 minutes and turn the potatoes. Continue baking 12-15 minutes or until browned.

Corned Beef and Cabbage...Pasta

With my lovely left over corned beef and cabbage from St. Patrick's day, I decided to make some yummy corned beef and cabbage pasta.

Yep. Again, welcome to college. 

The pro of college here would be that I try my darndest not to throw out any food if I can help it. Sure, it backfires sometimes, for example, when I made this dish and it yielded more pasta then I could manage as a single body in a week and had to toss it eventually. BUT! Whenever possible, my broke self tries to make the most out of my ingredients handy and comes up with new creations.

Here is one such creation. The recipe is pretty basic and the "sauce" is my family's world famous (or at least famous within the Midwest/branches of the family) corned beef sauce. If you don't feel like the pasta dish, make your corned beef and just top it with this divine sauce.

Corned beef and this horseradish sauce are the perfect pairing :)

Corned Beef Sauce:

-1 envelope chicken gravy mix

-2 tbls prepared horseradish

-Measure 1 ½ cups cooking liquid (water/gravy)

Put cooking liquid-- (by using leftovers, I didn't have any gravy so it was all water but, it turned out just as well)-- in small sauce pan on stove. Stir in mix, stir until dissolved. Stir in horseradish. Bring to boil. Simmer back down and serve.

To make the leftover Pasta:

Dice up your corned beef and cabbage left overs until bite size. Cook a package of egg noodles according to directions. Mix all together in a large bowl, top with sauce.

Seriously worth trying. Delicious spin on tradition.

Katie's Red Mushroom Steak Sauce

This is by far my favorite thing I've posted.

And it's just a simple steak sauce.

It's spectacular over a steak though. S.P.E.C.T.A.C.U.L.A.R. It makes an okay piece of meat a party for your taste buds. My mother makes this well and often and it is nothing but a hit. Hope you guy's get good use out of it as well :)

Katie's Mushroom Sauce

2 packages 8-oz Mushrooms

1/2 stick of butter

2 tablespoons worchestire sauce

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup red wine

Saute mushrooms in the butter. Then add remaining indredients, let simmer til heated through, serve! If too thick, you can add 1/4 cup water. Easy :) 

My Nana's Beef Burgundy

This recipe is a family favorite. And everyone who has it loves it as well. It's got a lot of full flavors and is one of my favorite dishes of all time on cold winter nights. My dad loves this recipe, his mom made it for him as a kid, and then my mom made it for us. And now I make it for my roommates ;)

Beef Burgundy

Mix Together:

-1 cup ruby port wine

-1 can cream of mushroom soup

-1 can cambells french onion soup

Pour over 1- 8oz package of sliced mushrooms and 3 pounds of sirloin tip roast, (cut into cubes). Put all ingredients into a large covered pot, bake for 3 hours at 350, and then put it on the stove top for 10 minutes, simmering on low, adding Wondra to thicken if needed. Serve hot over rice or egg noodles.

Lizzo's Obsession Chili Dip

This recipe is so easy, it barely counts as a recipe. I love making this dip because, even when I make an entire pie pan full and there are only 5 people, it gets demolished and people still ask for more! One of my best friends, Lizzo, is particularly obsessed with this dip and says that I somehow make it the best.

Which, as you can tell by the recipe, is hard to believe due to it being mostly opening packages and microwaving.

Hormel Chili Dip

-1 Can Hormel Chili (I lean toward Turkey Chili, no beans)

-1 80z Cream Cheese

-1 Package Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese

Smear the bottom of a pie pan with the cream cheese (a spoon works) until level and covered. Pour chili as next layer, smooth with spoon, top with cheese and microwave 3 minutes or until cheese looks melted.

Serve hot with Fritos and Tortilla Chips!