This time of year, many of us would love to go to the "Great Minnesota Get Together," but for sad reasons like "I live 1000 miles away" or "I've been hit hard by the Pelosi/Reid/Obama recession," not all of us can make it. So here's a way to have a big portion of the State Fair experience on a budget.
Go shopping, and get 1-2 lbs of hot dogs (we did Ambassador), cornbread mix, a bottle of oil, flour, eggs, milk, wooden sticks, flour, and powdered sugar. Mushrooms are a double bonus, or you could even do hard boiled ("Scotch") eggs.
Make 1 batch of cornbread mix very thick. Test thickness with hot dog (it should coat it well), and then pour about 1 quart of oil into large dutch oven. Heat until a slight haze forms over the oil. Stick sticks into hot dogs (1-2 per adult), coat with cornbread batter, and place into dutch oven to fry. Turn to get even coating.
While the corn dogs are cooking, put sticks into mushrooms or hard boiled eggs and dip them in cornbread batter. Place them into dutch oven for cooking when corn dogs are done. Drain corn dogs on paper towels and serve. Do the same with mushrooms or eggs. Serve with lemonade or other desired beverage; bonus if the lemonade is made with real lemon juice, of course. Turn off stove while eating!
After the first sumptuous repast, reheat oil, and add 1/2 cup to 1 cup of flour to remainder of cornbread batter, add 1 egg, 1 tsp baking powder, and milk to make a slightly "runny" pancake like batter. Pour through funnel to make your own funnel cakes at home. Top with cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar and enjoy.
There you go. The essential Minnesota State Fair experience without the crowds, and for $20 or less for a family of seven.
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9 comments:
I dunno, Bert...for the the "essential fair experience" has something to do with NOT spending hours in the kitchen cooking and cleaning up, in order to enjoy a corn dog. ;-) Besides, how can you call it the essential fair experience if you don't even get to look at a cow or a goat?
...or stand in a long line of sweaty people?
It's hard to have the State Fair experience without hectoring carnies and a trip to the Swine Barn, but I like your approach, BB.
Well, given that we live about half a mile from a dairy farm....and ya know, they do have "cow on a stick" and "goat on a"...never mind.
Actually, when you fry up everything in one dutch oven, setup and cleanup is about ten minutes total--less than you'd spend in line waiting for your "deep fried Norwegian banana split on a stick."
It's just not the State Fair without having to use one of the biffies that's been steaming in the hot sun all day.
Yet another benefit of my plan! :^)
Well, even if the cleanup isn't that hard, this line says it all...
"While the corn dogs are cooking, "
If I'm at the fair, "while the corn dogs are cooking" I'm doing something totally unrelated to cooking corn dogs, something I choose to do instead of cooking corn dogs.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that I'm the one who cooks six days a week around here, but for me, no experience can be equated to another experience, if one experience involves me cooking, and the other does not. That in itself constitutes a fundamental difference. ;-)
Me, I'm happy to be in front of a hot stove instead of downwind of the porta-potties! :^)
(cooking has been a love of mine since I was six....my mom used a cookbook to teach me how to follow directions)
Well, it's not that I hate it, but it's like the difference between a "vacation" and "going to work." You can have a good day at work, but that ain't vacation.
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