Corn Dogs

CORN DOGS

Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 4

📷

¾ cups cornbread mix

½ cup gluten-free flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon cornstarch

½ cup almond milk

1 egg

1 ½ tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon avocado oil

4 hot dogs

4 skewers

2 cups (depends on the pot) vegetable oil

Bread (if don’t have thermometer)

Mix the cornbread mix, flour, baking soda, salt, and cornstarch in one bowl. Then add the milk, egg, honey, and avocado oil. Let this mixture sit for ten minutes.

Use a deep pot, and fill it halfway with vegetable oil. Heat the oil on medium high or high until it reaches 375 degrees F. If you don’t have a thermometer you can use cubes of bread. Cut pieces from the center of the bread without any crust. Drop a cube of bread into the pot and time how long it takes for the bread to turn golden-brown. If it takes 40-50 seconds for the bread to turn golden-brown, then the temperature of the oil is around 375 degrees F.

Set a plate with a couple paper towels on top next to the pot.

Dry the hot dogs using paper towels. Stick the skewer halfway into the hot dog. Roll the hot dog in gluten-free flour. Put the flour covered hot dogs on a plate.

Pour the batter into a cup that is tall enough to fit the entire hot dog.

The next steps will need to be done one at a time.

Dip a hot dog into the cup of batter. Move the hot dog from the cup and into the pot of oil quickly. It is suggested to fry at most two hot dogs at a time.

After 1 minute, use long tongs to roll the corn dog over in the oil (sometimes the corn dogs roll over by themselves). Let the corn dog sit in the oil for another 30 seconds.

Using the long tongs, take the corn dogs out of the pot and set them on the paper towel covered plate to soak up the oil and cool down.

Once they are cooled it is suggested to wrap a paper towel around the skewer.

SUMMER DOGS

I lugged my bright green tennis bag down the cement path towards the shiny black escalade. The sound of squeaky footsteps behind me, made it clear that Ava and Dalton’s tennis shoes were close behind. I watched as Mom hopped out of the driver’s seat, big black Dior sunglasses covering her eyes as she waved at the three of us with a wide smile.

“Hi guys!” she exclaimed as she opened the trunk, then put in our tennis bags.

“Can we sit in the trunk?” I asked with puppy dog eyes.

“Why not,” she responded as more of a statement then a question.

The three of us climbed into the wide beige carpeted trunk, laying flat. It was important to stay low when doing this activity because if the cops drove behind us, they wouldn’t be able to see us without our seatbelts on. It was thrilling doing something that could potentially put us in prison. At least that’s what I thought at the time, driving from our country club through our gated community to our house in the time span of about five minutes with extreme excitement. Our skinny bodies jostled around the large space as the car jerked in different directions. We chuckled as the wheels rolled over bumps in the road, causing us to flop about like fish out of water. I stared up at the cypress trees in the bright blue sky as they flew past the back window, rubbing oil off of my sticky sunscreen-covered cheeks.

The escalade rolled up our driveway, then came to a halt. Mom’s face popped into the back window and the trunk shot open. We hopped out of the trunk and piled through our clear back door and into our spacey kitchen. The warmth of the summer sun was forgotten once we entered the cold kitchen, with chilly tiled floors and marbled islands.

“What do you guys want for lunch?” Mom asked.

“Corn dogs!” we shouted in unison.

She laughed, handing us a large bowl of freshly cut watermelon, then sauntered to the refrigerator where she grabbed a Costco-sized box of frozen corn dogs. While she put the corn dogs into the oven, we gobbled down the juicy watermelon. The sweet melon hydrated my throat, which felt especially refreshing after a long day in the sun playing tennis.

“How was camp?”

“Awesome!” Dalton’s high-pitched voice responded.

“We got to throw water balloons at the counselors today and Ava hit Coda right in the face!” I shared, causing Ava to shyly giggle.

“How funny,” Mom laughed.

“And I got the Star Award for being the fastest in my group,” Dalton proudly stated.

“Dalton that is so amazing! Great job.”

A grin spread across his tan chubby-cheeked face, revealing two large buck teeth surrounded by teeny baby teeth. He pushed his long bangs out of his eyes, his shaggy brown hair almost down to his shoulders. Ava held out her dainty hand for a high-five, which he immediately slapped. Ava’s freckled face smiled as she tightened her straight blonde ponytail. All of our faces were equally shiny and tan from the combination of sunscreen, sweat, and sun.

“Ding! Ding! Ding!” the oven’s timer went off.

Mom opened the creaky oven door releasing the sweet, yet savory sent of the corn dogs along with a breeze of warm air.

We waited for the corn dogs to cool for a minute before plopping the snacks onto thick hot pink plates and sitting on the tall glossy wooden stools at the marble island. Sprinting over to the pantry, I grabbed the fat bottles of ketchup and mustard, then set them on the island. I squirted mustard onto my plate, while Dalton squeezed ketchup onto his.

“Mustard is icky,” Dalton scrunched his face together.

“Ketchup is icky,” I retaliated.

“No it’s not.”

“Yes it is.”

“No it’s not!”

“Hey,” Ava interrupted. She normally acted as the mediator in any of my fights with my siblings, so she quickly came up with a solution for our issue. “What if we mix the two together? We can make a super-sauce.”

Dalton and I gave her a skeptical look at first, then glanced at each other.

“Alright,” I responded, and Dalton nodded.

I squeezed some ketchup next to my mustard, then using the end of the corn dog as a utensil, stirred the condiments together. Ava and Dalton did the same.

“One, two, three!” We bit into the food at the same time, then watched each other for a reaction as we chewed. The savory, yet sweet corn dog mixed with the sourness of the mustard and the sweetness of the ketchup was the ultimate combination.

“It’s good!” I exclaimed.

“I know!” Dalton agreed.

“Told you,” Ava smiled as we all took another bite.