Grilled Cheese Hot Dog Sandwiches

Okay, allow me to go off the rails in terms of culinary art.  This is not culinary art.  This would more likely qualify as Waffle House fare (and I do not mean that in a derogatory sense - I happen to like Waffle House fare a great deal).  But this blog is as much of a family recipe cookbook as it is a public recipe source and I feel like this absolutely delicious sandwich deserves a mention because my family loves 'em.  It started as a simple grilled cheese sandwich, and if you omit the hot dogs, that's what you'll have - a simple grilled cheese sandwich and the absolutely perfect way to construct it.  Add the hot dogs and you have something akin to, well, carnival eats.  I shan't apologize any further.  Here it is for posterity's sake.

Candied Pecans

One of my early recipes in 2009 was for a savory snack that I made as holiday gifts that I called Barbecued Pecans.  It was a very involved, albeit delicious recipe that required preparing both a wet and dry spice application, and the pecans were roasted in the oven.  It's a great recipe, but almost put me off toward finding a simpler way to produce candied pecans as a salad ingredient for a recent meal.  I simply didn't have the energy or the time for a protracted cooking event for a single ingredient.  I was about ready to give up on the idea after looking at various recipes on the Internet, as they all were fairly involved and required roasting the pecans in the oven.  Luckily, I found this version from the food.com website, and it took all of about 15 minutes to make.

Oven "Fried" Dill Pickles with Yogurt Dipping Sauce

The first time I ever had or even heard of fried dill pickles, it was the mid-1980's and I was in Memphis, Tennessee at a restaurant called Folk's Folly which last I heard is still in business.  They served complimentary baskets of fried dill pickles in their bar while you waited to be seated in what was a very popular, very busy restaurant.  Fried Dill Pickles?!  It sounded strange and new and somewhat off-putting.  But one bite and I was hooked.  I'd order two, if not three baskets ever time I dined there.

Baked Brie en Croute

Looking for something easy to munch on while we waited for the doorbell to ring incessantly with Trick-R-Treaters last night, I brought home a small wheel of brie cheese and a bag of toastini slices. I wasn't too sure what I was going to do with them. But this is what I came up with and it was pretty darn good. And yeah, I could have gone to the trouble of buying a loaf of Italian bread and making my own toastini. I could have also made my own pastry dough for the brie. Hell, I could have probably made my own brie. But one can get too carried away with food snobbery and sometimes, the semi-homemade approach is just fine for the sake of convenience.

BBQ Pecans

There are just a ton of recipes for spiced pecans as a finger food or bar snack on the Internet. I think my recipe, which I have perfected over three or four Christmases, are a hit because I chose to market them as "barbecued." Of course, in the traditional sense of the word, they are not barbecued. In fact, you cannot barbecue pecans at all. But the perception of having been barbecued and the wonderful flavor these little nuggets bring to a cocktail party are delicious and unique.