Easy Pretzel Hot Dog Recipe

Whenever I serve hot dogs at a party I always run out of hot dog buns. Why is the hot dog to bun package ratio never the same?

Last weekend I headed off a potential hot dog bun shortage by making soft pretzel dogs. No buns required.

I normally don’t go for meals in a box but in this case it’s my party and I don’t want to spend all if it in the kitchen if I have to. I skipped making bread maker soft pretzel dough and used an Auntie Anne's At Home Baking Kit (affiliate link) The Balancing Act asked me to try out as a member of The Balancing Act Blogger Community.

Since I've already made regular soft pretzels, I decided to make something slightly different with the pretzel kit. I used it to make the dough for the soft pretzel dogs instead.

Easy Ebleskiver (Ebelskiver, Aebleskiver)

One of my favorite memories of my Danish Great Grandmother is eating dinner at her house. As a kid, I was surprised that she had what looked like doughnut holes on the dinner table. I was delighted that she encouraged me to eat as many as I wanted when my mother tried to put the breaks on my third plus helping.

I later learned that those little powdered sugar delights were not doughnut holes but ebelskiver, pronounced able-skeev-er and spelled three different ways in English – ebleskiver, ebleskiver, aebleskiver.

Danish aebleskiver is a Danish pancake that traditionally has a slice of apple baked in the center. However, being the inventors of smorgasbord (you’re welcome by the way) there are many Danish ebleskiver variations.

I Canned Jam and Nobody Died

Did I mention I am afraid of canning?  Well, I am.

Canzillas convinced me that I would kill everyone with botulism if I can use my deep stockpot to can jam unlike the other cooks I know and trust who have successfully canned without a lot of fancy specialty canning doodads, besides new lids of course.

Last summer's freezer jam

It’s not that I can’t afford it, it’s that I don’t have a lot of room to store it in my small kitchen. Although I was tempted to take Cooking With Caitlin up on her offer when she joked that we could have bake sale to buy me canning equipment. I love those girls to bits and will make any excuse to hang out with them.

I had several packages of Natureripe blueberries leftover from making blueberry yogurt Popsicles I wanted to use before they turned to mush. I know! I’ll make blueberry freezer jam!

Until I checked and found that I didn’t have room for it in the freezer.

Time to face my fear and can blueberry jam instead.