Fry Party

About 4 months ago, we thought we needed a deep fryer so we bought a small one at Walmart. It works great though we don't use it much.
Our children all thought a deep fryer was a great idea and it became quite a conversation piece while it sat on the kitchen counter.
So, they decided we should have a fry party and make home versions of some of the crazy popular fried foods served at fairs.
We finally had that fry party this weekend to celebrate Jeff's July birthday and John's brand new Masters degree.

Sorry no pictures, fried food just looks brown and I was pretty busy with the 9 adults and 2 toddlers here.

The new recipes we tried are very worth recommending.

First we started out with

fried mushrooms
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/deep-fried-mushrooms/detail.aspx

fried green beans
http://www.mommyskitchen.net/2011/07/crispy-fried-green-beans-wzesty-dipping.html

and corn dogs made with little smokies sausages
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/corn-dogs/detail.aspx

all 3 of these recipes were delicous and were gobbled up fast. I did not make any special dipping sauces, though they would of been good, we like mustard, ketchup and barbecue sauce just fine.

Then my mother in law cooked chicken tenders.

Next, were my favorite of the day
Onion Strings - the recipe calls for red onions but I used sweet yellow onions and they could not of been better.
http://www.macheesmo.com/2011/07/red-onion-strings/

Then we tried some fried cheese
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fried-mozzarella-cheese-sticks/detail.aspx
We used string cheese and Cowboy cheese. Both were very good.
This breading recipe makes enough for many sticks of cheese though, we fried about 15 sticks and had more than half of the coating left.

Not that we needed any, but we had fried dessert next.
First John fried Oreos dipped in leftover waffle batter. I was not expecting to like them, I mean how can you improve Oreos? Much to my surprise, deep fried Oreos are great.
He also fried some frozen mini Snickers - they fell apart - and frozen mini Milky Ways. I hear they were yummy but I did not try them.

The frying took almost 2 hours from start to finish and several of us took turns breading and watching the fryer. It was a fun and informal way to have an unusual meal.

We had also talked about having fried pickles, jalapeno poppers, french fries, doughnuts, corn fritters and chimichangas but we would of been cooking and eating till nightfall if we had cooked them too.
I expect we will do a fry party again, maybe in a year. It was delicious and fun, but not a meal any of us want or need to eat too often.

If you just want to try one of these recipes - and they are all good - the onion strings were the hands down favorite.