Rediscovering my Arkansas Roots!

For at least a year, I've been talking about making my own corn dogs, and a few days ago, I finally got around to it! It was surprisingly easy. I used Olsen Farm's Beef Country Dogs, which taste just like how I remember hot dogs tasting when I was kid. I dusted the dogs with flour, dipped them in regular corn bread batter, and then dropped them in a pan full of hot bacon grease to fry. After a few minutes they were golden brown and delicious! I had a lot of corn bread batter left over, so I chopped up some onions, mixed them in, and made hush puppies! I don't think I've had a hush puppy since I last visited my extended family in Arkansas, and oh man they're good! We took all this to a potluck, so here are the finished products in Tupperware, ready for transport:

Bridal Trail Fruits!

Today might be that last day for wild mushrooms since the rain seems to be gone and it's only supposed to get hotter and hotter. To catch to end of the season I headed out to the Bridal Trail state park in Bellevue. I found a plethora of mushrooms, the only edible ones I recognized though were these oyster mushrooms:

I stopped and chatted with a kind woman on a horse and she introduced me to these local red huckleberries! They tasted just like tart grapes, with a hint of apple!