today’s guest recipe blogger is my mom. 

if you don’t know her already, you can read about her here.  Or click the “wednesday story” to the right!

i’m joan krause, mom of “the appreciator”.  she invited me to supply a favorite recipe and story.  my absolutely favorite thing to make and to eat is spaghetti.  who knows, maybe it’s because of the lycopene in the tomatoes. 

 according to wikipedia:

 “lycopene is not an essential nutrient for humans, but is commonly found in the diet, mainly from dishes prepared from tomatoes. When absorbed from the stomach, lycopene is transported in the blood by various lipoproteins and accumulates in the liver, adrenal glands, and testes.”

hello?  testes? well, i’ll tell you one thing, they have never found lycopene in my testes and that’s a fact!

i truly think i’m a spaghetti-a-holic.

when I turned 16, my mother gave me a surprise birthday party.  i’ll never forget it.  she told me that i had to babysit my cousin on my birthday and i just couldn’t understand how a mother could ask her daughter, on the most important birthday ever, to babysit.  when i got home, mom asked me to go in the basement and get something out of the old chest freezer. i went downstairs, there were all my friends and i was surprised!  i, obviously, forgave my mom.  plus, she fixed spaghetti for us all.

then, on our mom and dad’s 25^th anniversary, i was around 22 and my sister sally was 18 or 19.  we decided to give them a party (much to my mother’s dismay).  our mom was quite the entertainer, so losing this control was not easy for her.

what did we decide to cook? 

spaghetti of course – not necessarily my parents favorite dish, but it was mine.  my parents were out on our beautiful long front porch having drinks with four other couples.  meanwhile, sal and i were busy in the kitchen and i’m carrying the spaghetti pot from the old chambers stove to drain the water.  sally said, “don’t drop it!” which i promptly did.  spaghetti was everywhere.  we were literally skating on the starch and sally was laughing so hard.  i shouted, we’ll laugh later, these people have to eat now!

my mother

walked through the closed swinging door from the dining room – had her hand over her mouth and not saying anything, turned around and went out to the porch.  needless to say, the cocktail hour was extended, more spaghetti was made, and the guests were finally able to come to the table.  we heard that it was the best party ever.  hmmmmmm …could it have been the extended cocktail hour?

oK, i’ve changed my mind – everyone has their own favorite spaghetti recipe.  i’m going to give you something you can make that is so easy and always goes with my spaghetti and everything else.

hot dog breadsticks

i have passed this recipe on so many times and i feel it’s a real winner.  this was my mom’s recipe.

take a package of hot dog buns – cut the buns lengthwise, so that each bun makes 4 breadsticks.

take 2 sticks of BUTTER – not margarine – and melt in a frying pan.

get a cookie sheet lined with foil ready.  dip one of the sticks in the butter till coated and put on foil lined cookie sheet.  put them close to one another.  after all have been dipped and warm from the butter,

take parmesan cheese, out of the shaker container, and heavily coat the sticks. 

then sprinkle lots of poppy seeds on top – you can shake a little garlic salt on top if you want. (I don’t do this – but you can).  now, if you’re making a lot, you might have to melt more butter.

i have cooked these several different ways – fast oven and a slow oven.  The main thing is that you have to watch them.  They brown fast.

400 degrees for 15-20 minutes and watch – could take longer

325 degrees for 30-40 minutes and watch – could take longer

a couple of variations are that you substitute cinnamon and sugar for the parmesan cheese.  douse them in the butter and shake the combined cinnamon and sugar heavily over the top.  or douse in butter and put any kind of finely grated cheese on top.  so good!

you can do ahead and freeze then warm in the microwave. Great for large parties – everyone always asks about them!