Fang Food: Buy Me Some Coleslaw and Cracker Jack?

What, I ask you, is more baseball than Cracker Jacks? Or more barbeque than coleslaw? I can't think of anything. So I figured that on this week's edition of Fang Food we would make some of each. I had never made Cracker Jacks before, so I searched through the internet, and came up with a couple good recipes, combined them together, and came up with an easy, tasty treat, perfect for enjoying a baseball game.

The coleslaw recipe is from America's Test Kitchen, and is a recipe I and my family have used at our barbeques for a while now. It can take a while, but there isn't really much work involved, since most of the time is just letting the cabbage sit. Nothing to fancy there, just a simple, delicious side dish perfect for so many different occasions.

Cracker Jacks

Ingredients:

4 cups freshly popped popcorn, lightly salted

1 cup shelled, shelled, unsalted, un-roasted peanuts

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup corn syrup (dark looks better when it's finished, but light will work just as well)

1/2 brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F. Grease a 9-by-13 inch and add the popcorn and peanuts. In a saucepan, mix the sugar, corn syrup, and butter. Heat and stir over medium heat until it boils. Then, allow it to continue boiling for five minutes. Watch it carefully, and if it looks like it's going to boil over, give it a stir. Remove from heat, and stir in the the vanilla and baking soda. Pour over the corn and peanuts. Mix together quickly. It will start to solidify as soon as you get it out of the hot pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for one hour, stirring once every twenty minutes. Remove from oven, and cool on waxed paper, break it apart, and enjoy! Or you can store it in an air tight container, if you want.

Basic Creamy Coleslaw

Courtesy of America's Test Kitchen (www.americastestkitchen.com)

Ingredients:

1 pound of cabbage (about half a head), quartered, cored, and shredded

1 carrot, shredded

1/2 onion, shredded

2 teaspoons of salt

1/2 cup mayo

1/4 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon white vinegar

2 teaspoons white sugar

pepper to taste

Directions:

Toss the cabbage, carrot, onion, and salt in a strainer set over a bowl. Set aside, and allow to wilt for one to four hours. Rinse under cold water and pat dry. Transfer to a large bowl. Just before the wilting is finished, mix together the mayo, sour cream, vinegar, sugar, and pepper in a small bowl. Add to the cabbage mix and toss. Refrigerate for at least an hour, and serve!

There you have it! Two simple, classic dishes that are perfect for the baseball season! Enjoy and Go Dbacks!

~Blake

Fang food is a series of weekly baseball food articles written by prwhitaker1 (Whit) and imstillhungry95 (Blake). Questions, comments, suggestions, concerns? Email us at fangfood@gmail.com!