Sticky Wings

HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!  I cannot believe it’s been several months since I last posted!  Things have been super busy around these parts, and then we left town for the summer.  I’m back and promise this blog will become active again!  I’ve missed it so much!

While we were on vacation, I got a new cookbook.  I tried my first recipe from it on Sunday night, and it was really tasty.  The cookbook is called Slow Cooker Revolution.  I got it from Costco for about $17.  It was really simple and was a big hit with the kids especially.  I served it as a main course, but it would be a perfect side dish.  It would even be great served at a party. 

Don’t shy away from the cayenne.  It really does need the balance of sweet and spicy.  And I promise, it’s NOT too spicy.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark will work equally well)
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons minced or grated fresh ginger
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 pounds whole chicken wings (they can be frozen or thawed)
salt and pepper
vegetable oil spray
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup tomato paste

Stir 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne into slow cooker.  Add chicken to slow cooker, then add some salt and pepper.  Give it a quick stir to coat the chicken in the sauce.  Cook on low for about 4 hours, or until chicken is tender.

Place the oven rack about 10 inches from the broiler.  Place a wire rack in an aluminum foil lined rimmed baking sheet, and coat with vegetable oil spray.  Transfer the chicken to the wire rack, and discard the cooking liquid. 

Combine 1/4 cup sugar, water, tomato paste, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne in a bowl.  Brush chicken with half of sauce mixture and broil until lightly charred and crisp, 10-15 minutes.  Flip chicken over, brush with remaining sauce, and broil an additional 5-10 minutes, or until second side is lightly charred and crisp. 

Grab yourself a whole package of napkins (or better yet, a whole roll of paper towels!), and dig in!  Yummy, gooey, sticky goodness.

So how was your summer?! 
Cook anything delicious?

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Hummus

A couple of years ago, I posted a recipe for wanna-be hummus. This is another version that is even easier. It's super yummy and has tons of flavor. You could use it as a dip for veggies or pita bread, or you could put it on a sandwich or wrap. I used it on Middle Eastern Pita Pizzas (recipe coming soon!).

Ingredients:
1 can great northern beans
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
parsley

Drain beans, but reserve 2 tablespoons of the liquid. Then, in a food processor, blend all ingredients (including reserved bean liquid) until smooth. Spoon dip into a serving dish, and enjoy!

What's your favorite dip?

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Oatmeal Dinner Rolls

Last Thanksgiving, we went to a friend's house for dinner and had oatmeal dinner rolls for the first time. They were SO good, and I just had to ask for the recipe. I didn't get the exact recipe from the girl who brought the rolls because she didn't have it with her at the time, but she did tell me the secret was the oatmeal. So I did some searching on the Internet and found a recipe on Taste of Home's website. They are so soft and fluffy and yummy! The oatmeal really does make a huge difference!

Take a look at my tips for working with yeast before you begin!

Ingredients:
2 cups water
1 cup quick-cooking oats
3 tablespoons butter
1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1/3 cup warm water
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
4-3/4 to 5-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

In a sauce pan, bring the 2 cups water to a boil. Add oats and butter, and cook and stir for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, and cool to lukewarm. Meanwhile, in the bowl of your mixer, dissolve the yeast in the 1/3 cup warm water. Add the oat mixture, sugars, salt, and 4 cups of flour. Beat with a dough hook until smooth. Add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn onto a lightly floured counter, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, and turn to grease top. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down dough and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Then form into 18 balls. Place in 2 greased 9-inch round baking pans. Cover and allow to rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

What's your favorite dinner roll recipe?

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Pasta Salad

This is similar to the Italian Pasta Salad recipe I posted a while ago. It's just more Americanized, and I think it's more kid-friendly. And it uses fewer, cheaper ingredients. It's great to take to a BBQ or a potluck because it doesn't have any mayo in it. I make a big batch and eat it all week for lunch. It makes a great side dish for burgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken, sandwiches, even steak. You could even throw in some leftover diced up chicken to make it a meal-in-one.

You can throw lots of things into this to change it up -- peas, bell pepper, green onions, red onion. It's a great way to use up lots of leftover things in your fridge.

Ingredients:
16 ounces tri-colored rotini
3/4 cup olives, chopped
1 cup sharp cheddar, cubed
2 tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
1/2 bottle Italian dressing
Grated Parmesan

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain. Put into a large bowl and cool completely (or you can do an ice bath if you're in a hurry). You really need the noodles thoroughly cooled, otherwise your cheese will melt.

When noodles are cool, add cheese cubes, olives, parsley and tomatoes. Stir until well combined. Then add Italian dressing, to taste. You might not need the full half bottle -- you don't want it runny, but you do want enough to make the noodles wet and give flavor. **Side Note: If you make this ahead and store in the fridge, the noodles will absorb most, if not all, of the dressing. So make sure you have extra on hand to re-wet the pasta.**

Before serving, sprinkle with Parmesan.

Is there anybody out there?
Leave us some comments!
It's no fun talking to ourselves all the time! ;)

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Gnocchi

Every time I make this, it always makes me miss having cable. I got this recipe from the Food Network channel years ago. Good ol' Giada. I used to love Everyday Italian. I'd never tried gnocchi before and always assumed it took a painstakingly long time to make. Boy, was I wrong.

Normally, when I'm in the mood for Italian food, my brain automatically wants fettuccine Alfredo. I loooove me some Alfredo sauce. Considering my hips/waist/thighs/rear don't love Alfredo sauce as much as I do, it's great that I found a yummy alternative. Speaking of Alfredo, I'm going to try topping my gnocchi with it next time I eat it!

This is super kid-friendly, too. My kids gobbled this up. And had second helpings. Second helpings!! We ate it plain the first night (with just butter and shredded Parmesan), but then my husband and I ate more for a late dinner last night, and we topped it with tomato sauce (spaghetti sauce works, or you can use tomato sauce that you season with oregano, thyme, etc). Either way, it's delish.

It would be a big hit at a party! Perfect finger food (well, skewered with toothpicks). It's great as a main dish (which is how we ate it this time) or as a side dish.

ALSO (did you know there was so much to say about gnocchi?!), since it's made from potatoes (starch), it's super filling. And it's a meatless meal. I'm always on the lookout for meatless meals, so that's another reason why I love this dish. Cheap, meatless, yummy, easy, perfect.

Ingredients:
3 pounds potatoes (mine were on the smaller side, so I used about 8 potatoes)
3-4 cups flour
1 egg
salt

Put whole potatoes in a large pot of water (you won't be eating the skins, so you don't *have* to wash them, but I do anyway). Boil for 45 minutes.

While still warm, peel the skins off (they're so soft that you can just use your fingers -- after letting them cool a bit first!).

Place in your mixer and whip with your whisk attachment. If you don't have a mixer, you can just use a large bowl (or the pot) and a potato masher. But when I first did it that way, it was too chunky, so I used my mixer instead. Perfect consistency that way. After it's blended, make a well in the center. Crack the egg into the well and then sprinkle with flour (start with 3 cups and add more if you need it).

Then you knead. Knead until it all comes together. Add more flour if you need to. Now, this next part you can do one of two ways (i.e. the traditional way or my made up way). The traditional way is to take softball size balls of the dough and roll them out into long strips (like as snake). Then you cut them into 3/4" size pieces. I didn't really like doing that, so what I do is just take a portion of dough and roll them into balls in my hands (probably 1-1.5" balls). Much bigger than the traditional size, but I like them better that way. Plus, I have young kids, so it's easier for them to stab their forks into that way.

Next, you drop them into a few inches of simmering water. Do it in batches so you don't overload your pan (which will lower the cooking temperature of your water and make the process take longer). Swish them around a bit while they cook so they don't stick together. When they float, they're done.

Drain, and then brown them in a couple tablespoons of butter until lightly browned.

Sprinkle with shredded Parmesan (or tomato/spaghetti sauce) and serve!

What's your favorite starch?

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Crouton Stuffing

Sorry for the lack of posting around here lately! Things have been crazy for us, what with our move, home improvements and then we took a 2 week vacation. Then it takes you like a week to recover from your vacation (why is that?!), so I'm finally back!

This is a "recipe" (i.e. more of a method) that my hubby gets credit for. We had some croutons we needed to use up in the pantry, so he used them to make Thanksgiving stuffing one year. It was fan-tas-tic! So much better than boxed stuffing.

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
croutons (we really don't measure, just eyeball it)
chicken stock
butter

Melt butter over medium heat. Saute onion and celery until tender (we like to chop up the leafy green parts of the celery to throw in our stuffing, too).

When tender, add croutons. Stir them around to get some buttery goodness all over every crouton.

Then add your chicken stock. You'll probably only need a cup or so, just enough to moisten the croutons.

And there you have it! Super easy, super quick and super yummy! It's a perfect side dish, or you can use it in Chicken Stuffing Skillet, which is how we used it tonight.

Have you done anything fun so far this summer?
Any exciting plans?

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Walnut Blue Cheese Salad

A few weeks ago, I made a batch of banana bread and had a bunch of leftover walnuts. I decided to browse around online to find a new recipe to try, and I stumbled across this recipe on Food Network. It's one of Rachael Ray's recipes. I was initially hesitant to try it because, honestly, I've never really cared for most of her recipes that I've tried. They seem to lack flavor a lot of the time. But with this one, I was definitely not disappointed!

The ingredients will sound strange. As in, when my husband asked what I was making, he gave me a very strange look when I told him the ingredients. And he took his first bite very cautiously. :) But these ingredients compliment each other so well -- the sweet dressing balances out the bitter nuts and the sharp cheese -- it's just perfection!

The original recipe calls for spinach. I thought I had some left but ended up being out, so I just used romaine instead. I think it turned out really yummy, but I'm eager to try it with the spinach next time to see which way is better.

You can make this a great meatless lunch by serving breadsticks on the side. That way, it's just enough to fill you up without stuffing you so full that you can't function the rest of the day. If you serve it for dinner, you'll want to pair it up with some sort of protein because it's definitely not super hearty and filling on its own.

Ingredients:
10 ounces baby spinach
1/3 pound blue cheese crumbles
6 ounces walnuts, chopped and toasted**
1/4 cup maple syrup, warmed
1 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Arrange spinach on a large platter. Top with walnuts and blue cheese. Set aside. Warm syrup in a small sauce pan or in the microwave, just until warmed. Pour vinegar into a small bowl and whisk in olive oil until combined. Then whisk in warmed maple syrup. Pour dressing over salad, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

**To toast nuts, simply chop them up a bit and put them in a dry skillet over low heat, stirring frequently, until you can smell them. This really deepens the flavor and makes them extra nutty.

Have you ever tried a recipe with weird sounding
ingredients that you ended up loving??

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Cafe Rio Black Beans

I really like black beans, but they can get so boring! Using canned beans instead of prepping your own is such a time saver, but I also like to be able to personalize store-bought products to make them more my own. I'm not sure how Cafe Rio authentic these are, because I honestly only had it once, but they taste really yummy!

I don't always do these beans exactly this way. If I want a little more variation, I'll add a can of whole kernel corn, throw in some chili powder, toss in some chopped cilantro just before serving, add some diced onion or diced green chilies, add some hot sauce, use diced tomatoes (canned or fresh) instead of tomato sauce, add. . . You really can do tons of little changes that completely change the taste.

Now, don't rush off and make the sweet pork and these beans just yet -- Friday's post will complete this yummy dish!

Ingredients:
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon salsa verde
1/4 cup tomato sauce

All you've gotta do is combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan and simmer for about 10 minutes. Easy peasy!

What are your favorite ways to jazz up store-bought products?
Do you use canned beans, or do you prefer to use dried and make them yourself?

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Sweet Potato Fries

Happy Monday! I'm so excited to have my camera back to be able to blog again! I didn't realize how much I'd missed blogging until now. I've got so many great recipes to share that I've had a hard time deciding on which ones to post first!

I was recently given a bag full of lemons by a good friend of mine. As I was trying to figure out what to do with all these lemons, this recipe came to mind. So throughout this week, I'll be posting recipes that use fresh lemon juice. I hope you all enjoy them as much as I have. Thanks again, Lisa!

On we go.

We love fries at our house (who doesn't??). In an effort to keep our arteries unclogged, I read over lots of online recipes, trying to find healthy alternatives. We invited some friends over for dinner a few years ago, and my husband wanted to make some yummy burgers. I figured that was the perfect time to debut this recipe I found on Foodnetwork, courtesy of Giada from Everyday Italian. Everyone loved it, even my kids. They gobble these up every time I make them.

Ingredients:
5 sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons basil leaves, chopped OR 2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 recipe Garlic Mayonnaise

Preheat oven to 400.

Cut sweet potatoes into fries that are about 1 inch wide by 5 inches long. This doesn't have to be too precise or anything, but the thicker you cut them, the more limp they'll be when they're done cooking -- so you want them pretty thin.

Place fries on a foil lined baking sheet and toss with the oil. Bake until golden, about 45 minutes. Combine basil, salt and pepper in a small bowl. When fries are done, sprinkle them liberally with the salt mixture. Serve with garlic mayo for dipping.

Fries that are good for you? Yes, please!

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Cilantro Lime Rice

All I can say is yum. I went to Cafe Rio a few years ago, and they served this rice. I was instantly in love and just had to have the recipe. I experimented and came up with something that tastes insanely close.

This rice is so yummy as a side dish by itself. But stay tuned, because over the next few days, I'll post a few recipes that are fabulous with this rice.

Ingredients:
1 cup long grain white rice
2 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon lime juice
3 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar

Cook rice in chicken stock according to package directions. When rice is done, add butter, lime juice, cilantro and sugar.

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Easy Corn Bread

This is the perfect compliment to any delicious bowl of chili. I will post my fabulous chili recipe one day soon. I hope you enjoy this simple corn bread recipe. It's delicious!


Easy Corn Bread
(recipe from cooks.com)

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c cornmeal
1/4 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. skim milk
1/4 c vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 8 or 9 inch square pan. Combine dry ingredients. Stir in milk, oil, and egg until moistened. Pour into pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

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