Game Day Baked Wings & Blue Cheese Dressing

 

My husband is a sports guy, through and through.  He lives, eats and breathes sports.  Baseball, Hockey, Basketball...and (ugh) Football.  There are a lot of women out there who like sports. Unfortunately, I am not one of them.  I kind of like Baseball.  I can get through a quarter or two of Basketball.  I can tolerate Hockey (from the other room).  But I hate, hate, hate football.  HATE IT.  Every Sunday is a waste of a day.  I couldn't get my husband off the couch if I set it on fire.  There's the pre-pre-game, where they discuss what they're going to talk about the during the pre-game.  Then the pre-game, where they discuss who they think is going to win, and stats and a bunch of other crap I don't care about.  Then FOURTEEN games. (FOURTEEN OF THEM!!)  Then the post-game, where they discuss every single highlight of every single game.  Then the post-post-game where they discuss the highlights of the post-game coverage.  I just can't.  I dread football season like you couldn't imagine.
 
Anyway, during football season, I busy myself in the kitchen.  I'm making food for my husband and his friends so he won't force me to watch the games with him.  It's a win/win for everyone.  So this Sunday, I begrudgingly kicked off football season with one of my favorite game-day recipes.  This recipe is for my baked version, which is healthier than the fried version - well, as healthy as chicken wings can be.  If my husband is going to eat junk food all Sunday, every Sunday, I'm going to try to give him the healthiest things I can.  And did I mention they're super easy?
 

(I realized after I took this pic that I grabbed Frank's Red Hot Wing Sauce at the store. 

I had some Frank's Regular on hand and switched to that but forgot to snap a new pic)

Game Day Baked Wings
 
2 lbs. Chicken Wings (cut at the joint, with weird little wing-tip removed)
2/3 c. of Hot Sauce (I like Frank's, but you could use another)
8 Tbsp. Margarine
2 (heaping) Tsp. Crushed or Pureed Garlic
Salt & Pepper to taste

• Preheat oven to 435°.  Arrange wings, skin side up, on a rack that fits within a sheet pan.  The wings need to drain some of their fat so they get crispy.  You don't want them sitting in a puddle of oil.

• Salt and pepper the wings liberally.
• Bake them for 20-30 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 160° and the outside is crispy and golden brown.  Turn them over after about 20 minutes to crisp up the other side.  You can certainly leave them in longer if you want a crispier skin.  It's very hard to over cook or dry out wings because of their high fat content.
• While the wings are baking, start preparing your wing sauce.  In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, melt margarine oven medium heat.  (Just a side note: I prefer margarine because it blends better with the hot sauce and doesn't separate like butter can.  You can absolutely use butter or even a butter substitute if you prefer).  You can also dial back the margarine a little for a spicier sauce.

 

• When the butter has just melted add the garlic.  Allow it to cook in the hot butter for 1-2 minutes.
• Add the hot sauce and salt, and whisk until completely blended.  Allow to cool slightly.

• When wings are ready, remove from the oven and let them cool for 3-5 minutes.  Pour a little sauce in the bottom of a mixing bowl and add a portion of wings.  Toss to coat.  Serve immediately. 

• When I'm cooking for a crowd, I'll serve with celery & carrot sticks and Blue Cheese Dressing.  (Recipe below).  This weekend it was just me and my husband and my grocery store didn't have buttermilk in stock, so I skipped the dressing. But it is a delicious accompaniment to the wings.

Blue Cheese Dressing

4 oz. Blue Cheese or Gorgonzola
1/3 c. Sour Cream
1/3 c. Buttermilk
1/4 c. Mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. White or White Wine Vinegar
1 Pinch of Sugar
Freshly Ground Black Pepper and Salt to taste

Mash the Blue Cheese or Gorgonzola with a fork, inside a mixing bowl.  Add the Sour Cream, Buttermilk, Mayo, Vinegar, Sugar, Salt and Pepper.  Combine well.  Serve or store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.


Here is what was left after my husband's third helping...

Enjoy!

xoxo Kristen

P.S.  The wings and sauce are gluten free!  The dressing is not.

Rosemary Lemon Grilled Chicken

Continuing on the theme of my favorite summertime cooking method - grilling(!!), here's another tasty recipe. This is one my favorite, quick and easy, weeknight meals.  It literally takes about 6 minutes to put together and the payoff is it tastes like it took all day to prepare.  It's reminiscent of the chicken you might find in a really fabulous Chicken Gyro, but better.  In my opinion.  And of course I'm biased.  But my husband agrees and that's good enough for me.  So on to the deliciousness!

 

Rosemary Lemon Grilled Chicken

Prep time 6-8 minutes, Marinate time 20 minutes to overnight.

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs. Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast, trimmed

1 c. Olive Oil

2-3 Lemons, for zesting & juicing

2-3 Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary (1 Tbsp. dried)

2 tsp. dried Oregano

2 tsp. Salt

4-5 Cloves Garlic, finely minced

Fresh Ground Black Pepper, to taste

2 Tbsp. Honey

1.  This is a 'chop and drop' kind of recipe, and can be made all in one cup.  The less dishes the better!  Pour Olive Oil into a measuring cup. 

2.  Zest two entire lemons into cup.  Cut and juice your lemons. Tip: Roll your lemons on the counter with some pressure.  This breaks up the pulp and makes juicing them easier.  If your lemons are a little past their prime and dry, you can microwave a whole lemon for 5-10 seconds to get the juices flowing again.  (I like lemon zest.  I use it a lot and always have fresh lemons on hand.  If you don't have fresh lemons, you can very easily skip the zest and use lemon juice from a bottle, about 1/4 c.)

3.  Add your chopped garlic, oregano, salt and pepper.  Then pull your rosemary from its stem, chop it as finely as possible and add to the mix.  

 

4.  Give it a good mix and taste it.  This is your chance to adjust the taste to your liking.  It should taste strong, and kind of sour, but we'll fix that sourness later.  

 

 

 

5.  Trim your chicken if you need to, add it to a gallon size zip-top bag, and add half the marinade. Reserve the other half of the marinade, adding the honey and refrigerate. The honey cuts the sour taste and helps develop really nice caramelizationwhen you grill it.  You can marinate the chicken anywhere from 20 minutes to overnight, but I wouldn't let it go for more than 18 hours. 

 

 

6.  Now you're ready to grill!  Preheat your grill on medium heat.  Remove chicken from the bag to the grill.  Grill on both sides for approx. 6 minutes, depending on the thickness of your chicken, basting occasionally with reserved marinade.  Chicken should reach an internal temperature of 165°. No thermometer?  Pierce the thickest part of breast, when juices run clear, it's done.

 

8.  Let chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving.  I grilled some fresh ears of corn from the farmer's market on the top rack of my grill while I was grilling the chicken.  I rolled it in melted butter and salt and peppered it.  

 

Now serve it and feel like a rock star when when everyone tells you how delicious it is!  It's the perfect summertime meal!

xoxo Kristen

Easy Zucchini Cakes

 

A couple of years ago, when I first moved from the city to the 'burbs, I had the pleasure of living next door to a lovely elderly couple.  I was 9 months pregnant with Moo when I moved and they were just about the best neighbors I could asked for.  After Moo arrived, they would stop by to check on me, bringing trays of food, flowers and gifts for the baby.  It made the transition from city living to my new, lonely suburban existence that much more tolerable.  Besides being stellar neighbors, they were prolific gardeners.  Now I'm not talking they had a few tomato plants in the back yard, they quite literally had a full blown farm going on.  From figs trees, to raspberry bushes, to tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, peas, squash, watermelons, pumpkins and...zucchini.  Oooh, the zucchini. They were like nothing I had ever seen before.  Giant, pristine, unblemished, organic beauties that they harvested every day by the wheel barrel full. 

With such a plentiful harvest every summer, I would often reap the benefits of their hard labor and wake up to bushels of raspberries in a bag hanging from my front door knob.  Baskets of tomatoes on my door mat.  And dozens of zucchini in my mailbox. Every. Single. Day.  It was wonderful and I was always appreciative.  But what does one do with dozens of zucchini daily?  I baked zucchini bread, roasted it, grilled it, sauteed it, blanched it, froze it...after a while, I was a little zucchini-ed out.  But I hated to see all of those beautiful fruits (and yes, they are fruits!) go to waste.  So I decided to start experimenting.  I had never actually eaten a zucchini cake before, but I had heard of them and had come across recipes now and again, but I wasn't exactly sure what they were supposed to taste like.  So using a very basic recipe I found online as a guideline, I set out to make the perfect zucchini cakes.  And I'm pretty sure, after a lot of trial and error, I nailed it.  You be the judge. 

Easy Zucchini Cakes

Makes about 12 large cakes, 2 per serving.

Here's what you'll need:

• 2 Medium Zucchini
• 3  Eggs, beaten
• 1/2 c. Seasoned Bread Crumbs
• 3/4 c. Kellogg's ™ Corn Flake Crumbs
• 2 Tbsp. Minced Garlic
• 1 Tsp. Dill (fresh or dried)
• 1  Lemon to zest
• Salt & Freshly Ground Black Pepper, to taste
• Canola Oil

Special Equipment Needed:

• A Mandolin equipped with a julienne blade or a large holed cheese grater

1. Wash and dry zucchini thoroughly.  Cut off the round ends and leave the tops on.  They act like as a little handle and make holding the zucchini easier.  Julienne your zucchini.  If you don't have a mandolin with a Julienne blade, a cheese grater works just as well.  I like my zucchini a little chunkier in this recipe and the mandolin works well.

 

2.  Julienne/grate your zucchini until you have a lovely little pile like this:

3.  Combine seasoned bread crumbs with the Corn Flake Crumbs.  (Can we talk about Corn Flake Crumbs for a moment?  They are spectacular. I promise.  They are one of my best kept cooking secrets and it the thing that makes people ask, 'How did you get this so crunchy?'  Corn Flake Crumbs are how.  Once you purchase them and try them, you will wonder how you ever cooked without them before.  More on those later.)  Add your dill, salt, pepper and couple of good zests of the lemon and mix well.  I zested almost an entire lemon for this recipe.  Remember use only the yellow of the lemon, and avoid the white pith!

4.  Take your pile of zucchini and place in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze.  Then squeeze some more.  You want to get as much moisture out of it as possible.  If not, your cakes are going to be all soupy and gross and no one wants that.  These were a little on the dry side, but its worth squeezing just in case.

5.  Gently combine zucchini, garlic and eggs in a separate bowl from the bread crumb mixture.  We aren't going to combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until the very last possible minute.  I think this makes for a crispier cake that's less like an omelet and more like a potato pancake or latke.

 

 

6.  Cover the bottom of your frying pan with canola oil.  You want enough that its about 1/4" deep.  Turn on medium high heat.  Let the pan get hot, just until the oil starts to shimmer.

7.  Fold wet ingredients with dry ingredients, taking care not to break up the zucchini too much in the process.

 

Now grab a large tablespoon or ice cream scooper if you have one. Scoop a good sized portion into the frying pan until your pan is full. Press each ball down with a spatula to flatten.

 

8.  Give your cakes some room in the pan, you don't want to crowd them.  Brown on both sides. Aprrox. 3 minutes per side. Use your judgement. You want them golden brown.

9.   If you notice the oil is getting low, feel free to add some more in between batches. Just make sure you allow it to heat thoroughly before adding your next batch. 

10.  Transfer finished cakes to a paper towel lined plate to drain or, if you're not serving them immediately, put them on a cookie sheet in 200° oven to keep them warm like I did here:

11.  Repeat the whole cooking process until you're out of batter.  Then they're ready to serve!  Garnish with some kosher salt and chopped green onion.  Now pay attention, this is very important.  Serve with sour cream on the side.  There is something about the sour cream that transforms the flavor and makes the taste of the lemon zest and dill really pop.  You'll see what I mean.

Variations:  I've been known to throw a handful of Parmesan cheese in the mix.  My husband isn't a fan of parm, and it isn't really necessary to the recipe, but it does add a nice cheesy, nutty note to the dish.

Now back to those Kellogg's Corn Flake Crumbs.  This is what they look like:

You can find them next to the Shake 'n Bake and bread crumbs in your local grocery store.  I use them for breading, desserts, crumb toppings, cookies and so much more.  It's one of the most used ingredients in my kitchen and no one knows about them.  Get a box, you won't be disappointed.

I hope you enjoy today's recipe.  I love to hear your feedback!  Let me know how they turned out for you!

xoxo Kristen

Grilled Rosemary Garlic Potato Pouches

Cooking has always been kind of my thing.  It is undoubtedly one of my very first loves and my very first hobby. Ever since I was old enough to stand on a chair in front of the stove, alongside my mom, I have adored cooking.  For me, food symbolizes family, togetherness, holidays and good times.  Some of my best memories as a child were centered around family meals and the memories continue to be made at the kitchen table every day to with my own family.  

Experimenting with different ingredients, spices and proteins has always appealed to my secret inner chef.  When a meal comes together and somehow turns into something deliciously delectable, it's a magical thing.  Watching someone's eyes roll back in their head ever so slightly, and hearing them make that yummy growling sound deep in their throat when they take the first bite of something I created, well that is just about the best feeling in the world.

So let's kick off this party with a recipe!  It's summertime and my absolute favorite way to cook during these hot, sticky days is on the grill.  I live for my grill.  The very last thing I want to do is slave over a hot stove in my stuffy kitchen while the rest of my family is outside enjoying the long, warm summer nights.  So pretty much every summer night, I attempt to nourish my family with a meal made entirely on the grill.

I'm a meat and potato kind of girl and this one of my favorite accompaniments to a good old fashioned steak.

Grilled Rosemary Garlic Potato Pouches

Serves 4. Prep 8 minutes, Cook Time 20 minutes

Here's what you'll need:

1 lb. Small Fingerling Potatoes

2-3 Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary, removed from stem and roughly chopped

2 tsp. Garlic Powder

1/8 c. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4 tbsp. Salted Butter

Fresh Ground Black Pepper, to taste

Kosher Salt, to taste

Aluminum Foil

1.  Preheat grill to high heat and close the cover.  Wash potatoes thoroughly and remove any eyes.  Set aside to dry.  It's ok if they're a little damp, the moisture will turn to steam and help the potatoes cook all the way through.

 

2.  Combine all the ingredients except for butter and foil (duh...) in a large mixing bowl.  Mix together to combine and coat the potatoes. Go ahead a have a taste of the dressing.  Feel free to over salt and pepper the dressing because the taste won't be as potent once its served with the mild potatoes.  If it tastes too salty or peppery, that's good!  It mean you've seasoned well.

 

5.  Tear off 4 separate- 1 sq. ft. pieces of aluminum foil for the pouches.  Add potatoes and dressing to the center, in 4 equal parts, to each piece of foil.  If there is dressing left in the bottom of the bowl, drizzle it equally over potatoes. Salt and pepper again, if desired.  Place 1 tbsp. of butter on top of potatoes and fold aluminum foil to form a sealed pouch.

 

6.  Place pouches on upper rack of grill, turning them occasionally.  If you don't have an upper rack on your grill, you can place them directly on a medium/high grill. Use tongs to turn the pouches, being careful not to pierce the foil and let all the garlicky, rosemary-ish goodness escape from your pouches.

 

7.  The potatoes need approximately 20 minutes to cook through, depending on their size.  In the meantime, while they're hanging out on your upper rack, go ahead and grill whatever else you're planning for dinner that evening.

8. After about 15 minutes move the pouches to the lower portion of your grill directly over the flames. Turn at least once during the remaining 5 minutes.

9.  They're ready!!  Open the pouches (carefully! they will be super hot and steamy!).  You can get fancy and pour them into a bowl, or you can eat them like we do - like savages, right out of the foil.  

Serve immediately, because these are ahh-mazing steamin' right off the grill.

 

Variations:  If fingerling/mini potatoes aren't available in your local grocery store, don't despair!  You can use Yukon Gold or Idaho potatoes successfully in this dish.  Dice them in approximately 3/4 in. cubes with skins on and prepare them as directed.  To go a little lighter on this recipe, skip the butter and add a splash more olive oil to the mix.

Get creative!  You can use any combination of herbs and spices, add a little heat with some diced jalapeños, add cheese and chopped bacon, the possibilities are endless.  Try something different and let me know how your variation turned out!  

xoxo Kristen