I love chicken wings. Well, I love my wings. I rarely order wings out because I like my wings really crispy. Whether breaded or not, it seems like whenever I order wings at a restaurant they aren't crispy. While I'm happy with my method and like my spicy wings, I do love the flavor of garlic Parmesan wings served at most wing places. I made a batch of spicy wings this week and saved some wings to try to duplicate the garlic Parmesan sauce. I'm happy to announce that I hit a bull's-eye with my first try.
Shopping list
2 dozen wing pieces
Oil for frying
2 sticks butter
5 garlic cloves
Grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Fry wings at 375 degrees for approximately 5 minutes.
I used my fryer but you can also fry in deep pot on stove top, don't crowd the pot
Place wings on foil lined baking sheet after frying.
Bake wings at 425 degrees for 30 minutes.
While wings are baking, peel and press garlic into sauce pan
-If you don't have a garlic press, you can finely mince the garlic.
Add butter and red pepper flakes to sauce pan and heat on low for 15 minutes.
Toss hot wings in garlic butter.
Place coated wings on paper plate and dust with Parmesan cheese on all sides.
I dusted six wings at a time.
Enjoy with ice cold beer and make plenty to share.
I had some leftover pork roast that needed to be used and eggroll wrappers are a great way to use leftovers. These barbeque pork eggrolls are delicious and easy to prepare.
1 ½ cups cooked pork
¼ cup barbeque sauce
Eggroll wrappers
Vegetable oil
Dice the pork and mix in bowl with barbeque sauce.
Lay out an eggroll wrapper.
Place two tablespoons of pork on wrapper.
Dampen all edges of eggroll wrapper with water.
Roll eggroll tucking the sides in.
Heat oil to 365 degrees for frying eggrolls.
I used my deep fryer but a deep pot can be used for frying.
Fry eggrolls until golden brown and drain on paper towels.
Makes 6 eggrolls.
These are a quick snack or meal. I love using wonton and eggroll wrapper for all kinds of things and they really are great for using leftovers.
Wonton wrappers, round if you can find them, I could only find the square ones
Place ground pork in mixing bowl.
Add salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and sesame oil to pork
Remove paper from garlic cloves by smashing them with flat knife
Add garlic to pork mixture using a garlic press or microplane, (if you don’t have a garlic press, mince finely)
Peel ginger root and add 1 ½ teaspoon of ginger to pork mixture using a microplane or fine grater (If you don’t have a microplane, get one! They have all kinds of uses.)
Mix all ingredients together
Preheat oven to 350
Make 24 small oval meatballs and place on cookie sheet.
Bake 15 minutes or until pork is no longer pink.
Lay out a wonton wrapper.
Wet edges of wonton wrapper with water.
Place a meatball in center of wrapper.
Crimp edges of wonton wrapper together and pleat using water as “glue”.
Place on sheet pan or plate and cover with damp towel to keep moist.
This didn’t take as long as I thought so I’m already thinking about what else I can stuff into these wonton wrappers.
Heat large skillet on high heat with 2 tablespoons of oil.
Place all pot stickers in pan and brown the bottom of pot stickers. The bottom of the pot stickers should form a crust.
After browning the bottom of pot stickers, add ¾ cup of water to pan and cover skillet with lid.
Steam pot stickers for 5 minutes.
Remove from pan and serve hot with soy sauce.
These disappeared quickly which is always a good sign!
I use microplanes all the time. They're a huge time saver and make pretty garnishes.
The movie Waitress is about a young woman expecting a child and trapped in an unhappy marriage. She is also an amazing pie baker. She creates her recipes and names the pies after things happening in her life. For example, she names her pies things like “Fall in love chocolate pie”, “Naughty Pumpkin Pie” or “Bad Baby Quiche”. This movie is a great comedy and actually very touching. I adore this movie and shared it with a friend of mine while making these recipes to go along with the theme. I hope you’ll give both the movie and these pies a chance.
“Unexpected Guests Tart Appetizer”
(three ingredients that are always in my kitchen)
Filo tart cups (my new favorite thing to keep in my freezer, they have a million uses)
Leftover meat (I had a piece of steak left from dinner earlier in week, any meat will do)
Cream cheese (I used chive cream cheese but plain would work well too)
Place filo cups on baking sheet. Put small amount of cream cheese in each cup. Place a bite sized piece of meat on top of cream cheese. Bake for 10 minutes in 350 degree oven and serve warm. Perfect little bite for unexpected guests that makes you look like a master chef.
“Come Home to Mama Chicken Pot Pie”
(Comforting and a good way to get college kids to visit)
Spread out puff pastry on floured board. Turn bowl upside on pastry and cut around bowl leaving a small edge. Cut four circles from pastry. Spray bowls with non stick spray and fill with chicken mixture. Beat egg in small bowl. With a pastry brush, brush egg around lip of bowl for pastry to stick to. Cover bowl with pastry circle and form to bowl. When all four bowls are covered, brush with egg. Cut a small slit into each pot pie and bake at 400 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown.
Delicious homemade comfort food that looks as good as it tastes. Sure fire way to get busy young adults to come home to eat.
“Too Tired To Bake Chocolate Pie”
6 mini graham cracker crusts
1 pkg pudding (I’m using cook and serve chocolate pudding; I like the cooked pudding better)
4 pretzels
Milk
Berries for garnish
Prepare pudding according to package and put into fridge to set up. Crush pretzels in plastic bag. Fill crusts with pudding, sprinkle with crushed pretzels and garnish with berries. Easy dessert that tastes great and is the perfect size after a family meal.
We had a great time watching the movie Waitress and eating these pies. I hope you’ll take a relaxing afternoon and try both the movie and recipes. Let me know what you think!
I had the privilege of catering a graduation party this weekend. The host didn’t want to spend her daughter’s special day in the kitchen heating up food and asked the appetizers allow her to stay away from the stove. This worked perfectly with my philosophy of creating food that allows the host to do nothing but accept the compliments.
I created a Mini BLT for the party. A Small Bite but a Big Hit.
“Just a quick note to say THANK YOU! The food was delicious and it was so easy to keep everything replenished with the way it was all packaged. The BLT's were a huge hit - should of bought more of those.” From Cheryl the host.
Mini BLT’s
(recipe for 50 bites)
50 bite sized tomatoes (I used on vine small tomatoes, large cherry tomatoes would work but grape
tomatoes are too small and won’t stand up)
¾ cup Mayo (I only use Hellman’s mayo for all of my recipes)
1 ¼ cup bacon bits (I like the pre cooked bacon heated in microwave and crumbled but prepackaged
Bacon bits are fine)
½ cup Parsley (I used fresh curly leaf parsley finely chopped)
Salt/pepper to taste. I used ½ t of salt and 1 t of pepper. Remember bacon is already salty.
Day before or at least 4 hours before serving:
Wash tomatoes. Line plate with paper towels. Cut top off of tomato, discard top. Scoop out seeds with small end of melon baller and place tomatoes open side down on paper towel and refrigerate. This will allow excess water from tomatoes absorb in paper towels and not water down filling.
Mix together mayo, bacon bits, parsley and salt/pepper. Stuff tomatoes with filling. I plated these on top of shredded lettuce to keep them standing up and sprinkled with extra bacon bits. Keep refrigerated until serving.
Mini BLT’s are a super Small Bite but a Big Hit. Guests can just pick them up and pop them in their mouths. No plates or utensils required and they taste great.
“Mise en place” meaning “putting in place” is a chef’s best friend. I like prepping with glass prep bowls especially when showing someone how to follow a recipe. Check out the set of 8 offered by William Sonoma located in the measuring section. I use these daily.
