Chicken Wings

One of my favorite and most requested meals for me to make is chicken wings.  I use only four ingredients on my chicken wings.  Chicken wings are normally high in calories, because of their skin, so I never fry them, I bake them.

Worchestershire Sauce, garlic powder, half stick of margarine, Louisiana Hot Sauce

I like to buy the large pack of chicken wings.

Take a half stick of margarine (you could use butter too) and melt it in a small pan on the stove.  The recipe actually called for an entire stick of margarine/butter, but I didn't want the extra calories.

Measure 6 ounces of Louisiana Hot Sauce.  If you like it hot, you could use more hot sauce.  My family does not like it hot, so I only use 6 ounces.

Using a shaker bottle, pour the hot sauce and melted butter and a teaspoon of both Worchestershire Sauce and garlic powder.   Shake well.

Pour the mixed sauce into a pan large enough to coat each chicken wing.

Take a pan with sides and place aluminum foil in the bottom (to aid in clean up).  The trick for crispy wings is to place them on a rack, therefore, the chicken cooks on both sides.  If you do not use the rack, the bottom of the chicken will rest in the fat and does not have the desired crispiness.  When placing the chicken on the rack, DO NOT overlap the chicken.  The parts of the chicken that overlap will not cook evenly.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and cook for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Your chicken should look like the picture below.

If desired, enjoy with some blue cheese dressing.

Party Time Continued

The pepperoni loaf I showed in the last post, doesn't have to be done only with pepperoni.  I have made a vegetable version with peppers, onions, broccoli, and mushrooms.  I take the vegetables I like, slightly sauté them in olive oil and garlic, and replace the pepperoni with the vegetables.  You don't want to cook the vegetables too long, because it further cooks in the oven.

Party Time

Savannah wanted to have some friends over to her house, but she didn't want to serve just snacks and cold food.  She wanted me to show her how to make my famous pepperoni loaf.

When I first started making pepperoni loaves, I would make it from scratch.  Flour, yeast, hot water, etc., but that just took too long.  I found a better alternative.  At ShopRite, they sell fresh dough balls.  You buy the dough the day before you want to use it, leave it in the refrigerator and watch it grow.  It usually doubles in size.

A few hours before I plan to make the pepperoni loaf, I take the dough ball out of the refrigerator and place it in a plastic bowl with a slightly damp towel on top.  

This towel prevents the dough from drying out.

Put some flour on the rolling pin and dough ball before rolling out the dough.

You'll want to roll it out to the shape of a football.  

Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese down the center.

Add sliced pepperoni. 

Cut slits on each side.

Overlap the slits and press together.

This is an example of what the pepperoni looks like before baking.

This is what it looks like when it comes out of the oven.  

Make sure the oven is preheated to 350 degrees and bake for about 30+ minutes until golden brown.

ENJOY!!!!

Use a knife and cut where the slits are to make individual slices.  

DIPPING SAUCE:  You could heat up pizza or spaghetti sauce and it would taste like a pepperoni pizza.

Cutting an Onion

Savannah wanted to make a meatloaf, which is easy to do and not too many ingredients.  She made it before, but she complained that the onions were not uniform in size.  Every bite she either got very big or very small pieces of onion.  So she wanted me to show her how to cut an onion so all the pieces are relatively the same size.

1.  Trim the ends off the onion

2.  Cut the onion in half lengthwise and peel the skin.

3.  Position the onion so it's resting flat on the board.  The curved part is facing up.  Make your first cut parallel to one of those flat ends.

4.  Slice crosswise through the onion.  The onion may separate, but try to keep it together.

5.  Flip the section of the onion.  You may not want to cut the whole half of the onion.  You may want to cut a smaller section.

6.  Cut down along the straight edge and you should see little onion "cubes" appear.  Try to keep them uniform in size.

7.  Finish with a quick chop. 

CRITIQUE

Savannah was doing a great job until step #6.  The matchstick size onion pieces came apart and made it hard to get uniform pieces.  She spent a lot of time rechopping so the pieces were relatively the same size.  It takes practice...and with practice, comes perfection.

Does anyone know of a better way to cut an onion?  I appreciate any suggestions.

Change in Plans

My daughter felt that after the first lesson, she feels comfortable enough to follow a recipe on her own, but she says she still needs my help.  She wants to make a meatloaf and the only thing she needs help with is cutting the onion.  Tomorrow, I will show her how to chop an onion the correct way.

Critiquing the first lesson

We started the lesson at 5:30 p.m. and I expected to be completed by 6:00-6:10 p.m., but it wasn't until 7:15 p.m. until we actually started eating the meal.  My daughter spent most of the time cutting the chicken into slices and then bite-size pieces.  Savannah takes direction very well, but I noticed that she does have a problem working on multiple items at the same time.  While she was adding the spinach to the chicken, she spent a lot of time stirring the chicken mixture, but forgot to stir the pasta.  Some of the pasta stuck to the bottom of the pot.

It was the consensus of all 8 of us that the meal Savannah made was absolutely delicious.  I asked her what she thought and she said, 'It was easy and I can do this without help.'  It is a kid-friendly meal so her children would enjoy eating this for many years to come.

Making "Medley"

Before starting, you must first wash your hands.

Take the pieces of chicken and cut off any noticeable pieces of fat.

Slice the chicken into strips.

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces.  

WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE STARTING THE NEXT STEPS.

Add water to a large pot at least 3/4 full.  Put the pot with a lid on the stove.  Put the dial on the highest setting.  It usually takes about 15 minutes to boil.

In the meantime, peel 3 cloves of garlic.

Add olive oil to the pan.  About 1/4 cup.

Mince garlic, which means chop it finely.  Add red pepper flakes.  Sprinkle to desired quantity.  If you don't like it spicy, don't sprinkle too many. Start cooking the garlic for about a minute.  Stir constantly, so the garlic doesn't burn.

Add the chicken to the pan.  Stir to mix the chicken, garlic, and red pepper flakes.

Put a lid over the pot so it steams in its own juices.  Stirring frequently until the chicken turns white.  Approximately 10-15 minutes.

 

Place the spinach in a colander and wash in the sink.  Spinach tends to have quite a bit of sand on its leaves, so clean thoroughly.

When the water begins to boil, add a palm full of salt to the water.

Add the bow tie pasta to the boiling water.  Stir constantly to prevent sticking.

Set the timer for 15 minutes.  After the timer rings, check for doneness.  

Add the spinach to the chicken.  Spinach will wilt from the heat.  You may want to take a few spoons of the boiling salted water and add it to the chicken/spinach mixture.  Put a lid on during this process.  Stir frequently.

When the pasta is done, pour into a colander and shake to remove excess water.

Add pasta to the chicken/spinach mixture and thoroughly stir ingredients.

Add some locatelli or parmesan cheese and serve.