Best Chicken Wings Ever!

This post is in honor of my good friend Sarah who shared a recipe on her blog for grilled chicken wings. When I went to visit her one time, her husband cooked them and since then Dennis & I have been hooked. They are super easy and so much better (I think) than the frozen Tyson wings I used to get and heat in the oven. If you don't like wings anyways, I don't know what's wrong with you...try this recipe!!

Grilled Chicken Wings

1.Buy a package of wings-fresh or frozen- and sprinkle with salt.

2.Grill on both sides, turning often (they like to catch on fire) until cooked through and the skin is browned and crispy (not burnt).

3.Place with tongs into a large bowl that has a cover.

4.Pour your favorite sauce over the wings (hot sauce, bbq, teriyaki, etc) and put the lid on.

5.Shake, turn, flip and generally move the bowl around so as to coat the wings.

6.Eat and have plenty of paper towels on hand.

What do you pair with wings for dinner besides pizza? Freshly sliced tomatoes of course!

Tortellini and Veggies

Tonight was a typical Sunday evening...not much going on, pretty tired after all of the weekend activities, and I certainly did not feel like slaving in the kitchen for long. It is usually our pizza night, but we had pizza last night after getting back from sailing, so that was not an option. So I opened my pantry to see what I could throw together. If you are not much of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type cook, then this may be difficult for you. However I am, and most of my meals are put together with what I have on hand. Rarely do I follow recipes, and if I do, I usually change them :) Anyways, here is my thought process for tonight, but please, substitute for what you have on hand, don't go out and buy exactly what I used or I think you totally miss the point.

5:15 pm Hmmmm, I guess I'd better put together some dinner. What's in the pantry? Pasta, good, fast, yummy. I have angel hair and dried tortellini. Tortellini sound good. I have some veggies from the garden that I can put with it.

5:25 pm Water is boiling and tortellini are in for 8 minutes. I have now concocted a plan: boil the pasta, but not all the way done because i am going to stir fry some zuchini to go with them, and then toss them in once the zukes have cooked a bit. Now I am slicing and quartering zuchini, smaller bites are better for the young set around here.

5:32 pm I take the pasta out early because they are starting to look done, and I dont' want them to be done all the way. I heat up the wok with some olive oil to stir fry the zuchini. Once hot, I toss them in (I used two small ones, but I think cherry tomatoes would have been delicious in retrospect instead.. Like i said, anything you have on hand). I sprinkle liberally with garlic salt and some fresh ground black pepper. Just for a few minutes, then i dump in the drained tortellini and toss. They start to stick, and I add half a stick of butter ( i already had it out just in case). Once that is all mixed in, I think they might get a little dry, so I pour in a bit of cream, just enough to moisten them all and leave a little in the bottom of the pan.

5:40 pm I realize that I have spices growing outside my front door, so i run out and grab a handful of basil. I could have grabbed thyme or even sage, but it's summer, so basil fit best. I quickly chopped it up and added it to the mix, along with some fresh grated parmesan, LOTS. I covered it up till the crew was ready to eat.

6:00 pm Everyone is ready to eat and we gobbled it all up! Every kid ate every bite and the zucchini too, amazing ;)

I hope you are inspired to throw together your own summer dish with whatever you have on hand. I'd love to hear what combination turned out most delicous for you!

Cooking Tip of the Day-

Potato Ricer

Okay, so I had some great photos to go with this tip and they got deleted. Now the potatoes are all put away and I have no photos. Yuck, so try to imagine as best you can and I'll do better next time!

If you detest preparing potatoes for mashed potatoes as much as I do, you will love and appreciate this tip! Do you have a ricer? Never heard of one? It looks kind of like an overgrown lemon juicer. It pushes cooked potatoes through the little holes and they come out like long pieces of rice, hence, the name, "ricer". Anyways, I used to always peel my potatoes before putting through the ricer...sometimes before I cooked them, sometimes burning my fingers after they were cooked. Either way, NO FUN. All has changed! Just put the potato (cooked in it's skin, sliced neatly in half) skin side UP into the ricer. Press/squeeze, out comes beautiful potato. Lift the handle and the skin has stuck to the ricer press. Amazing. Pull off the skin and repeat.

Then just mix the potatoes with whatever yummies you like, butter, milk, sour cream, roasted garlic....etc. and enjoy. No mixer, no smasher, easy.

Tiramisu

Recently my mother and I took a cooking class at our local gourmet cooking store. They bring in local chefs and other cooks and cook based on a theme. We watch, help cook, and then enjoy the yummies. If you have never gone to a cooking class, GO! It is a lot of fun, and much better than what you see on Food Network. The one we just attended was by a local Italian chef named Vincenzo. He taught us how to make an artichoke salad, home made gnocci in carrot sauce, and tiramisu. Delicious and I learned a lot, like how to prepare fresh artichokes, which I have always been afraid of. Look for a tutorial one day when I find artichokes on sale!

Anyways, the tiramisu was so simple and so delicious. I am not afraid to share since he really didn't give us a recipe, just an ingredients list, and I made it from memory yesterday after watching him at the class. Make it the day before you will eat it and the flavors blend.

Recipe

500 gr mascarpone cheese (At BJ's this was relatively inexpensive. At the local gourmet supermarket, much smaller container and much more expensive. I hope you have a BJ's!)

4 fresh eggs, separated (if you are shy about using raw eggs, sorry. they will not be cooked. get them as fresh as possible)

2 packages of ladyfingers (these were sold at our local wal-mart, so i think they're pretty easy to find)

4 T. sugar

2 t. sugar

6 cups espresso coffee...or even a little more. don't skimp on the coffee (Lavazza is the best according to the Italian chef and I agree), made extra strong, or if you don't have a way to make espresso, make some regular coffee, just pretty strong.

bitter cocoa powder (hershey's or bakers is fine) for dusting



Brew the coffee and mix with 2 t. sugar. Set aside to cool.



In a mixer with the wisk attachment, beat the egg yolks with the 4 T. sugar until the yolks turn light yellow and thicken. This will take several minutes. You will notice a big difference in the color from the dark yellow they were when they started out. Mix in the mascarpone cheese and wisk till smooth.



In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites till stiff peaks form. If you have never done this, make sure the bowl is clean and free from all grease or anything else. If not, they will not form peaks. This happened to me the first time. I tried to beat them in the same bowl as the cheese and yolks and they did nothing. Once you have stiff peaks, gently fold them into the cheese and yolk mixture till fully incorporated. Set this yummy and totally edible at this point on anything else mixture aside!



Now get out your rectangular baking pan. The higher the sides the better. I used a pampered chef stoneware. Put the coffee into a loaf pan or other rectangular type pan. Set up an area for your stations...ladyfingers, coffee, baking pan. Here is the only tricky part. You must be quick or the ladyfingers will fall apart. You are going to lay the ladyfinger in the coffee and then quickly turn it over and quickly lift it out, letting excess coffee drain. Quickly lay the ladyfingers in the bottom of your baking pan to cover the bottom. Once the ladyfingers absorb the coffee, they quickly break down as they absorb the liquid. Don't let them sit in the coffee for more than a second or 2 per side.


Once you have a layer of ladyfingers, carefully spread half of the cheese mixture over this with a spatula. Then repeat with the ladyfingers dipped in coffee for the second layer. Then repeat with the rest of the cheese mixture.



Lastly, pour some cocoa powder into a sifter and sift/shake to cover the whole thing with a nice thick layer of cocoa. As it sits in the fridge, some of the cocoa will be absorbed, so don't be sparing!



Cover with something (foil, plastic wrap) and refrigerate. Minimum 1 hour, best...overnight. Cut into squares and serve!