Slow-Cooked Sweet & Tangy Chicken Wings

• 10-12 chicken wing drummettes
• 1/2 tsp salt, divided
• Dash pepper
• 1-1/2 cups ketchup
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• Dash red pepper flakes

• Sprinkle chicken wings with a dash of salt and pepper. Broil 4-6 in. from the heat for 5 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Transfer to a greased slow cooker.
• Combine the ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic, remaining salt, olive oil, and broth; pour over wings. Toss to coat.
• Cover and cook on low for 3-1/4 to 3-3/4 hours or until chicken juices run clear. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.

Dr. Pepper Lemon Pepper Tangy Glazed Sirloin

Gonna grill out today, and here's what's on the menu!

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DR. PEPPER LEMON PEPPER TANGY GLAZED SIRLOIN


Ingredients for marinade

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup Dr. Pepper
• 1/4 cup A1 sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 minced garlic clove (or 1/4 teaspoon pre-prepared minced garlic)
• 1 to 2 pounds top sirloin steak
• Lemon pepper seasoning

Ingredients for glaze

• 1/2 cup BBQ sauce (any kind you like!)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup A1 sauce
• 1 tablespoon molasses or dark corn syrup

Method

• Mix together marinade ingredients in a gallon-size plastic bag (NOT the lemon pepper, that's for later). Cut the steaks into 1 inch-wide strips (should be 4-6 strips per steak depending on how big the steak is)
• Place strips in marinade, mix around to coat, and allow to soak up the flavor in the fridge for 2-3 hours or overnight
• After marinading, remove steak from bag, throw away bag, and sprinkle the steaks with the lemon pepper seasoning
• Cook on the grill until desired doneness is attained (should be 8-12 minutes). Prepare the glaze.
• When steaks are a few minutes from being done, brush on the glaze and allow steaks to remain on grill to heat and caramelize the glaze.

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Meat Loaf

Needed a use for some extra hamburger I had in my freezer and decided to try my hand at some meat loaf. I thought it turned out pretty well!

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MEAT LOAF


Ingredients for loaf:

• 1 1/2 pound hamburger
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tablespoon dried minced onions
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 
• 1 1/2 tablespoon ketchup
• 1/2 tablespoon mustard
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce 
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 teaspoon Lawry's seasoning salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 1/3 cup finely ground Stacy's Sea Salt pita chips (or other form of dried bread crumbs, crackers, crouton, etc)

Ingredients for sauce:

• 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 1 1/3 tablespoon mustard
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon barbecue sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Lawry's seasoning salt
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Method

1. Line a casserole dish with aluminum foil (this is an important step for your sanity!)
2. Use a food processor to finely grind up your bread crumbs
3. Combine hamburger, egg, onions, milk, and the various other ingredients into a large bowl and stir together thoroughly using your hands
4. Place meat in casserole dish in a "loaf" shape--this is just an oblong shape roughly a foot long, 4 inche wide, and 4 inches deep
5. Mix together ingredients for sauce and pour on top of the loaf, spreading it around and allowing it to drip down the sides
6. Sprinkle just a little more brown sugar on the top
7. Place in 350 degree oven for 1 hour. After 1 hour, remove from oven, allow to "set" for 5-10 minutes, cut up like a loaf of bread and serve

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The Best Traditional Chex Mix

qI love Chex mix (aka: Trash, Scrabble, Trail Mix, or anything else you want to call it). It is a perfect fall treat for the whole family, and its salty sinfulness is a great pre-game to the State Fair, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's calorie-fiestas. I pretty much use the recipe on the box, but increase the butter twofold and add some secrets of my own--

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Ingredients:

1 1/2 stick of butter (or more)

1 teaspoon seasoning salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 1/2 tablespoon honey (or more)

4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 1/2 cups rice Chex cereal

2 1/2 cups corn Chex cereal

2 3/4 cups wheat cereal

1 cup mixed nuts (or peanuts, or cashews)

1 1/4 cup stick pretzels

1 1/2 cup Cheese-it's

How to:

Find two deep, rectangular pans to cook your mix--you will be halving the mix among these two pans. Preheat oven to 250.

Place pretzels, Cheese-it's, and nuts in each pan (remember, 1/2 of the above measurements in each pan). In a large bowl, mix together the Chex. In a microwaveable bowl, completely melt the butter. As soon as you remove it from microwave, pour honey in the butter (you can use more than listed, but just don't use too much because your mix will be sticky!). Then add salt, garlic and onion powders, and Worcestershire to butter and mix. Pour this mixture in the pan with the nuts, crackers, and pretzels. Then, pour the halves of the Chex into the pans. Gently turn over mix so that it is adequately mixed and so each piece is coated.

Place in oven for 15 minutes. Remove and stir. If, after the first 15 minutes, you feel that the mix is not coated enough, add 1/2 stick butter with a little more honey, Worscht, powders, and salt. Cook for another 45 minutes, removing every 15 minutes to stir.

Spread mix on paper towels until cooled. Then, enjoy.

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Cheese Bread

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cheese. In another large bowl, beat together egg, milk and oil. Stir the flour/cheese mixture into the egg mixture, stirring until just moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean.

Grape Pie

I bought some sour grapes recently--so sour that I have trouble eating them enjoyably--so I decided to find a recipe to use them. Of course, leave it to the southerner to make a healthy food into a really unhealthy food, right? So, here you go, the grape pie:

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CRUST:

3 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 cup Crisco shortening

1 egg

5 tbsp water (plus more to get right consistency)

1 1/2 tsp white vinegar

Thoroughly mix the flour, salt, and shortening in a large bowl. You can do this with a spatula. In a separate bowl, mix egg, vinegar, and water. Pour wet mixture into dry mixtur

e. Use hands to knead into a dough. The dough should be rather dry--I added a little bit more water to make it more cohesive.

Take approximately 1/2 of the dough and roll it out. Place your 9" pie pan over the dough that you have rolled out and approximate 1 to 1 1/2 more inches to add to the diameter. With a knife, cut the dough in a circle with an 11 inch diameter. Remove excess dough. This is the hardest part of the whole recipe: you can a) use a large spatula to loosen the dough from the cutting board and quickly convert it to the pie pan, or b) put your pie pan on top of the dough

, and quickly flip the whole thing over to let gravity pull the dough into the pie pan. If there are cracks in the dough, simply press them together.

For the top of the pie, make another 9" wide circle and use the spatula method. Or, do what I did, and give up completely--roll the dough out and use a small cookie cutter to make little circles and use them to cover the top of the filling in an artistic way.

FILLING:

3 cups green grapes

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

1/3 cup flour mixed with water to make a loose paste

Chop up the majority of the grapes into relatively large chunks (that should look somewhat

mushy), leaving the a few of the smallest grapes whole. Place grapes in a sauce pan with water, sugar, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil. When boiling, add the flour paste and stir. Let boil for approximately 5-7 minutes, while stirring constantly. Turn heat on low and examine mixture--it should be more thick and syrupy, and if there are any clumps of flour, remove them or try to break them up. Remove from heat and add butter and cinnamon; stir. Put back on low heat for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool.

Pour filling into pie crust that you prepared earlier. Add dough to top of filling. Sprinkle granulated sugar over top of pie, and add a few tiny pats of butter in various p

laces over pie. Cover the dish with foil and bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Remove foil after 25 minutes, and let cook for another 20-25 minutes.

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I have never made a pie crust from scratch before, and it was literally the hardest cooking-related thing I have ever done to try to get that dough into the pan. My kitchen was a mess. But the pie is delicious, and I think it turned out beautifully despite the crust disasters!

Captain Crunch Chicken Tenders

I had some Captain Crunch coated chicken tenders at a Planet Hollywood and thought they were so amazing because they were sweet and salty and crunchy. I found the recipe online and definitely thought I should try to make them!

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2 cups Cap'n Crunch cereal
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 lbs chicken tenders (or chicken breasts cut into tenders)
Vegetable oil (for frying)

Thaw chicken breasts, cut each breast into 3-4 slim pieces, and dry strips with a paper towel before dredging.

Coarsely grind or crush the cereal in gallon size bag and set aside. Beat the egg with milk in separate bowl and set aside. Stir together the flour, onion and garlic powders and black pepper and set aside.

Dip the chicken pieces in the seasoned flour. Move around to coat well, then shake off the excess flour. Dip coated tender quckly in the egg wash, coating well, then place all coated tenders in the bag of crushed cereal. Shake bag until all the tenders are coated.

Heat oil in a large heavy skillet to 325 (or for a few minutes on low-medium heat). Drop coated chicken tenders carefully in the hot oil and cook until golden brown and fully cooked, 3 to 5 minutes depending on size.

_____________________________Pictured with a baked potato and green bean casserole. I heated the oil too high, so the coating began to burn before the chicken had cooked fully. They were very yummy though, maybe I'll get them perfect next time.

Apple Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Looking at the recipes I have here so far, they are all sides or appetizers. I've got a few main dishes up my sleeves, but I thought I'd add one that I want to try over the holiday break.

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1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (1 1/4 pound) fresh pork tenderloin
kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
1/2 sweet onion, diced
1 Gala apple, cut into chunks
1/2 cup Riesling wine
1 cup apple jelly
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a baking dish large enough to hold the tenderloin without folding it.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and brown the pork tenderloin on all sides. Remove the browned tenderloin to the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle all sides of the meat with salt, pepper, and parsley.

Cook and stir the onion and apple in the same skillet over medium heat until the onion becomes soft, about 5 minutes, and pour in the Riesling wine. Scrape all the browned flavor bits off the bottom of the skillet and stir to help dissolve them into the wine. Bring to a boil, and pour the onion, apple, and wine mixture over the tenderloin.

Mix together the apple jelly and balsamic vinegar in a bowl until the mixture is smooth and without lumps. Spread the jelly mixture all over the pork.

Bake the loin in the preheated oven until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reads 160 degrees F, 30 to 45 minutes. Allow the tenderloin to rest for 10 minutes before slicing, and serve each slice with a spoonful of the apple-onion mixture.

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Honey-Lemon Thanksgiving Turkey

Since it's about time for Thanksgiving, I thought I'd share the turkey recipe that I plan to make for my family. I have made this recipe before, and it turns out to be just delicious!

The measurements listed here are arbitrary. I usually do not measure anything...just make sure you have enough juice/oil to cover the turkey each time you baste and enough honey to rub all over the turkey 3-4 times.

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The Turkey

Prep:
1 Butterball fresh whole turkey (pick size depending upon how many people you want to feed)
1 container honey
salt
sugar
ground black pepper
3/4 stick butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil or virgin olive oil
2 cups chicken stock
1 lemon (juice and zest)

Remove packaging and plastic bags containing neck and giblets. Wash turkey in sink, drain the turkey, and dry the cavity with paper towels. Stuff turkey if desired. Place turkey in large roasting pan. Tie back legs together and place tin foil over tip of wings.

Mix oil, melted butter, chicken stock, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, and 1 teaspoon sugar in small bowl by stirring. Brush mixture onto the skin of the entire turkey and pour rest of mixture into bottom of pan. Drizzle 1/3 cup of honey over the turkey, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and sugar, and place in oven at 375 heat. Here is a useful calculator for how long you should cook the turkey depending upon its size.

Along the course of the cooking time, remove the turkey 3-4 times to baste. Take in juice at bottom of pan and drizzle it over turkey until skin is re-soaked. Each time, drizzle 1/3 cup of honey over top and dust lightly with salt, sugar, and pepper. The sugar and honey will caramelize on the skin of the turkey and turn a dark brown.

If turkey browns too much, cover lightly with tin foil. If contents at bottom of pan begin to burn, add chicken stock or water accordingly.

Remove turkey from oven when done and baste with juices from bottom of pan one last time. Remove stuffing if you decided to stuff the turkey. Place turkey on platter and zest a lemon over top.
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Our 12 pound turkey that fed 6 people with plenty of leftovers. Meat was juicy and flavor was very good!