Baked Wings, but not for a crowd

Sean and I love to eat wings, but we dread the dripping oil to make them.  I did a bit of research and found this recipe with over 500 positive reviews.  It's a bit of time, but not hands-on time.  I wouldn't recommend it for a crowd unless you have an industrious size oven to handle all the baking sheets.

The final product was very crunchy, not breaded nor greasy.  The best way to serve is absolutely naked...ok, maybe some salt and pepper!

From Foodnetwork.com:

Alton Brown's Buffalo Wings

• 12 whole chicken wings
• 3 ounces unsalted butter
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup hot sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1. Place a 6-quart saucepan with a steamer basket and 1-inch of water in the bottom, over high heat, cover and bring to a boil.

2. Place the wings into the steamer basket, cover, reduce the heat to medium and steam for 10 minutes. Remove the wings from the basket and carefully pat dry. Lay the wings out on a cooling rack set in a half sheet pan lined with paper towels and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.  I put  20 wings in all at one time.

3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

4. Replace the paper towels with parchment paper (or wax paper). Roast on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the wings over and cook another 20 minutes or until meat is cooked through and the skin is golden brown.  Watch this carefully, it depends on size of your wings.  If you let it go too long, you'll be waving at your smoke detector.

5. While the chicken is roasting, melt the butter in a small bowl along with the garlic. Pour this along with hot sauce and salt into a bowl large enough to hold all of the chicken and stir to combine.

6. Remove the wings from the oven and transfer to the bowl and toss with the sauce. Serve warm.

We made 20 wings at one time and 4 sauces/rubs.  The best sauce was not the one listed in the recipe.  It was actually a marinade from Safeway 'Soy Honey Garlic'.

Family Factor: Great!

Stomach Factor: depends on the sauce, naked are mild

Time Factor: long, but worth it

Lunch or a Good Side (with Wings or BBQ)

Ever since I have re-located offices, I find myself searching for a good lunch to take into work.  For me, it's just too much effort to get my car out of the garage to get a hot meal and the on-site cafe doesn't excite me one bit.  The microwaves got moved as well so now you have go down 5 floors to heat something up.  You wouldn't think that would be too bad, but when only 2 elevators work at one time (out of 5!), it takes too long.

So, I hunted for a good cold (yes, we have a refrig) lunch I could make to take into work.  I tried every sandwich and tossed salad I could think of with no luck on satisfying my appetite.  I finally found this recipe in a new cookbook Sean and I bought not too long ago.

From Comfort Food Cookbook

Veggie Macaroni Salad

2 C cooked macaroni (this cracks me up every time I see this....just add the hole box!)
1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
1 C frozen peas, thawed
1/2 C shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese
1/2 C chopped celery
1 hard cooked egg, chopped
2 green onions, sliced

Dressing:
3/4 C reduce fat mayo (I did a lot less)
1 C fat-free yogurt (couldn't do it, I used fat free sour cream and only 1/2 C)
2 T sugar
1 T prepared mustard (Dijon gives it a lot of flavor)
1/8 celery seed (or salt)

1. Cook the macaroni according to package directions; drain and rinse in cold water.
2. In a large bowl, combine macaroni, tomato, peas, cheese, celery, egg and onions.
3. In a small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients.  Pour over macaroni mixture and toss to coat.
4. Refrigerate until serving (at least 1 hour).

Family Factor: surprisingly good (they didn't know about the sour cream!)
Stomach Factor: mild, but onions make it a little strong
Time Factor: pretty quick