Last of the Dragon's Breath!

The new year rolls around and a new batch of wings is born.As we are about to leave the Dragon's year I thought some dragon's breath wings might be appropriate. Snacking on some kettle fried jalapeno tater ', chips a little while back I thought 'Hmmmm,could be a nice coating for some hot wings"! So, idea born and on new year's eve brought to fruition.
  The main idea here is to make wings to the heat of your liking so look in the pantry/fridge for condiments with the heat you desire. In this case we chose a commercial buffalo wing sauce, some habanero hot sauce, cholula hot sauce, alegro marinating sauce, sweet,spicy mango marinade and some pace medium picante sauce.

The frozen wing sections came in  a 4 pound zip closure bag so we used that for the marinating process...
  The night before you want wings, pour the above ingredients into the bag of chicken along with a cup of vinegar and whatever dry ingredients you think you can handle...chili powder, cajun seasoning, HABANERO powder etc...Let wings marinate overnite in cooler or fridge. Drain marinade into saucepan.
    Crush jalepeno tater chips, add a couple tsp corn starch and some hot chili powder (habanero for extra heat). Dredge wings in chips, place on lightly greased baking pan and place in 425 degree oven. After 10 minutes lower oven temp to 350, turn wings and resume cooking for another 15 minutes.  While chicken is cooking reduce marinade in sauce pan to make dipping sauce. Grab a bunch of napkins, a cold drink and eat 'em up! Happy New Year!

Shlappy Happy Holiday

A new favorite recipe I found from a NY Times article, and have tested and tweaked over the last couple of days.  In addition to the sharp ginger zip, this puppy packs  a "punch" and is as sweet or not as you like...

Desperation Chili

You are desperate for chili - a thick, rich, steamin' bowl but NOT Wolfbrand.  Alas, no time to prep Keefer Ranch beef and other additives to let simmer all day long.  Here is a 1 to 2 hour option.

 

1 lb coarse ground beef (chili grind)

1 lb ground buffalo (available at Walmart if you can believe it) or use 2 lbs of that chili grind

1 lb Jimmy Dean Regular pork sausage

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes (Hunts)

1 package of Williams Chili Seasoning

3 or 4 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped

1 c chopped onion

1/2 t habañero pepper powder (optional - more if you dare)

4 cups water with beef, chicken or tomato bouillon (add more or less to desired soupy-ness)

 

Get out that big chili pot

Saute onion in a little olive oil

Brown beef, buffalo, and sausage

Add chipotle, bouillon, habañero and chili seasoning mix

Simmer 1 to 2 hours, adjust liquid, skim fat, and serve with the following:

 

Grated cheddar cheese

Sour cream

Chopped avocados

Chopped onion

Fritos

 

Yummo

Rum Balls - For Medicinal Purposes

Step one
- buy RUM
- Bacardi 151

The original recipe is the Bourbon Ball recipe in the Joy of Cooking. If you use the cookbook version, the dough is always to dry.
So my rule of thumb is -
add more rum.

·2 T cocoa

· 1 c powdered sugar - sift cocoa and sugar together in a large bowl

· 1/4 to 1/2 c rum ( sometimes I add a little Triple Sec)

· 4 T light Karo - mix in 1 c measure (you may need more of the rum/Karo mixture if the dough is to dry)

· 2 1/2 c vanilla wafer crumbs - that's about 1 box vanilla wafers ground up in the food processor (the original recipe allows for ginger snaps as an option - might be good)

· 1 c chopped pecans

Add crumbs and nuts together with the cocoa and sugar in the large bowl. 

 Add liquid and mix.

If crumbly, make more rum/Karo mix and add a little at at time.

The dough should be a bit sticky since the cookie crumbs soak up liquid as they sit.

Form into bite sized balls and roll in granulated sugar

Store in air tight container until time to serve.

These are very strong - use regular rum if you want milder Rum Balls (a bit dull...)

Do not eat and drive.

Rock Hard Polish Babka - Still Tasty

Careening thru "how to prepare the perfect loaf" like a drunk Carny at the county fair on a Friday night, I parked my bumper car up against a page titled German Kugelhopf, but eventually staggered to the adjacent image of a frosted Polish Babka.  The above Seinfeld reference being the sum total of my cultural exposure to the Babka; sooo, with a quick tug from the vodka bottle, I grabbed my bread robot by the scruff of his neck and jumped back into action... (click below to see the recipe)

Tis The Season

What a fantastic bunch of recipes, and the pictures have my mouth watering like a salivating pavlovian pooch.  I can't wait to try several of these out!  This time of year I get a bit manic about cooking, so your blog is just the place for me to dwell while I have the time. Something about the baking process, and resulting smells help air out old memories of glorious holidays and great times of yore.  

My first shot across the Christmas bow started Friday night.  Gwen had brought back a library book, "Bread Machine" by Jennie Shapter.  I was more than a tad curious about how this book's secrets and my available time could combine into a bake fest extravaganza.  While flipping thru the gloriously oversized pictures of sweet and savory carbs,  I dusted off the mechanical bread robot, and while flipping thru, watched it from the corner of my eye as it stood at attention, appearing to await my any command. I finally landed on a recipe for Mixed Peel Braid, and I made do with what I had instead of what it called for.
(I've placed a jump break in, so click the blog title to view the recipe)

A Tale of Two Cookies

 
First, set some butter out to soften and pour a glass of tea.

Swedish Cardamom Cookies
2 sticks butter, softened
1 c brown sugar
1 T Karo syrup
1 egg yolk
2 t ground cinnamon
2 t ground cardammom
1 t baking powder
2 c flour


Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer or use a hand mixer; add egg yolk and Karo, mix well.
Mix dry ingredients; add to wet ingredients and mix well.
Form into 2 rolls; wrap in platic wrap and chill 1 hour (I make my roll 'squared' so my cut cookies don't look like flattened round cookies)
Slice 1/4 in slices; press into red sugar crystals and bake for 10-12 minutes.
Cook on wire rack; when cool, store in airtight container

 

Cherry Christmas Cookies
2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c sour cream
3 1/2 c flour
1 t ground nutmeg (fresh is best)
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
Candied cherries; cut in half reserved to top each cookie

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer; add eggs and sour cream; mix well.
Mix dry ingredients and add to wet mixture; mix completely.
Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet (I use a cookie dough scoop) or you can roll into smooth teaspoon sized balls (this makes more uniform and smooth cookies); top with half cherry.
Bake 12 minutes; remove from oven and cool on wire rack.  These cookies will look very pale - that's good; these cookies should not be browned or golden
Store in airtight container and share.