Baked Wings

I made these baked wings, what seems like forever ago, when we had a Royals World Series watch party. They tasted just like ones we get at the bar and were a big hit! 

Ingredients
4 pounds chicken wings
2 tablespoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
Franks Wing Sauce

Directions: 

1. Adjust oven racks to upper middle and lower middle positions.
2. Heat the oven to 250 degrees.
3. Pat wings dry with a paper towel.
4. Place baking powder and salt in a large ziplock bag. Add chicken wings. Shake wings and make sure that they are evenly coated with baking powder and salt.
5. Cover a baking sheet with foil and set a wire rack in it. Spray it with vegetable oil spray.
6. Place chicken, skin side down, on a single layer on the wire rack.
7. Bake wings on lower middle rack for 30 minutes. Turn up the heat to 425 degrees, move it to the upper middle rack. Bake for 45-50 minutes, rotating the sheet half way through the baking to ensure through baking.
8. Take them out of the oven and let them sit for 5 minutes.
9. Place wings in a large bowl and add the hot sauce over it. Toss to coat.
10. Serve with ranch or bleu cheese dressing.

Adapted from Fool Proof Living

Strawberry Salsa

This recipe was a perfect way to use some Serrano peppers in my garden. As of July 19th, I have had over 65 Serranos from 2 plants! I also used herbs from my garden and freshly picked strawberries!

Strawberry & Serrano Pepper Salsa 

Ingredients

1 large carton of organic strawberries

2 large organic tomatoes

1 Serrano pepper (more if you like it hot)

1/8 cup cilantro, chopped

1/8 cup basil, chopped

5 mint leaves, finely chopped

1 tablespoon of honey 

1 teaspoon of sugar

1 tablespoon of limejuice

Splash of balsamic vinegar

Directions

1. Remove the stems from the strawberries and dice them.

2. Dice the pepper.

3. Cut the tomato in half and squeeze out the seeds. 

4. Dice the tomato slices. 

5. In a large bowl, add the diced strawberries, diced tomatoes, cilantro, basil, Serrano pepper, honey, sugar. Stir just enough to mix.

Serve with tortilla chips or as a bruschetta! 

Bacon Wrapped a Pineapple

This is a super easy appetizer! 

2 ingredients: BACON & PINEAPPLE

Cut the bacon in half, wrap in pineapple, place on cookie sheet lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 375* for 12-15 minutes, or until bacon is cooked. If you want it a little sweeter, sprinkle a little brown sugar on it before you pop it in the oven! 

Corn, Black Bean, & Avocado Salsa

I initially made this for a salad, but made it separate so I could put it on tacos later on. It is also great as just a dip! 

Ingredients:
1 cup corn, roasted
1 15-ounce canned beans, rinsed and drained well
1 avocado, diced
1 scallion, minced
1 tomato, diced

1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced

2 teaspoons chopped cilantro

1 teaspoon ground cumin

juice of one lime

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

To roast corn kernels, place corn kernels and 2 teaspoons olive oil in a cast iron pan. Cook on medium heat until corn turns light brown and caramelizes. Let corn cool.

Mix all ingredients together.

Chill before serving.

To easily dice avocados slice them and then scoop them out.

Let the corn chill, before adding to the mixture.

Hot Sweet Onion Dip

I hosted our staff holiday party. It was an easy party to throw together, because everyone brought an appetizer and their own drinks! This dip was the favorite of the night! Drue brought it, and said it was easy. I made it to take to a friends house, I agree it's EASY!

Ingredients: 
1 sweet onion, chopped
8 oz. Hellmann's Mayo (it has to be Hellmann's because the other stuff separates)
8oz shredded cheddar cheese

Directions: 
Mix together, and bake for 20 minutes at 350*. Serve with Fritos Scoops.

Just for fun a few pics of my house set up for the party and the invitation!

I used wrapping paper as the table runner! Thanks Erica for the idea!!

Bruschetta with Grape Tomatoes

My grape tomatoes are going crazy right now! I pick about 20 a day! That adds up! I made this quick and easy Bruschetta. 

Ingredients:

1 pint of grape tomatoes, halved 

2 cloves garlic, minced

16 basil leaves, chopped

2 T chopped red onion

2 T olive oil 

1 T balsamic vinegar

Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a pan and add minced garlic. Cook for 1-2 min, or until garlic is slightly golden. Let cool. 

Mix tomatoes, basil, salt, pepper, onion, and balsamic together. Add garlic once it has cooled. Allow to sit for at least 30 min before serving. 

Serve with toast or crackers. 

Bacon Wrapped Serrano Peppers

The Serrano peppers are going crazy in my garden. You can only make so much guacamole, so I did a little Pinterest search and found this 2 ingredient snack!

Cut the bacon in half, and wrap around the peppers.

Bacon & Serrano Peppers! 

We threw them on a skewer and threw it on the grill until the bacon was cooked.  They were yummy, but SPICY! 

This whole spread was the result of a neighborhood pot luck. We were all hungry, so we went to our fridges and brought back something. Pretty darn good! 

Sweet Chili Edamame

My friend Erin posted a picture on Instagram of yummy looking edamame.  I asked her for the recipe, because she is a great cook. Her response, I don't know its from a restaurant.  So I did some experimenting and came up with an EASY way to make it! 

Ingredients: 
edamame
Thai chili sauce
sea salt

Directions: 
Place frozen edamame in a microwaveable bowl, cover with plastic wrap.   Microwave for 2 minutes.  Drizzle Thai chili sauce over edamame and sprinkle with salt. Enjoy!

Funny story about edamame and a warning!  We were eating at Seasons 52 with Morgan's mother-in-law.  We ordered edamame because we were starving after a long drive to Atlanta.  I don't think she had ever eaten it before, because she ate the whole thing and had a sour face.  For those of you who don't eat edamame, you only eat the beans inside, not the whole thing.  She realized that we were only eating the beans, and quickly changed her ways!