Football and Finger Food

For the Big 10 Championship game, I requested some hot wings. I told my husband that I wanted real wings! (Remember last time we had them, we used chicken tenderloins.)

I couldn't help myself and had to take a photo of his written recipe. I would also like to point out that it says, "wheat beer" but he substituted Redbridge which he soaked them in the night before.

This is what they looked like before he put them on the grill.

We tried a different BBQ sauce today, Organic Valley's Original BBQ Sauce. Plus, the recipe has some kick from Sriracha and Red Hot.

 Saucing up more on the grill.

Smoked with some wood chips.

Look at those wings!

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

I decided to contribute to the appetizer dinner with some potato skins. I followed this recipe pretty close and they turned out great. First, I baked potatoes.

Meanwhile, I used nitrate free bacon.

Cooked (in the microwave) and then chopped.

Grapeseed oil, parmesan cheese, salt, garlic powder, paprika, and pepper.

Cheddar cheese, bacon, and green onion chopped, ready for topping.

 Cut the potatoes in half, then hallowed out leaving some for the "skins."

I covered the skins in the grapeseed oil mixture and baked for 7 minutes on one side at 475 degrees.

Then 7 minutes on the other side to get them crispy.

Sprinkle cheese and bacon, then back in the oven for 2 minutes.

Finally I topped them with sour cream and green onions.

The work was totally worth the taste. And to be honest, they weren't that difficult, it just seemed like the baking took a lot of time.

Food Highlights from Turkey Day

I think I may finally be pumpkined out! Remember there were:

Pumpkin Waffles

Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Cider

And now introducing pumpkin custard...

The pumpkin custard was inspired by a recent trip to The Cove where we enjoyed some sweet potato custard. (To find out more about The Cove, look here.)

I decided to make my very own custard for Thanksgiving; I figured it would be similar to pumpkin pie without the crust. Crust isn't my favorite thing anyways, so why go through the trouble of making it GF. I followed this recipe, except I didn't make the topping. It seemed like it would be way too sweet with the topping. I also doubled the recipe to make enough to share. 

Here's the pumpkin, eggs, half and half, and brown sugar.

I used my Kitchen Aid mixer to simply mix all the ingredients together.

The most difficult part was filling the pan with water and deciding how much to use. The recipe called for about an inch of water, but I read somewhere else that the water should be as high as the custard. I hoped I didn't fill my custard cups too full. I also used glass Pyrex pans rather than a metal 9 x 13 inch pan to hold all the custard dishes.

Ready to go in the oven

Browned on the top and out it came! Again, since I didn't do the topping I kept the custard in the oven for the whole 50 minutes. It didn't taste as thick as The Cove's custard, but it still tasted delicious. It was yummy enough to eat one the night I made them, one the next day, the next, and the next....hence I am now pumpkined out!

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Wimberley, but still wanted to bring some food to share. Justin had been talking about a Turducken (turkey, duck, and chicken combined) for years. So this year he bought stuff to make a Turducken roll, which consisted of the meat from three breasts in the bird family. I told him to document the process, but as you can see in the picture below...a Turducken is a complicated recipe, especially since he also used three types of stuffing that were all GF by the way. This is what it looked like after all the layers. The next task was deciding how to wrap it all together.

 There were a few mishaps along the way....but nothing major.

Several different ingredients on a small counter.

And one hard worker

We decided to go with what we called "the taco method" and put both sides together. Then Justin proceeded to wrap the meet with several strings and we prayed it would stay together.

The next day, he smoked it on the grill. It stayed together rather well and tasted amazing! I think everyone was impressed. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the roll on my plate. I see more Turduckens in our future.

We enjoyed getting away for a few days. Iivana had a fun time in Wimberley as well. She loves to run around and had fun with her new friend. She spent time in the sand box and rolling around in mud.

More San-J Love

Cut up chicken into 1 inch pieces

We coated it in brown rice flour, I'm interested to try an all purpose GF flour.

Shake until it is fully covered.

The special sauce: San-J Orange Sauce

We don't have a deep fryer, so we used our wok to fry the chicken pieces.

Of course, Justin was doing the frying...I have absolutely no frying skills. He fried half the chicken at a time.

One sleepy dog, makes cooking much easier.

Warm orange sauce, then add fried chicken.

Warm until sauce thickens and bubbles.

 Add some sliced carrots and green onions

Serve over brown rice.

Garnish with more green onions and the deliciousness is ready to eat.

We had been on a hunt for the San-J orange sauce and finally found some this past weekend. Even though the chicken was fried, we had controlled portions and were able to enjoy some GF Chinese food. I would recommend the orange sauce, just like the peanut sauce.

Getting Mussels

I think soon Justin is going to have to start writing some entries on here because he does the majority of the cooking. Many times I'm his sous-chef, so I'm knowledgeable enough about the recipe to blog about it. On this occasion, I took no part in the cooking. But I can't not (double negative, I know) blog about mussels!

Here's the recipe:

Steamed Mussels with Chorizo, Smoked Gouda and Sage

(of course he subbed GF beer for the ale)

All the ingredients

Shaved fennel, onion, sage, and Spanish chorizo

Spanish chorizo

Onion and fennel

Redbridge and white wine

Live mussels! So freaky how they opened and closed.

I think the ones in the red bowl were ones you could use because they closed up when they were washed. The ones in the strainer had to be thrown out. This is why Justin should be writing this, to give more detailed explanations.

I couldn't believe I was going to eat these!

Ready to eat

So cheesy 

My first bite into a mussel and it got stuck in my teeth! Justin grabbed the camera and snapped this action shot. At first the texture was gummy-like, but I got past it. The Gouda cheesiness with the Spanish chorizo and butter gave it full rich flavor.

We ate all our mussels and I will definitely try them again.