Baked Buffalo Wings for the Ute Home Opener

Thank GOD it's almost football season. I go through withdrawals around the beginning of July.  Then the training camps start up again.  The news from both the college and pro teams starts leaking into the media, which just gets me more and more exited for opening day.  

I live the life of a tortured fan.  My teams are the Seattle Seahawks and the University of Utah Utes.  So you can see why my life has been rough over the past few years.  In both cases, so close to winning it all, yet so far away. 

I had to live through the injustice of the Seahawks' Super Bowl.  A game where it really seemed like the refs were against them.  Turns out they were!!!  One of the referees personally apologized for the blown calls he made in the 2006 Super Bowl (you can read the article here).  And since that epic letdown, the team just hasn't been the same.

Being a Ute fan has been a tortured existence for the past 8 years.  Two undefeated seasons and no National Championship.  Sure, the Utes went to two BCS bowls, the first to do that from outside a BCS conference, but neither were the championship games.  We blew away Pitt in the 2004 Fiesta Bowl.  After a lot of disrespect from Nick Saban in 2008, we made him and his team cry in the 2008 Sugar Bowl.  Yet we still don't have a crystal football.  Why?  Well I could go into the absolutely absurdity of the BCS system and the corruptness of the people who ran it, but that would exceed the one million word Blogger posting limit...  At least we're in a BCS level conference now and the new four-team playoff system gives us a greater chance of winning it all.  Here's hoping Kyle Wittingham and the boys have another stellar season.

My father's team is the Denver Broncos, so they're my second favorite team.  I'm hoping that Payton Manning still has a couple more years in that neck of his for his sake.

No matter who I'm rooting for, the other part of football season I love is the food.  No utencils required.  It's all great finger food with lots of fat.  Yes, it's not healthy, but you aren't looking for soy chips and tofu when you're watching a great game.  You want something flavorful and substantial.

So what I'll do is either cook up a pizza, make a pot of chili, or make a batch of these chicken wings.  I love fried wings as much as the next guy, but I bake my wings for this recipe.  If there's a game on, I don't have time to stand over the fryer and ensure the kitchen doesn't catch on fire.  The skin comes out a little crispy and still holds onto the extra sauce we add at the end.

You can make these ahead of time if you want and time them to come out as the games start.  Or since it's 11:00AM in the Mountain Time Zone when the first games kick off, I'm not exactly ready to eat them that early.  Starting the process right before kickoff allows me to do the prep during pre-game.  Then I pop them in the fridge when the game starts (and snack on chips and salsa while I wait), then into the oven at the end of the first quarter, so I have them hot and ready to toss at halftime.

You can double up the batch below for a large party, just make sure you have room in the oven.  Also, if you double up the batch, make sure you rotate the pans halfway through and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes.  Make sure you take the temp of the fattest wing with your digital thermometer, just to avoid any unwanted trips to the restroom right after the final 2:00 warning.

Easy Baked Buffalo Wings

Wings
12 full chicken wings or 24 chicken wing parts
4 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon paprika

Sauce
3/4 cup Frank's Hot Sauce
3 tablespoons melted butter

Cover a pair of large cookie sheet with sides (no perfectly flat cookie sheets or your juices will spill in the oven) with tin foil and set cookie cooling rack on them.  Spray them with non-stick spray to prevent sticking later.  Set it aside for the moment.

In a very large bowl, melt the 4 tablespoons of butter.  Then add the cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika and stir well.  Dredge each of the wings through the butter and allow the excess to drip off, then place them on the cookie sheets.  Place the cookie sheets in the refrigerator for 45 minutes.  With about 10 minutes left in the cool-off period, preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

 Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.  Then pull them out, flip them all over once and then cook for another 25-30 minutes until the skin gets crispy.

Melt the 3 tablespoons of butter and pour it into a very large bowl.  Add the hot sauce and stir to combine.  Then extract the wings from the oven and immediately place them in the bowl with the sauce.  Stir or toss the wings until they are thoroughly coated.  Move them to a serving platter and see how long they last.

Zucchini Bread and Zucchini Cake made from those zucchini canoes in your backyard

OK, so it seems our Zucchini Parmesan recipe was REALLY popular.  Looks like many of you have an overload of squash in your backyards.

So let me give you all my favorite Zucchini Bread and Zucchini Cake recipe.  It's what I grew up eating, since we always had a few plants in the garden.  You leave them alone for three days and you have zucchinis the size of baseball bats.

My mom would make TONS of bread and cake and then try to hand out the rest, but since most everyone else had their own plants, she couldn't find homes for most.  You want a new horror movie, ignore Attach of the Killer Tomatoes, go with Attack of the 50 Foot Zucchini.

Anyway, this recipe is great.  Either creation comes out moist, tender and slightly crunchy on the outer crust. The excess can be frozen for up to 3 months, so you can enjoy it after the plants have wilted under the holiday snow.

And the cream cheese frosting you can use with the cake is to die for.  You owe yourself to make this at least once in your life.

Zucchini Bread and Zucchini Cake

1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup oil
3 eggs
2 cups grated zucchini
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Beat the sugars, oil and eggs until they're foamy. Add the zucchini and vanilla and mix until combined. In a separate bowl, add the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon and stir until combined. SLOWLY add the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until all of it is incorporated. Add the chocolate chips and the nuts (if you want) and just stir until they're evenly distributed.

If you want the cake, pour all of the mixture into a greased and floured 13x9 pan and bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes. If you want bread, evenly distribute the batter between two greased and floured bread pans and cook at 325 degrees for 70 minutes.

Cream Cheese frosting for the cake....

2 3 ounce packages of cream cheese - softened
1/2 cup butter - softened
2+ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat the cream cheese and butter until it's fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar until it's the consistency you want. Add the vanilla and mix for another 20 seconds. Then slather all over the cake. Sprinkle nuts over the top if you want.

Try it out, let me know what you think

Double, Triple or Quadruple Berry Pie

You know, this IS called the That Means We Get Pie blog.  You'd think I'd be posting more pie recipes.  Well, that will be rectified today.  Because this is the perfect time of year to make a great berry pie!

A ton of different berries are in season and are criminally cheap right now.  We're lucky to have over a dozen farmer's markets within driving distance this time of year so we can get almost any type of berry we want.  Also, we can take a day trip up to Brigham City's famous Fruit Row and find almost any type of fresh fruit we'd ever need.

But even without farmer's markets around, you can find great deals at the local grocery store... and even the warehouse stores.  Strawberries are extremely cheap at Costco and they'll occasionally have raspberries and blackberries on sale at ridiculous prices.  Buy a bunch of whatever you like and build a pie of your own.

But let's say you're reading this and it's the dead of winter.  In many cases, frozen berries will work almost as well.  Especially when you're making a berry pie like this.  Just watch for the sales and buy some large bags.  Two extremely good buys are the the triple berry mix at Costco and the frozen fruit at Winco, which is what we use to make our Mango Peach Berry and Triple Berry Smoothies as well.

But enough about money, let's focus on the pie.

The assembly is simpler than you'd think.  You can use any combination of berries you want, but I like using equal parts of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.  If you only have access to two or three, that fine.  Use any combination that equals 5-6 cups.  And to top off the pie, make some Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream and drop a dollop on top of a slice after placing it in the microwave for 30+ seconds.

Double, Triple, or Quadruple Berry Pie

Two uncooked pie crusts
1 1/2 cups raspberries
1 1/2 cups blackberries
1 1/2 cups blueberries
1 1/2 cups strawberries
juice from one lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch or tapioca flour


If using fresh fruit, wash all of the berries.  Slice your strawberries into quarters.  Pour all of the berries into a large mixing bowl.  Add the lemon juice and stir to coat.  Next, add the sugar and mix it in thoroughly. Shake the cornstarch over the top of the berry mixture, then stir it up one last time.  Allow the mixture to sit while we prep the crust.

Roll out one of the crusts so it overlaps the outside edges of a 9 inch pie plate by about 1/2 inch.   Lay it in the plate and roll out the second crust.  Using a pastry cutter or a knife, cut it into long strips so we can create a lattice on top of the pie.

Preheat your oven to to 375 degrees.

Now let's create a lattice effect across the pie.  Lay the strips across the pie in one direction, then pull back every other strip.  Lay a new strip across the pie in the opposite direction.   Now lay the strips you pulled back onto the pie and pull back the others.  Lay another in the opposite direction.  Repeat this process until you've worked your way across the pie.

Fold those overhanging edges back over the ends of the strips you've just laid down and crimp the edges to make it look pretty.

Place the pie in the oven for 45-50 minutes.  Remove it when the crust is golden brown and smells to die for.

Let it sit on the counter for at least three hours, because it needs to cool to room temperature and set.  Go into another room, chain yourself to the bed, vacate the house if necessary, just DON'T cut into the pie until the waiting time is up.  Because if you cut into it too soon, you'll have a berry soup.  After the three longest hours of your life, cut and serve with whipping cream.  Or better yet, nuke in the microwave for 30-60 seconds and plop a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream on top.  Give it 2 minutes to slightly melt into the pie crevasses and blend into a heavenly dessert.

So whenever you have access to a slew of fresh or frozen berries, make one of these pies and enjoy a summer treat.

Zucchini... or Eggplant Parmesan

Normally, I have a rather large garden in the backyard.  We'll harvest all sorts of squash for grilling, small cucumbers for homemade kosher dill pickles, fresh beans for some great side dishes, and a bunch of different fresh herbs for the spaghetti sauces.   This year, well, the garden crashed and burned.  More like "consumed and burned" thanks to the combination of a vole infestation from the neighboring construction lots and a very hot summer that scorched anything green.  Even my lawn is suffering.

Luckily, it's also the time of year where canoe sized zucchinis start anonymously showing up on our doorstep like Dickensian orphans.  Just the other day, my parents dropped off a 15 inch monster of a zucchini.  Now, we all have a great zucchini bread recipe.  And I've tried all sorts of grilling and deep frying variations.  Few things are quite as good as a fried zucchini stick dipped in a homemade ranch dressing.

But I was cooking up a batch of spaghetti that night and thought, "why not make a version of Eggplant Parmesan, but use the zucchini instead?"  This zucchini was almost as fat as an average eggplant.  The meat inside both are rather firm.  And if I broke out my mandolin, I could slice them to that uniform width to make them fry evenly.   This worked just perfectly.  The flavorful and slightly salty Parmesan coating worked extremely well with the tender and moist zucchini to make the perfect main course.

And this dish is even a vegetarian dish!  Yes, the lifelong carnivore has created a veggie meal.  Yes, it's not vegan because of the milk and egg wash, don't send me letters.  But it is a great substitution for meat.  You won't miss it when these medallions are drizzled with the marinara sauce.

One tool I would highly recommend you purchase to make this and a number of other dishes easier to prepare is a mandoline.  Not the instrument, the kitchen tool.  This is a plane with different blades that are either be inserted or adjusted within it tool.  You slide your food down the plane and the blade cuts them to identical, uniform widths.  Some have julienne blades as well, so you can produce perfect little strips of carrots for egg rolls, potato lengths for the perfect french fries or tomato, radish or cucumber bits for your favorite salad.  Yes, you could spend $100's of dollars for one, but you DO NOT need to.  I bought a Sharper Image brand mandoline at Bed Bath and Beyond for all of $20.  It does 1/8, 1/4, and 3/8 slices, and 1/8 or 3/8 juliennes.  For most of your basic recipes, that's all you'll ever need.  If you are looking for something a little fancier, you can find a number of other mandolines that are both very functional and economically viable in my Amazon Store.

One last bit of advice when using a mandoline... use the hand guard whenever possible.  It's there for a reason.  The blade in the mandolin are VERY sharp so it can cut through anything, including your fingertips.  I cut my hand preparing food for the first time in a decade because I thought, "Hey, I can freehand this so I can get that last little slice of potato."  Yeah.. not a good idea to freehand...  I freed a little part of my fingertip from my hand in the process.  So when you're using a mandoline, do one of two things.  Either use the hand guard that's supplied with the mandoline, or spend $10 for a Kevlar cooking glove.  It's Kevlar weave protects your hand from an errant slice while dicing vegetables, or from your own stupidity if you decide to freehand on a mandoline.

Zucchini... or Eggplant Parmesan

One batch of the Quick and Easy Marinara sauce
2 large zucchinis or eggplants, enough to produce 20-24 rounds
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1 tablespoon basil
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
Light or extra virgin olive oil, your choice


Mix up your marinara sauce and let it simmer while you work on the rest of the dish.

If you're using eggplant, peel off the outer skin.  With Zucchini, you can leave the skin on.  Slice the veggies into 3/8 inch rounds.  Mix the eggs and milk together in a bowl.  Pour the bread crumbs and all the spices into a large ziploc bag.

Dip the slices into the egg wash and then drop it into the bread crumbs and shake to coat.  Dip it back into the egg wash and back into the breadcrumbs for a second coating.  Lay the dipped slices on a cookie cooling rack while you coat the rest.

Place a large skillet over medium high heat and pour just enough olive oil into the pan to cover the bottom.  When the oil has heated up to around 300-325 degrees (should only take 2-3 minutes), place the rounds into the oil and allow them to brown for 1 1/2-2 minutes on one side.  Then flip them over and cook them for another 1 1/2-2 minutes.  Remove them from the oil and allow them to rest on another cooling rack with paper towels beneath to catch the excess oil.  Add a little more oil back into pan so the bottom is barely covered and bring the oil up to the proper heat again.  Repeat until all the rounds are fried.  Serve beside or on top of your favorite pasta with marinara sauce and grated Parmesan cheese on top.

So the next time a zucchini boat is delivered to your front door, turn it into a delicious Italian meal for the entire family.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza... prepared on the barbecue grill

We have prepared Barbecue Chicken Pizza before, when I told you about my uber-cool friend Michele (by the way, Happy Birthday, Michele!)  But since it's called barbecue chicken pizza, why don't we try it on the barbecue.

We first tried grilling pizza with the Sausage and Pepper Pizza.  The process is exactly the same. (read all the details on the assembly and science behind the cooking process here). We'll create a thin crust, grill all of the ingredients, cook one side of the crust, cover the cooked side with toppings, then place it back ont he grill for the last couple minutes.

Now I have listed jalapeno peppers here and I know some of you have an aversion to heat.  There are ways to decrease the pepper's firepower so it won't burn your sinuses out.  The first thing to do is to take the top of the pepper and take the center nodule out, the location of the seeds.  The majority of the capcaicin is in the seeds, so cleaning them out will help.  Also, if you cut the pepper in half and then slice out any white membrane in the middle, you'll reduce the heat significantly.

You can use any kind of barbecue sauce you want, including our recipe, which you can see here.  The key to all of it is grilling all the ingredients beforehand and making sure the cheese is not freshly out of the refrigerator.  Cold cheese won't melt well in the short time on the grill, so make sure it'shad some time to warm up.  And if you're a cheese fan, remember that a large layer of cheese won't have time to melt while the second side is cooking.  Put on enough as an accent and that's it, unless you have a creme brulee torch.  In that case, well, you could blast it over the pizza after it's off the grill to melt a thin layer of cheese into one solid mass of cheesy goodness.  Your choice. 

Barbecue Chicken Pizza Grilled on the Barbecue

Makes 3 9-10 thin-crust pizzas
1 pizza crust recipe, separated into three dough balls
3-4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 medium red onion
2 jalapeno peppers (optional)
1 1/2 cup barbecue sauce (our recipe or your bottle, you choose)
1 1/2 cup room temperature shredded monterey jack cheese

Fire up your grill and place it on medium heat.  Slice the onion into quarters, then peel each layer apart and lance them on skewers.  Stab the peppers with skewers as well.  Once the grill is up to temperature, place the chicken breasts, onions and peppers on the grill and barbecue them until they're thoroughly cooked.  

Once cooking is complete, remove all of the food.  Slice the chicken breasts into small strips.  Slide the onions off the skewer and chop them down to the desired size.  Top the jalepeno pepper and remove the internal membranes and seeds (if you want to remove some heat).  Slice the pepper into rings.  Set everything aside for the time being. Clean your grill slats. Crank up the grill to high and allow it to get as hot as possible with the lid down.

Stretch your pizza crust out into 9-10 inch, thin style rounds.  Brush a light coating of olive oil onto both sides of the crusts. Move them to plates when they're ready to cook.  Grab a pair of spatulas or a pizza peel (if you have it), and bring all the ingredients out to the grill.

Drop the heat of the grill to medium.  Open the grill and quickly rub the grill surface with a vegetable or olive oil soaked cloth held by a pair of tongs.  Place the crust on the prepared area and immediately close the lid. Check on the crust in 2 minutes. 

Open the lid and using your peel or cookie sheet, flip the crust back onto the plate you used to transport the crust.  Pour your barbecue sauce onto the crust and lay out the chicken, onions and peppers.  Sprinkle the cheese over the top, place the pizza back on the grill grates and close the lid again.  Allow it to cook for 2 more minutes.  

Remove the pizza using the peel or spatulas and move onto the next pizza.  Repeat until all of the crust are grilled, then slice up the pizzas and serve immediately.

So the next time you crave Barbecue Chicken Pizza, actually cook it on the barebcue for a great unique flavor.

Sausage and Pepper Pizza.... Prepared on the barbecue grill

Homemade pizza is a wonderful thing to make. You have complete control over the way it's created.  But for a long time, I relegated my cooking options to the oven.  I mean, where else are you going to find a large enclosed box with enough heat to bake that crust.

Well, you have that large propane or charcoal box in the back yard.  Yes, your backyard grill can be the perfect place to construct some of the best pizza you'll ever had. 

I love this pizza because it has a smoky flavor and an absolutely unique texture.  The crust is crisp and slightly charred on the outside, but tender and chewy on the inside.  It's reminiscent of the authentic brick oven pizza parlor pies, something that just can't be matched with your standard home oven.

Now there are some differences in cooking the pizza on the grill than in your oven.  First, your crust needs to be a regular or thin crust.  The thinner the crust, the crispier the pizza.  Pan crust thicknesses just don't work that well.  The heat involved will cook the outer crust quickly, but the interior of the pan crust will still be doughy.

Why?  Well the way the heat effects the crust on a grill is much different than the oven.  We're dealing with temperatures that are much hotter than the 350-400 degrees we see in your oven, but there some science in play here as well.  We're getting both a convection and conduction effect on the crust.  Conduction is the travel of heat or cold directly from one surface to another.  Since this crust is sitting on the grates of the grill and they've been heated to extreme temperatures, that heat is transferred directly to the crust much faster than air would transfer heat in your oven.  And you'll get a little bit of charring as well, which will add some flavor to the crust.

Convection is the process of moving water or air transferring its heat or cold from itself to another item.  For example, your hair dryer uses the hot air traveling at a high velocity to wick away the moisture much faster than just sitting in air at the same temperature.  And if you've ever placed your toes in a cold running creek, you know that water feels colder than the same stagnant water.  The molecules running by your skin literally pull the heat out of your body.  Same thing happens here.  That air circulating from the flames cooks the crust much faster than the stagnant air of your oven.  This crust will be fully cooked in FOUR minutes, instead of the standard 15-20 you'll see in the oven.  So make sure your crust isn't too thick.

Second, the toppings and crust are the stars of this type of pizza. In preparation to build the pizza, you should pre-cook any toppings that need a little roasting.  I decided to make this sausage and pepper pizza, along with a barbecue chicken pizza, so I threw everything on the grill first. 

Larger pieces of food can be placed directly on the grill, but if you're working with smaller bits, like small peppers, mushrooms, pineapple, etc., it's best to skewer them to prevent them from sliding through the grill grates.  When everything is cooked, slice and prepare them before putting the crust on the grill.  The clock is ticking when you start cooking the crust, so the more you do ahead of time, the easier the cooking will be.

Third, the cheese on this pizza is an accent, not a main component.  Why?  Well you can only have the cheese on the pizza for about 2 minutes of the total cooking time.  In that period of time, a light layer of cheese will melt and wrap around the ingredients.  Too thick of a layer will have a melted top, but a solid underside, which just doesn't taste that good.  You could use a creme brulee torch to help melt it all, and by all means use it if you want, but I've found less cheese is better.  The lack of cheese can be compensated by using something beyond just mozzarella.  Try adding some Parmesan or asiago cheese to give the pizza more flavor.

For best results, you want to make sure the entire crust is covered with a thin layer of olive oil.  This will prevent your crust from sticking to the grates, and the oil will conduct more heat to the crust, giving it that crispy texture.  Also, make sure your grill is CLEAN.   Scour the grates with a wire brush before firing it up and wipe them down with a towel.  Remember, anything that's on the grates will make it's way onto the pizza, and you don't want any "extra" toppings.
 

Sausage and Pepper Pizza Grilled on the Barbecue

Makes 3 9-10 inch pizzas

1 Pizza crust recipe
1 1/2 cup pizza sauce or marinara sauce
Three 1/4-pound Italian sausage links (hot or mild, either is great)
1 green pepper
1 red pepper 
1 yellow pepper
1/2 medium onion
8 mushrooms (optional)
1 1/2 cups room temperature mozzarella cheese

Slice your peppers down the corner edges so you have four large slabs that will sit flat on the barbecue grill.  Slice your onion in quarters and keep the larger pieces, then place them on a skewer.  Skewer your mushrooms as well.  Ignite the barbecue and grill the sausages, peppers, onions, and mushrooms until they are thoroughly cooked.  Once they're cooked, slice them into the desired size pieces and set them within reach for later.  Crank your grill up to high so the box gets nice and warm while you prepare your crusts.

Stretch your pizza crust out into 9-10 inch, thin style rounds.  Brush a light coating of olive oil onto both sides of the crusts. Move them to plates when they're ready to cook.  Grab a pair of spatulas or a pizza peel (if you have it), and bring all the ingredients out to the grill. 

Lube up the grill grates with some olive oil on a towel. Use the spatulas or peel to place the first crust on the grill and close the lid.  Wait 2 minutes and then open the grill again.  Use the spatulas or peel to flip the crust off the grill and back onto the plate, cooked side up.  Cover the crust with sauce, toppings and cheese, then place it back on the grill.  Close the grill again for 2 more minutes.  After the time has expired, take the pizza off the grill and move onto the next pizza.  Continue until all of them are cooked, then serve to the masses while still hot.

So try a different way to make pizza tonight and use your grill in a way you never considered before.

Search the Recipe Archive!!

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Riesling Italian Chicken Breasts

There are very few things as satisfying than a slightly chilled glass of wine after a VERY long day.   Be it hours in the garden, dealing with that one co-worker that everyone wonders when they are going to fire, or just chasing three kids with an unlimited amount of energy, that glass can help all the stress melt away.  Liz and I have our favorite wine, the Chateau Ste Michele Riesling.  It's a perfect blend of sweetness and dryness, with all sorts of body.  Don't ask me about the undertones or hints of other flavors.  I may have an adventurous palette, but it's not that pretentious.  I  just know we love the taste of it and the way it makes the two of us feel afterwards, if you know what I mean.  Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more...

What I love to do is to sacrifice one glass worth of this nectar of the gods and cook with it.  The cardinal rule of cooking with wine: If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it.  So instead of using that awful "cooking" wine from the store, use some good stuff.  Don't use that "It's a lot cheaper" excuse with me!  Let's price-check.  A bottle of "cooking" wine is around $4.29 for 12 ounces. A 24 ounce bottle of the Chateau Ste Michele Riesling is $8.99 in Utah, the state with the highest alcohol tax in the nation.  So when you compare equal amounts of wine, the difference is 40 cents.  You still want the "cooking" wine?  Go ahead, I DARE you to drink a full glass the cooking wine.  Just pick up a bottle of the good stuff instead.

I like how this wine tastes with a lighter meat, like chicken breasts, especially during the summer on the barbecue.  But here's the problem with chicken breasts on the barbecue.  They tend to dry out... quickly.  There's a ton of dry high heat in there and breasts can shrivel like a worm on an August Arizona sidewalk.  So we need to push as much liquid into the meat as we can to maintain its moisture.  The best way I've found to do it is to do a brine/marinade.  We've brined our Thanksgiving turkey and we've marinaded lots of things from flank steak to fajitas.  In this case, we're creating a soaking material that's a marriage of the two techniques and adding all sorts of additional flavors as well.

I'm a sucker for the Italian flavors, so this recipe uses some classic Italian herbs and a light olive oil. An alcoholic beverage marinade works well when some oil is mixed in.  My philosophy on why it works is that every flavor breaks down and is enhanced when they are soaked in one of three liquids; water, fat or alcohol.  Therefore, since we have all three here when we use wine and a light olive oil, everything gets a boost.  Also, I'm adding some extra salt into the mix.  Why?  Well, we want the marinade to act like a brine and force the meat to soak up more liquid.  Think back to your science class... remember Osmosis? 

Osmosis is "the net movement of solvent molecules through a partially permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, in order to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides."  In other words, if you soak meat in a salt water solution, it will naturally soak that salt water through the outer wall into the meat and into the tissue (along with the other flavors too).  That way, when you cook the breasts, they'll only lose the excess water you've forced into it.  The natural moisture will stay inside and keep them nice and juicy.

Riesling Italian Chicken Breasts

Serves 4-6, 1 breast for each person

4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup Riesling wine
1/4 cup olive oil (your choice of type)
2 teaspoons basil
1 teaspoon oregano
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine the wine, oil, basil, oregano, garlic, salt and red pepper flakes into a gallon ziploc bag.  Seal and shake or squish the bag to mix the ingredients.  Reopen the bag and add the chicken.  Seal again and squish the chicken around, making sure each breast is coated with the marinade.  Place the bag into another ziploc bag or a baking dish and place back in the fridge for at least 4 hours, all day or even overnight is better.

When ready, fire up the grill to medium heat.  If you don't have a barbecue, a large skillet over medium heat will work all right.  Add the chicken and cook until the internal temperature reading on your digital thermometer reaches 165 degrees. Allow the breasts to rest for 5 minutes before serving.  I suggest slicing them widthwise and fanning the pieces out over rice or linguine pasta.

Blueberry Muffins at Bargain Prices

Five dollars for a 2 pound carton of blueberries...  That's the bargain I found at the local grocery store.  That's pretty much the lowest I've ever seen, so we had to grab a carton and bring it home.

My oldest had never tried a raw blueberry, so we washed one and handed it for him to try.  Yeah... there's a big difference in a cooked and raw berry to the kindergartener's palette.  So for the whole family to enjoy it, we had to use them in a number of dishes.  First option, we added them to the smoothies we're been making.    Second, I froze a few cups so I could make one of our Superberry Pies, for which the recipe will be posted in the next few days.  You'll have better results freezing berries if you wash them, then lay them out flat in single layers on cookie sheets or in ziploc bags so they don't stick together.  Once they're frozen, place them in those ziplocs and store them anywhere you want.  Third, we crushed a few, added a few whole berries and poured them over ice cream. You could make ice cream using the blueberries, just know that they will most likely break if you place them in whole.  It's probably best to crush half of them and add them at the beginning of the churning process, then add any whole berries at the end.  Some may survive, but there are no guarantees.

But after all that, we still had about a cup of them left.  So I threw together a batch of blueberry muffins.  The recipe is pretty simple and since we're using fresh whole blueberries, a few will pop and ooze blueberry juice all over the place.  It makes them look great and taste even better.  

When making any type of muffin, there are some specific rules that must be followed for the best outcome.

1.  Mix the dry and wet ingredients in different bowls - Mixing them all together at once will turn the batter will cause everything to congeal into a mass more like a roll than a light airy muffin. 

2.  When you add the wet to dry, stir no more than 30 times - The key to a light muffin is not over mixing them.  It's OK to have some lumps, even a few small dry areas.  The more you stir, the more it becomes like bread.  Overworking a flour dough creates more and more gluten, the protein that makes good pizza dough chewy and french breach crunchy on the outside.  That's the last texture you want for your muffin.  So stir it enough to combine, but not enough to beat it together.

3. GENTLY fold in the fruit - Especially with blueberries, delicate fruit has a tendency to pop.  The juices will spill into the batter and color it.  So unless you want a baby blue batter, gently fold the batter just enough so the berries are mixed in, probably about 10 strokes.

This recipe does include a strussel topping, which is completely optional.  I think it makes them look better, but some people don't like it.  So use it if you'd like.  Also, they will keep in a ziploc bag for a few days, so you can make some on Sunday morning, then have a great breakfast to go for the next couple of days... if they make it past Sunday morning. 

Blueberry Muffins

Makes 9 regular sized muffins

Muffins
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup whole blueberries

Strussel topping (optional)
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Clean and strain your blueberries.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in one bowl and mix.  In another bowl, add the milk, oil and egg.  Beat it together for a few seconds until it's loosely blended together.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir it about 30 times, no more.  Add the all but about 15-20 blueberries into the mix and just fold them into the batter, careful to not rough the berries, keep them intact.

Line the cupcake tin with cupcake papers.  Add enough batter into the cups to almost fill them.  Decoratively place the blueberries you held in reserve on top of the muffins.

If you want the strussel, add the sugars and the flour to a bowl and mix.  Cube up the butter, add it to the mix and break it up with your fingers like you would a pie crust.  Coat it in the mixture, then press the butter into small bits.  Keep doing it until the whole mixture is the consistency of cornmeal.

Sprinkle the strussel on top of the muffins.  Place the muffins in the oven for 20-25 minutes until they look the way you want.

Remove and serve with lots of butter.

So make a batch of these muffins and enjoy some great muffins for breakfast.  Make two batches if you can, one for the morning and then rest for other days. 

Save Some Serious Money on Your Spices

Save Some Serious Money on Your Spices

Cooking spices have some powerful mojo.  They're one of the reasons Columbus and all of the other explorers were looking for a shortcut to the Orient.  Wars have been fought over access to them.  Spice trade routes from Europe to Asia were guarded by hundreds of soldiers to ensure the continual flow of spice.  To manipulate a quote from Dune, "Spice must flow".  People have paid small fortunes through the years so they could punch up their bland diets.

And even today, ounce for ounce, they're still extremely expensive if you buy the little bottles in the cooking aisle of your grocery store.  Go to your kitchen cabinet right now and pull out a bottle of cinnamon.  Check the net weight on the front label.  Mine says 2.25 ounces.  And how much did you pay for it?  I think I paid around $5.00 for mine.  Now, do a little math and you'll see that when you buy it in the pre-packaged containers, you're paying the steep price of $35.00 per pound.  You can buy a lobster and a dry aged steak for that price!

And seriously, what are you paying for?  That little shaker bottle and the packaging.  Actual spice prices are cheaper than they've ever been, since long exploratory maritime voyages are no longer necessary.  But the spice cartels are still in place, forcing you to buy prepackaged miniscule amounts for large sums of money.  It doesn't make sense to pay and arm and a leg for spices, since you can get shovelfuls of spices for the same price as a small McCormick's container... if you know where to go.

Now before you buy your spices, you need something to put them in.  Your containers need to be airtight and allow for easy access either through scooping, pouring or shaking.  What I use are these little spice bottles.  The top screws on and off easily, so I can fill them quickly.  One side allows me to shake out just the amount I need, while the other side lets me pour out enough to fill my measuring spoons, or just dump a good deal into the target sauce.   I'll apply a basic label that you'd find at any office supply store and cover it with clear scotch tape to prevent fading.  The best part: they're very economical, a little more than a dollar a piece. Considering the $5.00 you're spending for the cheap plastic bottles that you've been throwing away when the spices are gone, they're great for your wallet and the environment.

There are other options as well.  I've seen people employ a tin system.  They'll pour all the spices into the tins and then either scoop or pinch out just the amount you need.  I've even seen people mount strips of magnetic material in their cabinets so they can have the spices stick to the inside of the door.  Very clever and efficient.  Personally, I like the convenience of the shaker bottles, but these are a completely viable option.

Now, if you're going to be buying any spice, it's better to buy it in bulk.  And a number of grocery stores allow you to do this in either their organic or bulk section.   I will pick mine up and the local Winco Foods, but you can go to any grocery store and do a little searching.  They have a nice variety (pretty much everything I've ever used) and store them all in airtight containers.  This is vital.  The longer the spice is stored in the open air, the less potent they will be. So when you scoop the spices into the bag, make sure you seal them as soon as possible.  When you get home, fill your spice containers and transfer the leftover amounts to labelled ziploc bags.  Store them in your pantry or your storage room downstairs (if you have one).  Make sure to add the spice to your grocery list when your ziploc is empty, not when you empty the container for the last time.  Nothing's worse than running out in the middle of a recipe, which usually means a quick trip to the store, purchasing a small bottle in a pinch and stuffing money into the spice cartel's pocket.


How much can you save buying spices in bulk?  Well, cinnamon at Winco is $4.29... a pound!  That's $31.00 cheaper than a pound of the spice in the little bottles.  True, no one uses a pound of cinnamon at a time, unless you and 75 of your closest friends are trying the Cinnamon Challenge at once (just don't do it..., trust me, it's not worth it).  But if you buy the same amount that's in those prepackaged bottles, 2.25 ounces, that will set you back all of 60 cents.  That's a savings of $4.40.  Let's say you want to make a pumpkin pie and you don't have any cinnamon, nutmeg or cloves.  You could spend $13.00 for the three bottles of spices, or you could by the same amount in the bulk section for $1.85.  It's your choice...

Now there's even a cheaper way to purchase a LARGE amount of spices.  There are a number of companies online offering to sell you spices at discount prices.   I've purchased through the San Francisco Herb Company and have been pleasantly surprised with the results.  The prices are great!  For example, cinnamon is $2.90 a pound.  But beyond that, they have all sorts of other cooking goodies as well, such as teas, botanicals, dried vegetables, scneted oils and even extracts for extremely good prices.  Extracts are notoriously expensive, but the prices here are very reasonable.  And every spice I received from them was high quality and flavored every dish perfectly.


I know you don't want to do buy a pound of cinnamon, because it may take a year or more to use.  But, you can do what I did...  My whole family got together, listed all of the items that they wanted, placed one large combined order and split the cost and spices when they arrived.  I spent $20, the cost of four of those prepackaged bottles at the grocery store, and received 20+ different spices in quantities that lasted over a year.  So if you have a cooking club, relief society group, church group, book club, or any other large organization, get everyone together and place a mass order.  You'll save a ton of money and maybe share some recipes along the way.  


But no matter which road you go down, be it bulk at the store or bulk over the web, avoid the prepackaged bottles.  They're overpriced and downright unnecessary.  Buy large quantities at the lower price, store them in a cool dry place in ziploc bags, and repurchase when the bags are empty.  You'll always have what you need and save enough money to afford a surf and turf dinner a couple of times a  year.