Hot wings on the grill

we love hot wings, but the heat of the oven is too much in the summer so today I tried a different take on hot wings and put them on the grill. First I marinated 5 pounds of wing sections in
1/2 c. Louisianna Hot Sauce
2 T olive oil
1-2 T soy sauce
dash garlic powder, onion powder
1 capful smoke seasoning
dash kosher salt

pre-heated the grill to 350.
turn wings 1/2 way through cooking, cook until internal temperature hits 165.

Sauce:
1/2 c. louisianna hot sauce
3 T butter, melted but not broken
mix and drizzle over wings

serve with salad and a cool creamy dressing (try my creamy caesar dressing)

BBQ Shop Sauce clone #1

Our family's favorite barbeque sauce is local and the first ingredient is high fructose corn syrup! We're cutting HFCS from our diet in all forms. We finally took the step and I am attempting to clone the taste. This is good and close to the original, but next time I'm making the catsup from scratch. This catsup ::sigh:: has HFCS in it.

1 C. catsup
1 t. brown sugar
1/4 C. mustard
1 T soy oil
1 capful of liquid smoke
1 t. salt
2 t. paprika,
1 t onion powder
fresh ground pepper, 20 grinds
dash celery salt
small dash cayenne powder
dash allspice
2 T cider
1 T or more worchestershire sauce

combine and heat on low heat for 15 minutes or until as thick as desired.

buttermilk biscuits

These are straight from a 1950's version of Betty Crocker cookbook! This morning I used the buttermilk and shortening recipe. They were yummy, light, flaky. Served with sausage gravy (it's a southern thing)

caramel turtle mini cheesecakes

These were for Bethany's birthday and a BBQ at Renee and Shelli's
Crust:
melt 3 T butter,
combine with finely crushed graham crackers (I use the metal blade in the Cuisinart)
and about 2T sugar.

Stir to combine and press FIRMLY into the bottom of 18 greased muffin tins

Filling:
16 oz softened cream cheese
1 T lemon juice (fresh is best)
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs (large)
1 t. vainlla

cream the softened cream cheese in a stand mixer until slightly airy, add remaining ingredients and process until fluffy. Put one scoop from a #30 disher into each tin. Bake at 325-350 degrees for 20 mins or until the filling appears just set not browned.

cool completely and top with
caramel sauce (6-8 soft caramel candies and 2 t. cream, microwaved on 60% until melted, stir carefully)
chocolate sauce/ganache (4-6 squares of your favorite dark/espresso or other semi-sweet chcoclate and 1 T cream, microwaved on 50% for about 30-40 seconds. Stir carefully, adjust to taste)
crushed toasted pecans (place 1/2 cup pecans on a sheet pan in a 350 degree oven for approx 20 minutes or until nuts appear browned. Place on firm surface and crush using rolling pin.)

probably a zillion calories. We make a full-sized cheese cake of this for Ginger's birthday. I don't think there are any photos of that or of the pecan pie William and I made her. (our first and I loved it!)

Mexcian-style Workout Casserole

Edited August 2007
Why "workout" casserole? Because we workout at 4:30 daily and that seriously cuts into my cooking prep time. Add to that 2-3 nights a week of evening activities and you get a pretty good idea how important it is to have dinner ready when we walk in the door at 5:30-5:45 so we can be out the door again by 6:30. I apologize for the less than beautiful photo, I put the spoon in to serve before I remembered to take a picture. This is my attempt at tidying it up.

1 1/2 cups white short or medium grain rice (raw)
scant 3 cups water
approx 1 cup frozen corn
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with lime and cilantro OR "mexican" diced tomatoes (not drained)
7.5 oz chorizo uncooked, broken into pieces OR other raw ground meat including sausage
1 14.5 oz can black beans, drained OR pinto beans, refried beans etc.
dash red pepper flakes to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 1/2-2 cups shredded jack, cheddar or other cheese.
Optional:
add chili powder, salt and other seasonings (cumin comes to mind) after the rice and water

Layer ingredients in round casserole in order listed. DO NOT STIR. Bake at 350-400 for 1 hour covered. serve with green salad.