Chicken Wings - not fried!

A few weeks back, around Memorial Day I believe, I picked up 2 5 lb bags of chicken wings from GFS for something like $6 a bag ... that's cheap! Does anyone remember when the wings were dirt cheap? Not anymore!

Anyways, With all the men that were in the house (5 total, 3 of them teens), we cooked alot of meat. And hubby is the wing master. So he used 7 lbs total to do the following:

Rinse and pat dry the wings. This is just the way hubby is :)

Make a marinade of lemon juice, liquid smoke and Tabasco pulp (this stuff is WICKED). Toss wings in marinade and let them get happy for an hour or so.

Remove from marinade and place wings on baking trays. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic salt. Bake at 350 for an hour or so until cooked. You can serve these dry or go ahead and top with a little more hot sauce if desired.

*FYI - I was not home when hubby made these, but boy were they delicious. I'm so glad we opted NOT to fry them!

Fruit Salad (pantry food!)

My brother in law and his two kids (13 and 15) are visiting and we've been grilling like crazy every night. That's fine and dandy and I'm really enjoying it as is Hubby.

The boys eat fairly well. Surprisingly not BIG eaters but they eat. And they like fruit. A LOT.

So, I grabbed a can of peaches in light syrup, drained. A can of pears in light syrup, drained. A jar of cut pineapple in juice, drained, and a can of mandarin oranges (in "syrup"), drained.

Tossed all those in a bowl, and hubby handed me my canning jar that holds my toasted coconut (hey, toast your coconut ahead of time and have it on hand and ready to go for times like this!) and I tossed some in.

Oh MY GOD. It was good. The coconut took it right over the top! Try it!! Perfect to go with the 7 pounds of wings he made :)

Salsa or as we call it, "That Fresh Tomato Stuff"

I've got the little gadget, the Vidalia Chopper and I swear by the thing. This is made at least 2 times a week and kept in the fridge and then just topped on everything (favorite? Scrambled eggs!)

2 large tomatoes, cut in quarters and squeezed lightly to eliminate most of the liquid

1 onion (whatever you have on hand), quartered

2 to 3 jalepenos, seeds removed to your taste and cut in half (my plant just will not die and the hotness varies from one pepper to another)

lime juice (fresh or from that little fake plastic thing

Now comes the hard part. Open lid of chopper. Using the SMALL grid, place a quarter of onion on grid, and slap the lid shut. Open and repeat with rest of onion and jalepenos.

Remove small grate and insert large grate. Repeat with tomatoes. Empty contents of tray into bowl if needed.

Squeeze lime juice over all and store in fridge. I've got mixed emotions on salt. I use coarse salt but find it makes the tomatoes really juice up and then swim in liquid which is NOT what we are going for!! That's why you use the LARGE grid for the tomatoes.

Now if you are using this right away, use the small grid & add a pinch of salt.

Sure, you can add cilantro or basil or any other flavors. But this house is using it just as all around topping (rice, chicken, nachos, tacos, eggs, etc.)

Honey Mustard Dressing

Because I've been doing low carb, I've not had honey mustard dressing with my salads or chicken which is just horrible and I've been going through withdrawals!! BUT, Tammy over at Tammy's Recipes recently shared her recipe and wow, I made some and hubby was eating it in no time with his chicken nuggets. Then me & Princess had some delicious salad with it...definitely a keeper and worth sharing the way I made it ... (don't forget to check out Tammy's site, shes got some GREAT recipes over there...

1/2 cup canola oil
3 tbs white vinegar
2 tbs water
1/4 cup honey (tip: measure the oil first and pour into bowl THEN measure the honey in same cup, will pour right out for you!)
1/4 cup grey poupon mustard
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt (or more, but for me, its' good as I'm salt sensitive taste wise)
dash pepper

Place all in jar with tight lid and shake, shake shake to mix. I used my cruet that I got from the last church sale for 25 cents. Store in fridge for up to 1 week. Somehow, I don't see this lasting all that long :)

Cocktail Sauce (for shrimp)

I ran out of cocktail sauce and have been jonsing for some shrimp so I googled and found a base recipe ... ironically, everything was already in the pantry (except the horseradish which was in the fridge).

1 cup ketchup
1 tbs horseradish (more or less to your taste)
1 tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp salt
dash pepper

Put all in bowl and whisk. Cover and allow to chill before serving. I will be putting some in a mini-martini glass to serve for appetizers this evening.