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Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Who doesn't love some rocking' chicken wings and french fries?!

Here is a new play on the popular bar meals. A much healthier version...


This simple recipe is a simple baked chicken wing, lightly breaded, and a dinner-style potatoes obrien. 

You will need to start with my Holy Trinity of Veggies- Potatoes, onions and peppers. 


I add a little garlic for some delicious pizzaz. 

Soak the cut potatoes in ice water- this step is IMPORTANT.
The ice water will soak out lots of the starches, causing your cooked results to be crispier!


While they're soaking, chop the remainder of the veggies! 


I want to eat the veggies just like that!! 



OK- drain your potatoes and rinse them! 
Microwave them for 10 minutes.




Moving onto the wings...

I am a huge fan of the Mccormick Buffalo Wing seasoning. It's so good, you don't even need wing sauce. 

I drizzle my wings in olive oil and toss them in one packet of seasoning and 1/3 c flour.




Bake at 450 for 30-45 minutes along with the veggie medley. They will cook at nearly the same pace!

VOILA!



Saturday, December 26, 2015

Christmas Piñata Cookies

Merry Christmas y'all!

I'm back with a vengeance! School is finally done for good and I will finally have the time to dedicate to sharing my mindless crafting with the world!

This year, instead of Christmas cards, I decided to make Christmas cookies. Not just ANY cookies- I scoured the internet for ideas to really make these cookies the best! My friends deserve THE BEST!

Now I will share this with you!


These cookies are absolutely to-die-for. They taste wonderful and were easier to make then they look.

First, I baked a double batch of these no-fail cut out cookies that I found on this blog here. I copied it below. So easy. So yummy!

Best Sugar Cookie Recipe

YIELD: 3 dozen cookies
PREP TIME: 30 minutes
COOK TIME: 6-8 minutes
TOTAL TIME: 38 minutes
Soft cut out sugar cookie recipe that keeps its shape and dough does not need to be chilled before baking- perfect edges every time!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 Cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 Cup granulated white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3 cups all purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
  2. In the bowl of your mixer cream butter and sugar until smooth.
  3. Beat in extracts and egg.
  4. In a separate bowl combine baking powder with flour and add a little at a time to the wet ingredients. The dough will be very stiff. If it becomes too stiff for your mixer turn out the dough onto a countertop surface. Wet your hands and finish off kneading the dough by hand.
  5. DO NOT CHILL THE DOUGH. Divide into workable batches, roll out onto a floured surface and cut. You want these cookies to be on the thicker side (closer to 1/4 inch rather than 1/8).
  6. Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.


Now we prepare a batch of royal icing to assemble the cookies!

I used this recipe:

RECIPE

Now, using a smaller cookie cutter, cut the centers out of 1/3 of your cookies. 

**TIP** If you find that the cookies are too hard to cut through, microwave them at half power with a cup of hot water**

Trace the outline of a whole cookie and place your cut cookie on top.



Now fill them with sprinkles!

Pipe another outline of royal icing on the cookie to seal it and place the top cookie on


FROST AWAY! I even added the centers that I cut out of the cookies at the little heart in the front.

Wrap them in something pretty!! I downloaded these printable tags from HERE




ALL DONE!




MERRY CHRISTMAS!