Here I mys note that typically Awesome Sauce and I are very healthy eaters. He and I both have family histories of heart disease and diabetes and we want to be very careful. We splurge on special holidays, parties and the occasional treat, but attempt to keep our food very healthy the rest of the time. Many of the recipes you will see in this blog are "splurge" meals. But please try to keep in mind that portion control, drinking lots of water, eating lots of fiber and watching your fat intake are all very important. ::exits soapbox::
For our Super Bowl party this year we made the following:
Buffalo Wings (Alton Brown's Recipe) with Blow-Your-Mind Blue Cheese Dip
Pepperoni Pizza (Using Mark Bittman's Pizza Dough Recipe)
Turkey, Beef & Black Bean Chili with Corn Bread and toppings
Potato Skins
Mexican Corn Dip
Hummus & Chips
Guacamole
Mexican Dip
Salsa & Chips
Baklava (with an awesome recipe from Allrecipes)
Smores
Our party food came out great!! I am not going to go through each food. Most of these are recipes we have made before and have been quite happy with. The new recipes for us this time were Alton Brown's Buffalo Wings, the Bleu Cheese Dip and the Baklava recipe from Allrecipes. Therefore, I will only blog these recipes. This Blog Post will focus solely on the Buffalo Wings.
Alton Brown's Buffalo Wings
I was folding laundry one day a few weeks before the Super Bowl and had The Food Network on in the background (typical). Alton Brown was on the television teaching America how to make the best Buffalo Wings at home. I was entranced by his method. He explained why if you stick plain wings in the oven they can sizzle and get smoky. He explained how to get a "crispy" outside without frying. His method was simple. Clip the wings apart. Steam them for 20 minutes. Refrigerate them for an hour (or more if you need to). Finish in the oven and cover in buffalo sauce. Alton promised crispy wings without frying. Great!!! I couldn't wait to try this new method.
On Super Bowl Sunday I pulled out my laptop and turned to his recipe on the Food Network's website. If anyone wants to see this recipe, here you go:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_115036,00.html
Awesome Sauce and I had a great time preparing for this recipe. He was going around working on other foods while I clipped the wings. Every time he passed me he kept bumping into me in the kitchen!! I would shout "watch it, I have chicken!!!" It soon became our running joke of the day. Every time we ran into each other (purposefully or not...) there were cries of "I have chicken!"
We took the time to steam the wings. We had only a small steamer basket so we had to do this in three batches. This was easy enough. Baking them was uneventful, you merely had to remember to turn them. When we made the buffalo sauce, we made sure to use Frank's Hot Sauce. (Note: Awesome Sauce and I love hot sauce. He enjoys it straight. I love cooking with it. We have found a variety of hot sauces that we love to eat and cook with, however, for making Buffalo Sauce, I definitely enjoy Frank's Hot Sauce. Hmm...maybe we need to do a "hot sauce review" blog post sometime....)
Here are some pictures of the Buffalo Wing making process:
Overall, these were not a hit. They really weren't too crispy and were kind of boring. I actually enjoyed my former method better (I coated them in a butter/hot sauce blend and slowly cooked them at 350 degrees). We actually had many left!! I wouldn't make this one again. Awesome Sauce says these were "not memorable wings."
Rating:
The Clumsy Gourmet: 4
Awesome Sauce: 6
Blow-Your-Mind Blue Cheese Dip
To go with our wings, I wanted to try to make a good blue cheese dip. When we eat wings at a restaurant, I love having blue cheese dressing to dip it in. However, I have yet to find a blue cheese dressing that I like. Most of them are gelatenous, full of strong-tasing chemicals and just plain awful. I finally had enough. I called one of my favorite restaurants and asked them what blue cheese dressing they use with their buffalo wings. I found out that instead of a dressing, they used a blue cheese dip that they made in-house. Sadly, they were unwilling to share the recipe. Some quick internet sleuthing showed that many places known for their buffalo wings have their own blue cheese dip. I decided to search for a recipe. After finding several online, I found one called "Blow-Your-Mind Blue Cheese Dip." Can you find a blue cheese dip with a more fantastic name?!
I found the recipe on the Courier Press' website:
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/jan/28/homemade-blue-cheese-dip-can-help-feather-a-wing/
The recipe sautes shallots, mustard power and garlic in olive oil. This mixture is then added to sour cream, plain greek yogurt, mayonnaise and blue cheese. Fresh parsley and paprika are then added to finish the dip. It sounded great! I couldn't wait to try it! I was finally going to have a great blue cheese dip for my buffalo wings.
Unfortunately, this dip did not hold up to its stellar name. I thought it had a very strange flavor. It was also way too thick for "dipping." I was not happy at all. Awesome Sauce says, "Not Noteworthy." We were very disappointed. However, we were definitely not discouraged! Because I only make buffalo wings once a year, I will be keeping an eye out for a tried-and-true blue cheese dip for my Super Bowl Party next year. Any suggestions?
Rating:
The Clumsy Gourmet: 3
Awesome Sauce: 6.5
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