Celebration BBQ Chicken

This is fusion cooking, neither one thing nor the other. Wherever you live, it's not what they call barbecue around there. But taste it and that won't matter.

Sauce ingredients:
6 oz tomato paste
3/4 c honey
1/2 c ketchup
1/4 c butter
2 T vinegar
4 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 T brown sugar
3 T soy sauce (tamari for the gluten free; most soy sauces have gluten)

Additionally:
1 entire cut up chicken, skin on

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Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine sauce ingredients in a pan, stir, and bring to boil.

Simmer five minutes while arranging chicken in casserole dish skin side down.

Spoon 1/3 cup sauce over the chicken then bake 1/2 hour.

Take the casserole dish from the oven and turn the chicken skin side up. Spoon 1/3 cup sauce over the chicken and bake the chicken for 15 minutes.

Spoon the remaining sauce over the chicken and bake for 15 minutes.

Brown the chicken under the broiler.

Servings: Roughly four, but this will depend on the size of the chicken.

Note: Cooking times, like number of servings, are approximate and depend on the size of the chicken. The chicken should reach a temperature of 165 degrees for safety’s sake and the sauce should have started to caramelize before you serve it.

Ice Cream Sundaes

These are hardly recipes, they're so easy, but I might as well share since hot weather is rolling in (or already has rolled in if you're in certain parts of the world).

1. I think of this as the Quad Sundae but I'm sure they ate it in Cowles, too, so call it what you will:

Vanilla ice cream (traditionally soft-serve, but use what you have)
Crushed Golden Grahams cereal
Chocolate syrup

Golden Grahams are drastically underappreciated as an ice-cream topping, by the way.

2. Millionaire Sundae.  This is based on the millionaire pie.

Vanilla ice cream
Pineapple (canned crushed, fresh diced, or good-quality sundae topping)
Chopped pecans
Whipped cream
Maraschino cherry

I was out of cherries.

Ideally, you'd soften the ice cream a bit and mash the pineapple into it, but we're not going to tell you how to live your life. 

Denver Post Oatmeal Muffins

This recipe was published in the Denver Post in 1986.  These are an excellent breakfast muffin with a much better flavor than you'd expect from the list of ingredients.

Yeah, yeah . . . I'm not a food stylist.

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain yogurt (very cutting-edge in 1986 . . . )
2 eggs or 4 egg whites
1 cup whole-wheat flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Optional: Raisins or fruit chunks.  I like to add diced apple and a pinch of cinnamon and ginger.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and butter the muffin tins.  This makes about 18 muffins.

DO NOT use paper tin liners.  They will stick like nothing you've ever seen and you'll end up either wasting a lot of muffin or eating a lot of paper.  I've already made this mistake for you, so just trust me.

Combine the oats and yogurt and let stand for at least 30 minutes while you assemble the rest of the ingredients. 

Add the eggs and sugar and mix well.  Add the rest of the ingredients until just combined.

Fill tins 2/3 full and bake about 20 minutes.

Jalapeno Jam Chicken Wings

I was happy with how these turned out-- sweet and spicy, and the wings were perfectly cooked through with crispy skin. Heat level was low-medium (I really like spicy though).

The sauce and broiled wings can be prepared ahead of time (we did the night before), and then grilled later. Sauce will need to be reheated, since the butter will harden over night.  

           

Ingredients:

• 30 chicken wings or about 3 lbs
• 3 Tbs butter
• 1/4 cup of jalapeno or pepper jam 
• 2 Tbs honey or agave nectar
• 2 jalapenos (diced)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Turn oven broiler on high, line baking sheet with aluminum foil 

2. Melt butter in small sauce pan. Add jalapeno jam, honey, diced jalapenos, and spices until warmed

through.

3. Rinse wings, pat try with paper towel, season w/ salt and pepper, place on prepared baking sheet

4. Stick wings in oven for 10-15 minutes, turning once (may need to do a few batches)

5. Grill on medium-high heat for 5 minutes until both sides are browned. 

6. Toss in sauce and eat up!