"Winning" apron

Charlie Sheen's Winning Recipes from Charlie Sheen

I didn't really care for the video. I didn't even understand half of it. But I DO WANT THAT WINNING APRON! Anyone knows where I can get it?? 

Buffalo Wings, sauce and a dip

I've been itching to make Buffalo Chicken Wings ever since I tasted those amazing, delicious wings from Yellow Cab when I was in Manila. What was with the wings that had me at hello? First off, they were spicy, which I gather is a trademark of Buffalo wings. They were sour enough that it was crazy not to get more than....5 pieces. They were tender, not really that crispy but it works for me. All in all, they were succulent mouthwatering pieces of heaven.

I wanted my first Buffalo Wings attempt to be the "not from the packet" variety. There are seasoned mixes out in the market but I wanted to take the road less travelled and make my own sauce and cook it my way. Well, that simply means instead of frying the wings, I boiled, then baked them.

 In terms of the chili sauce, for the better part of my search, I always ended up being led to the one sauce that most of the food blogs I visit rave about - Sriracha style chili sauce. The recipe I got seemed easy enough, with all the ingredients readily at hand. I think what really makes the difference is the kind and amount of chili you put into the sauce. We really don't have a lot of chili pepper varieties here, except for the tiny ones, the long ones and the bell peppers. OK, I think the last one doesn't count.

Anyway, what was the outcome? Well, baking the wings definitely produced a different texture than what I expected. Boiling then baking definitely gave the chicken wings crunch. I didn't know baking could do that! But, I felt as if it was a bit dry and it didn't have the juicy quality I know Buffalo Wing have. Sure baking is healthier and stuff, but, I'm excited to do another batch with some modifications - deep fry the b*tches in hot oil WITH a stick o' butter. Yum. BUT my wings were still tasty though if I do say so myself. Maybe if I would stick to baking it, I would bake it for 15 minutes or less.

As to the sauce, more is I think, merrier. More chili peppers next time. But all in all, I liked the sauce because had a lot of components that work well together - the garlicky, tomato-y base was really tasty.

I would still give myself a pat on the back for this attempt. But believe me, I'm still craving for spicy sour chicken wings right now.

Baked Buffalo Wings
Adapted from food.com

• 2 lbs chicken wings 
• 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes (I didn’t have this so I just slice some fresh chili)
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 cup Sriracha style hot sauce (recipe follows)

Prep Time:  15 mins                        Total Time: 45 mins 

Directions: 

1. Fill a large pot half way with water and then add the first 4 ingredients.
2. Bring water mixture and wings to a boil and then boil for 15 minutes.
3. Transfer wings to an oven safe container coated with cooking spray. Bake wings on "Broil" (high) for 15 minutes on each side.(For crispier wings, cook longer on each side, maybe 20 minutes per side).
4. While waiting for wings, combine the Hot Sauce and Margarine in a microwave safe container and cook in microwave for 2 minutes or until melted. (You can cook the sauce longer for a thicker sauce).
5. When wings are done, mix with the sauce and enjoy!

It takes a few seconds for these plain jane wings to look like, well, buffalo wings

Chili Hot Sauce Recipe – Sriracha style

• Chili peppers of your choice and amount (I used two finger chilis and four small bird’s eye chilis)
• 4-5 med. cloves of Garlic, crushed or minced
• 2 med Shallots, minced
• 1 T Vegetable Oil
• 2 – 8 oz. (or 1- 15 oz.) can of Tomato Sauce
• 1 T Fish Sauce
• 3 T Rice Vinegar
• 3 T Sugar  

Directions: 

1. Remove stems of chili peppers, rinse clean. Blot dry with paper towel. Wearing rubber gloves, mince the chili peppers. The smaller the cut, the smoother your final sauce will be.
2. In sauce pan, heat oil then add minced garlic and shallots. Over medium-high heat saute for a about 1 minute or until light brown and fragrant. (don’t burn your garlic!)
3. Add tomato sauce and minced chili peppers. Let sauce come to a simmer then lower heat to keep at a low simmer. Add fish sauce, vinegar, and sugar. Mix well.
4. Continue simmering sauce for about 5 minutes. This will break down the chili peppers and soften them to create the smooth consistency. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
5. Transfer sauce to blender and blend till smooth or until most of the chili pepper skin and seeds break down- preferably on the “liquefy” mode.
6. Taste the hot sauce. Further customize the hot sauce to your liking: add more sugar, vinegar or water. Blend one last time till smooth. Pour into clean, air tight jar and refrigerate. Use within about 1 week.

Now, I remembered that the Buffalo Wings usually have a dip on the side, so I made my own version since we obviously don't have blue cheese here. 

Garlic Mayo-Mustard dip 

Ingredients  

 1/2 cup mayonnaise
1-2 tsp mustard
2 tsp garlic power
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions  

1. Wait for three days for the mayonnaise to spoil, then allow to age in oak barrels.
2. I kid. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. It doesn't get any easier.

breakfast for one

I woke up this morning with my parents gone and off to work, and me without anything to eat for breakfast since it's already 10am. I know, poor me. So I was looking at our cupboard and I saw that my aunts (from Texas who went home two days ago) left us with a carton of buttermilk pancake mix, the "just add water variety". It doesn't sound fancy but at least I have something to eat. Plus, the ants were already first in line, so I had to do something before the demons eat what's left of my soon-to-be-breakfast.

So the "just add water" part didn't disappoint. Soon enough, 1 cup of mix with 3/4 cup water gave me two medium sized pancakes, which I realized in the long run, I couldn't finish without feeling gargantuan feelings of guilt and regret. 

I didn't have maple syrup but another thing my aunts left us was french vanilla coffee syrup. It probably sounds snooty but I was willing to try it out because it hopefully tastes great and would make my pancakes sing. Plus, who doesn't like the smell of vanilla in the first place? I mean, come on. 

So after a few generous drops of the vanilla syrup, a spoonfull of soft chewy goodness and few seconds later....

I decided to add a heaping spoonful of butter. Yes, butter. At least it was the unsalted kind. The pancake, well, wasn't really as tasty as, dare I say it, the local variety here. It wasn't really sweet and evenly cooked. I'm not sure if the latter was my fault though. And the syrup? The vanilla smell didn't push through the pancakes, and to top it all off, it was bland! Now I know why it was specifically labelled for coffee. 

The packaging was nice so I figured it tasted as good. Well, I figured wrong. I should've guessed that something as snooty as "french vanilla flavored coffee syrup"  would be, true to form, snooty (fake). 

Butter makes everything better. Good morning world! 

McCelebrate!

Today....is pretty bittersweet for me. It's the last day of my finals as a college student, and in a few weeks I'll be graduating. But not before I go through this one final loop called "NCM 109". Anyhoo, what's a good way to cap it all off? My mom will make barbeque since she's expecting a guest this evening! I won't be there, since my exam is at 5 - 7pm. I'm really excited to see if my marinade will work out in the end though. If it does, then I'll probably post the recipe here. Speaking of which, one more thing why I can't wait for my exam to be over is because I actually have TIME TO KILL before grad. Which means I can spend my last golden days in the kitchen before I officially sign up for the Nurse Licensure Exam review, so I think I need tunnel vision for the next three to four months or so.

I'd really like to celebrate with a McLobster sandwich, or probably a McRib. They look, well, good enough to eat. Too bad our McDonalds doesn't serve pork, and I don't think lobster is a practical option. But still, I can McDream....

A few minutes with the ipad 2

This is a hands-on video of the ipad 2, and while I never really had the time to read about tablet reviews yet, HOW COOL IS THE COVER THINGY THAT DOUBLES AS A STAND? Lord, they had me at fool-proof. Now, notice how I'm really raving more about the Smart Cover than any other feature.

As with Apple’s case for the original iPad, the Smart Cover can be folded up to provide a gentle incline for typing, or flipped around to make a stand for watching video. In this latter regard, it’s vastly superior to the case for the original iPad, which always felt a little bit wobbly in this configuration.Lest we judge the iPad 2 by its (Smart) Cover, let’s remember that it’s what’s inside that counts. In this case, it’s an Apple-designed dual-core A5 processor. It’s very hard to test speed of a device like this, especially in a controlled environment like a demo room. The iPad 2 certainly felt fast—really fast. GarageBand and iMovie, both apps that presumably tax hardware to its limits, moved smoothly. While we don’t know for sure how much memory the iPad 2 contains, 512MB—the same as the iPhone 4—seems like a reasonable guess. Read the full article here 

 This definitely makes my decision harder. SERIOUSLY.