Buffalo Wings

Sometimes the simplest things to make are also the tastiest. Such is the case with Buffalo Chicken Wings. Pretty much all you have to do is bake some chicken wings, pour sauce over them, and devour them until your lips are on fire from the spicy sauce. You don't even need cooking skills to enjoy this meal.

We prefer the Original Frank's over the Buffalo Wing Sauce based only on the ingredient list. If you don't mind the few extra ingredients in the Buffalo Wing Sauce, this recipe is even easier. Simply open the bottle and pour over the cooked wings.

Buffalo Chicken Wings
Slightly adapted from Frank's Red Hot

Ingredients:
Chicken Wings (You can buy these frozen or fresh, just be sure to remove the tips if they come included.) We plan on an average of 7 wings per person.
2/3 cup Frank's Red Hot Original
1/3 cup butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place wings on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and bake for 45 minutes.
With ten minutes remaining in the baking time, combine Frank's and butter in a small pan over medium heat.
Place the finished wings in a bowl and pour the sauce over them and stir.
Serve and enjoy!

Spaghetti Sauce

I should probably come clean about something. Despite the fact that I have this food blog, I don't actually do much cooking. I help out, and take care of the dishes, but the real chef in the family is my husband. He's really the one making all of these delicious meals I keep talking about. There are about two exceptions to this: Spaghetti Sauce and Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas (which I'll post about next week). These were really the only two good recipes I brought into this marriage, so I'm more likely to be in charge of these over anything else we eat.

The spaghetti sauce recipe comes from my mom. She's been making it for as long as I can remember. We've slowly adapted it to our own recipe, since the original involves a couple packets of Lawry's spaghetti sauce packets (full of crap like modified food starch and hydrolyzed soy protein). It's easily just as good, and far better for you. It's also extremely cheap to make and makes about 12 servings of sauce. Be sure to clean out some freezer space before making this dish. We find it freezes best in the glass quart canning jars.

We've been serving this over zucchini noodles, making it full of nothing but healthy vegetables and some protein from the meat.

Spaghetti Sauce
An All Meat and No Potatoes Original

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 pound italian sausage
1 large onion
1/2 head garlic
10 mushrooms, sliced (or more based on personal preference)
80-90 ounces of crushed tomatoes (Check Costco for a big ol' jar for under $3!)
1 teaspoons kosher salt
Cracked pepper - a few twists
1.5 teaspoons thyme
3 teaspoons basil
2 teaspoons oregano
4 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic power

Directions
In a large dutch oven or deep pot, fry the ground beef and italian sausage. When it's almost down, add onion and garlic. Saute until onion is soft.
Add tomato sauce and spices. Mix everything together, then add the mushrooms.
Simmer for one hour, stirring regularly.

Chicks, man

Just before Easter we decided to take the plunge and become parents...to chickens that is.

We've talked about it for some time, but we finally have the space and our backyard is starting to come together enough that the timing was right. After doing some research we felt prepared enough to go to our local urban farm store and pick out some girls.

The first trip outside, around three weeks old. From left to right: Tina, Butters, Whitney (in back), and Sara.

Legally we can have up to six chickens, assuming none are a rooster. We figured three is a good starting number, but purchased four in case one turned out to be a rooster or something more unfortunate. Three weeks later I'm happy to report all are alive and well, but I've got my eye on the big one for fear it turns out to be a rooster.

While these chickens are primarily for a food source of delicious fresh eggs, we also want them to be friendly towards humans. With that in mind we picked out two highly-regarded breeds.

Two of the girls were sold as Ameraucana's, although apparently there's controversy over the likelyhood they are "pure-bred" or the mutt variety among the chicken snobs. Regardless, these girls will lay what are called Easter Eggs. The shells are typically varying shades of blue and green, but inside everything is normal. Ameraucana's lay an average of 5 eggs per week, but drop down to about 1-2 eggs per week in winter. Full grown they average 5.5 pounds. However, we have one girl that is particularly small. It's possible she's just a runt, but she could also be a bantam, which would put her at only 1.5 pounds full grown. Of the two breeds, these girls seem to be more interested in human interaction.

The second breed we purchased is a Barnevelder. They are famous for laying large, dark brown eggs but most picture's I've seen don't necessarily reflect that. Barnevelders will grow to a slightly larger size, averaging 6-7 pounds as an adult. They will also produce more eggs than the Ameraucana's. They too will lay around 5 eggs per week, but in the winter that number doesn't trail off as drastically.

In the coming weeks I'll post more about raising them, building a coop, etc.

Bunless Burgers

There's a lot of burger lovers out there, and a large number feel that the bun should be carefully considered. Plain white? Wheat? Potato? Well, I feel pretty strongly about my bun choice as well...except by preference is non at all.

While I resisted the idea of a bunless burger at first, it didn't take me long to realize that was the way to go. Turns out the bun is just a limitation! It keeps you from being able to put on large quantities of toppings, or a variety of sauces that just get soaked up into the bread. 

Without the bun, you are only limited by your imagination. This particular burger had lettuce, spinach, onion, pickles, avocado, ketchup, mustard, worcestershire sauce, and two kinds of cheese (and an egg, but it didn't look as pretty). 

Sweet Potato Fries

There are certain foods that most folks eating a paleo diet indulge on – sweet potato fries being one of them. Having never eaten a sweet potato in my life, I didn’t understand how these could replace the craving for my standard, salty, starchy fries. There are a lot of foods I miss that I can find suitable replacements for, but most aren’t as good as whatever I’m trying to replicate. Do sweet potato fries taste just like regular fries? No, of course not. But they do taste super good and have nearly eliminated my desire for the fries I used to like so much.

Since discovering these tasty fries a few months ago I’ve been consuming them largely as an evening snack. However, I’ve also eaten them as a small lunch on weekend days when I’m not particularly hungry. While it’s not something I’m going to make a habit of, it’s a great way to get some extra vitamins. One sweet potato contains 13% of your daily potassium, 15% of your daily fiber, and a whopping 369% of your vitamin A. It’s also a good source of vitamin B6, manganese, copper and a few others.

The last thing to take note of is that there are two different kinds of sweet potatoes sold in your average grocery store. There is the orange-skinned variety, often called yams, or the pale-skinned variety. We prefer the pale-skinned.

Sweet Potato Fries

Source: Inspired by lots of blogs, perfected by us

Ingredients

One sweet potato

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Peel and cut sweet potato into strips. It’s quite dense, so make sure you have a good knife and possibly somebody strong. In a medium sized bowl, drizzle with olive oil and toss. Dash on some salt and pepper and toss again.

Place neatly onto a cookie sheet line with parchment paper. Bake for 18-22 minutes, turning halfway through. They’ll still be somewhat soft depending on how thick you cut your slices. They are still delicious though!

Short Ribs with Wine and Cream

A few months ago I was looking for a special recipe for Travis and I to make together. I don’t remember what the occasion was, but whatever it was, Pioneer Woman’s Short Ribs with Wine and Cream fit the bill. Ironically I dislike fatty cuts of meat and I’m still in denial about my newfound love of mushrooms, so what possessed me to choose this recipe I’m not quite sure. It was indeed a bit too fatty for my tastes, but Travis was in love with this meal. In fact, as soon as we brought home our 1/2 cow, he requested we remake the meal.

We were hungry, and didn't cook these as long as we should have.
If we'd gone the full three hours, more of the fat would have melted off. 

I’m still not a huge fan of the fat content, but I can’t deny it’s a tasty recipe. It’s rich, tender, and has excellent flavor. I even like the mushrooms. Honestly, I don’t think you can even improve on the recipe. I do highly recommend finding an assortment of mushrooms as the recipe suggests. Our local Safeway strangely only had cremini and portabellas in stock, and the lack of variety was definitely noticed.

It is important to note that we specified our short ribs be cut English style. It seems the more popular cut is Flanken style.

While this was a great meal for the two of us, I could definitely see serving this to guests in the future. It’s largely hands-off due to the three hour simmer time, but comes across as one something much more elaborate. It’s sure to impress at a dinner party.

Short Ribs with Wine and Cream

Slightly adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

12 whole Shortribs

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 1/2 tablespoons bacon grease

1 cup red wine

32 ounces, fluid beef broth

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary

2 tablespoons grainy mustard

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons capers

16 ounces by weight of assorted Mushrooms: Cremini, Oyster, Baby Bellas, Etc.

Olive oil, for drizzling

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Heat bacon grease in a dutch oven over high heat. Sprinkle salt and pepper on three sides of the ribs. Quickly sear the meaty sides of the ribs, about 1 1/2 minutes per side. Remove the short ribs to a plate.

Pour wine and beef into the dutch oven. Add rosemary. Stir to combine, scraping the bottom of the pot to deglaze. Return short ribs to the pot, cover, and place in the oven for 3 hours.

After they have cooked, remove the pot from the oven and increase the temperature to 400 degrees. Arrange the mushrooms in a single layer on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, then roast the mushrooms until they're golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the dutch oven a stove burner and carefully remove the short ribs from the pot again. Stir in mustard, cream, and capers, then raise the heat and allow it thickened a bit. Return the short ribs to the sauce, put on the lid, and turn off the heat.

Serve the short ribs on top of the mushrooms, then drizzle with extra cream sauce.

Bringing Home Bessie

Both my husband and I are in agreement that there is more to healthy eating than just
eating healthy fats and vegetables and omitting grains and sugar; eating local food is also
part of the equation as well.

In general we do a pretty good job of this on our own. We have our own garden during
the summer months and regularly have a freezer full of freshly caught steelhead, bass and
trout. We also hunt deer and elk, but after a disappointing and unsuccessful season we
were interested in purchasing half a cow (who we've since named Bessie).

On one of his recent hunting trips to eastern Oregon, my husband was listening to a radio
station when an advertisement came on for a ranch that fertilizes the grass the cows eat
with leftover “waste” water from local brewers. They cows are also fed beer mash of
wheat, hops and barley as they become older. We could have opted for a cow that was
100% grass fed, but as beer lovers we thought this would be the perfect starting point.
The entire process was incredibly easy. We simply filled out a form on the rancher’s
website and waited for a cow to be ready. The butcher called once it was ready and we
were able to specify exactly what cuts of meat we wanted along with their preferred
package size.

Our half cow weighed 450 pounds hanging weight, and at $3 per pound hanging weight our total came to $1,350. In exchange we received:

109 packages of ground beef (approximately 1 pound per packages)

7 packages of New York steaks

5 packages liver

4 packages Tenderloin steak

12 chuck roast, approximately 3 pounds each

3 Bottom Round Roasts

6 Top Round Roasts

1 Rump Roast

1 Heart

1 package of Stew meat

5 packages Top Sirloin Steak

5 packages Sirloin Tip Steak

6 packages of Ribeyes

4 packages of Short Ribs, cut English Style

1 Brisket

4 package of Soup Bones

2 packages of suet, approximately  five pounds each

All of the meat was (barely) able to fit into a 15 cubic foot freezer we bought especially for the occasion. So far we've tried the ground beef, New York steaks, Ribeyes, Chuck Roast and Sirloin Tip. It's not the most tender steak I've ever had, but that was to be expected. I'd trade that extra bit of tenderness for a local, grass-fed cow any day.