« May 2008 | Main | July 2008 »

June 16, 2008

grilled buffalo wings

I have to write about this before I forget.

I have finally managed to cook excellent Buffalo wings.

I've tried in the past to pan fry wings, to deep fry wings, to bake wings...frozen breaded wings don't really count, but I couldn't even get those to come out all that well. That all changed tonight.

The idea to grill wings came from a restaurant on Rt. 1 that has "fire-grilled wings" as part of the actual restaurant sign; before that, it hadn't even occurred to me. So I looked for some recipes, and finally settled on a variation (obviously, because God knows I can't just follow directions without trying to give it my own little bit of flair) of this: wings

What I did was this: I semi-thawed the frozen wings under cold running water while still in the package. Then, I put them into a glass bowl while I heated the grill (I've been using cooking spray lately to keep things from sticking, and I used extra this time, just in case). I lightly dusted them with cayenne pepper and black pepper, then tossed to coat. I then added maybe a quarter-bottle of Texas Pete wing sauce, and tossed to coat.

Here's where it gets a little more involved. I put the wings on the grill, heated for about 10 minutes. Then, I took them off, one or two or three at a time, coated them again in wing sauce in the same glass bowl, then put them back on the grill...opposite side of the wing, so they would cook evenly and not burn. Wait 10-12 minutes or so, repeat again.

So now we're about 25 minutes into it. I think I did the same process maybe once more? I can't remember. Anyway, the point is, put them on the grill for about 10 minutes, remove and re-coat in sauce, place back on the grill. Continue this process every 10 or so minutes. They'll be done after 40 minutes.

At the end, I washed and cleaned the sauce bowl--you do NOT want to re-coat the wings in sauce that has had raw chicken soaking in it! Food poisoning from undercooked chicken is NOT fun, and I have done that to myself on at least a couple of occasions! So, at the 30-minute re-coat, once the wings are on the grill for the last 10 minutes, take the bowl and wash it out. At the 40-minute mark, put the wings back in the bowl and coat them again in wing sauce.

Eat.

The flavor is not initially overwhelmingly "Buffalo," because there is a smokiness and a sultry heat that only presents itself after you've finished a wing. Give it 4 or 5 before passing judgment; believe me when I say that these are not going to be your average corner pub wings. They will be different, but they will be amazing. I recommend plucking them out of the bowl with tongs, then, pouring the rest of the sauce over them, burnt bits and all. Amazing.

Now, they're wings, and they have the skin on them, so they are not going to be as healthy as a boneless skinless breast (although I intend to try this same recipe on a cutlet later this week). But, at least they're not fried. So this is absolutely the healthiest possible way to make wings that I believe exists. Yeah, maybe you could make them in the oven, but they simply aren't as good. I think this is a reasonable compromise: it's not as bad as it could be, and the smoky, charred flavor adds something that you're not going to get from the best deep-fried wings out there.

If it's still confusing:

  1. Kitchen timer reads: 0 minutes. Wings are in a bowl, coated with sauce. Put them on the grill.
  2. Kitchen timer reads: 10 minutes. Take the wings off the grill, a couple at a time, re-coat them in sauce from the bowl, put them back on the grill. Make sure you turn them so you cook the opposite side. Keep doing this until you've done it with all the wings.
  3. Kitchen timer reads: 20 minutes. Do the same thing you did before.
  4. Kitchen timer reads: 30 minutes. Do the same thing you did before. Take the bowl inside, wash it with soap and water, and put maybe another quarter-bottle of wing sauce in it.
  5. Kitchen timer reads: 40 minutes. Take the wings off the grill, put them in the sauce, and toss them to coat. This is optional; if you want the wings to be more dry you don't have to do it. To make them wet and certainly a bit hotter, do it. Serve.

Posted by Mark at 01:53 AM | Comments (1)

June 12, 2008

wedding and registry

Wedding invitations have gone out! We got a bunch of reply cards in the mail today; that was quite fast.

I'll admit that I've been F5-ing the online registry...it's like Christmas morning every day. The fact that we're older and more established means that we already have a fair amount of "stuff," but the things we registered for are a) things we don't already have, b) things we don't have enough of, c) things we have but they're pretty worn out and broken down, or d) things that we have but we'd like really really good quality pass-it-to-your-grandkids versions of. Things we don't already have would be like the food processor or the mixer or slow cooker. Things we don't have enough of would be the day-to-day plates and bowls (we're using as our primaries the same plates I grew up with--now, they're very nice Corelleware, durable stuff, but a lot have gotten broken over the years to the point where we only have two matching bowls). Worn out stuff would be luggage, the bakeware, or the towels. And the "high-end" stuff is the china, the cooking knives, maybe the pots and pans.

And there's a lot on there that is just for entertaining, which we love to do, and other stuff that's for decor or just for fun--like the soft-serve ice-cream maker and dispenser.

Anyway, my time is split about 70-30 between endgame wedding planning and wrapping up a handful of projects for the quarter at work. We booked flights for Vegas for the bachelor party but have yet to book a hotel; I still have a couple questions about that and I need to make a call for some advice. We're looking at tuxes this weekend, we're working on a cake topper, and endlessly trying to answer the burning question, chair covers or no chair covers?

It's going to be a very fun wedding.

Posted by Mark at 06:47 PM | Comments (0)

June 06, 2008

lots of little things

The last few days have been hugely productive. In that time, I/we have:

I think that's it. There was some work stuff too. I'm wrapping up three big projects, one of which needs about 8 hours more work, one of which is in the vendor bidding stage, and one of which is ready to go to QA as soon as I finish the QA writeup. It's very busy!

And that's all for now. Looks like it's going to be me and the groomsmen for the Vegas Bachelor Extravaganza, and I can't wait...it'll be a very neat vacation, and I think we can do it for a reasonable cost as well. I'm especially excited that there will be a number of Vegas Virgins in the contingent, so that will be a really great excuse to do what I enjoy anyway, which is walk through the absolutely amazing entertainment venues that the strip offers and see as many casinos as possible.

Posted by Mark at 12:01 AM | Comments (2)

June 01, 2008

wedding stuff, general life stuff, ceiling fan

Kara has been off in Rockport since last night for purposes of attending a bridal shower this morning, so I've had the day to myself. It's been awhile since I've had a "man day" to just sit around, surfing the web, drinking beer and smoking cigars. The kitty has been hanging out with me; our next-door neighbors, I found, also have a kitty, whom they brought out onto the balcony, albeit unsuccessfully, as neighbor kitty was not interesting in lounging on the porch. I wonder if Labatt would like to come out here, but maybe not...at any rate, I'd be a little too nervous that she'd try to jump in one of the flower boxes or something.

I hung out with MJP the last two nights, talking about plans for our joint bachelor party in Vegas. It looks like it will be a nice small crew, which I actually prefer. Of everybody who has RSVP'ed, I've been to Vegas the most, so it will be fun to kind of lead our merry troupe from casino to casino, play Star Wars penny slots, watch the fountains at the Bellagio, and so forth.

Work has been good and the Q2 software release has been evolving as I have hoped it would, going from a monolithic update to a series of smaller, discrete updates. We've taken the company from a reactive model where we were always fixing bugs in a panic to a proactive model where we're consistently producing upgrades in response to real or imagined customer need. I am very proud of my company and happy to be part of it.

We just about have the wedding invitations finished. The last step is actual assembly of the invite page with the blue backing cards, and the assembly of the entire invitation package into a single unit. Mrs. Hartman was really great in that she hand-lettered all of our envelopes, which looks fabulous and saved us a ton of time. The new "wedding heart" stamp comes out on June 10th, so that will be the date the invites go into the mail.

I had my Elks indoctrination last week and I will be inducted into the Gloucester Lodge on Tuesday night, which I'm excited about. I don't think I'll be able to be super-active in the lodge just yet, but who knows...it will be good to be part of the organization, in anticipation of someday moving to Cape Ann for retirement.

The motorcycle has been back out on the road recently; I did a little work on it on Friday, replacing a very important bolt that had fallen off at some point (one of the bolts that holds the front brake to the fork). It needs to be inspected, which requires me to find the missing registration certificate. I think it's somewhere on my mess of a desk.

Everything is very good. The three tomato plants are growing well, I've re-started some hot pepper seeds in an effort to get viable seedlings, and the pansies in the window boxes are absolutely huge.

I am also adding to my repertoire as a general contractor. I successfully hung, wired and installed a ceiling fan in the living room last weekend, which marks the first time I've done real electrical work. I had replaced just about every outlet and light switch in the condo during painting, but that didn't involve anything more significant that attaching wires to terminals. The fan actually involved attaching mains wires via wiring nuts, correctly identifying hot versus neutral wires in connecting the fan remote, and even cutting into the ceiling so I could mount a fan-rated pancake box to hold the fan. I'm very proud. Next house upgrades include a fan in the bedroom and a couple of light fixture replacements...the fixtures in the hallways are ugly, and Kara and I found a nice new hallway fixture called, ironically, "Kara," at Home Depot the other weekend. So that will go in as soon as I get a coupon from Home Depot so I can buy a bunch of stuff at once.

I haven't been running as much lately owing to some shin splints a few weeks ago and general laziness, but I'll get back into that in the coming week.

Posted by Mark at 06:44 PM | Comments (1)