Happy Hubby= Fabulous Food and Football!

At the beginning of the month, John had to teach a special training for the new employees.  To his surprise, he found out he was picked employee of the month for the month of January!  Way to go, babe!  He received a certificate as well as three gift cards to the following places: Cafe Rio, Chilis, and Maggie Moo's Ice cream!   Yum, we look forward to eating at those amazing places in the near future!


We went to a super bowl party at a friend's house a couple weeks ago.  Hubby and I were in charge of bringing hot wings and mint brownies! So you can imagine how excited my husband was to create delicious spicy hot wings!  We were up until 2:00 AM early Sunday morning frying them.  On Super Bowl Sunday, I wore my green sweater and proudly added a few more drops to the mint brownie's frosting to establish which team I was hoping to win!  The funny thing is the boys were cheering for the Steelers and the girls were Packer fans!  The kids had a blast dancing at half time to The Black Eye Peas!   Below are the recipes that we used to make our amazing Super Bowl goodies!

Restaurant Style Buffalo Chicken Wings 
from allrecipes.com

Chicken Wings

1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp. paprika

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp salt

10 chicken wings

oil for deep frying

In a small bowl mix together the flour, paprika, cayenne pepper, and salt.  Place chicken wings in a large nonporous glass dish or bowl and sprinkle flour mixture over them until they are evenly coated.  Cover dish or bowl and refrigerate for 60-90 minutes.  Heat oil in a deep fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).  The oil should be just enough to cover wings entirely, an inch or so deep.  Fry coated wings in hot oil for 10-15 minutes or until parts of the wings turn brown. Remove from heat, place wings in a serving bowl, add hot sauce mixture and stir together.  Serve.  

Sauce

1/4 c butter

1/4 c. hot sauce

1 dash of black pepper

1 dash of garlic pepper

Combine the butter, hot sauce, pepper, and garlic powder in a small sauce pan over low heat.  Stir together and heat until butter is melted and mixture is well blended.  Remove from heat and set aside for later to coat after the wings are fried.

Our thoughts:  This was definitely a tasty recipe with a hint of heat!  We didn't bother putting them in the refrigerator.  We fried the wings from a frozen state and they turned out just fine because we made sure the oil was 375 degrees.  John made a batch with some wings dipped in milk, then coated the wings in the fry batter mixture, and added some honey.  They turned out black, but didn't taste burnt.  We figured the sugars from the honey and milk speed up the browning process while frying.  They had a nice sweet flavor, but I hated the color of them, ack!  So I made sure we had a brown batch, which was accomplished by following the directions.  The wings were great with Hidden Valley Ranch Green Onion Dip and a side dish of some carrots and celery sticks too.  The next day, we put them in the oven at 250 degrees to warm them up.  The recipe is a keeper and we look forward to making them again!

Mint Brownies

Recipe by Our Best Bites

Brownies:
4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate (4oz)
1 C butter (2 sticks)
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Frosting:
2 C powdered sugar
4 T butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1-2 Tbs milk 
green food coloring

Chocolate Glaze:
6 oz (about 1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips ,you could also use dark
6 Tbs real butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13 inch pan with foil making sure the foil extends over the edges by at least one inch.  Lightly spray with non-stick spray and set aside.  Chop both unsweetened chocolate and two sticks of butter into chunks and place together in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until just melted and smooth.  Set aside to cool, stirring occasionally. With an electric mixer or stand mixer beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla for 2 minutes.  While egg mixture is beating, measure out flour and combine with baking powder.   While mixer is running, slowly add melted chocolate and beat to combine.  Turn beater speed to low and add in flour by spoonfuls.  Mix just until combined.  Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-30 minutes or until a knife poked in center comes out clean.  Cool completely on a metal rack. When brownies have cooled to room temperature, prepare frosting.  Combine all frosting ingredients, starting with 1 1/2 tablespoon of milk, and beat until light and fluffy.  Add more milk by teaspoonful as needed.  Spread frosting evenly over brownies and then place brownies in fridge to chill.   While brownies are chilling prepare chocolate glaze.  Place chocolate chips and 6 tablespoons butter in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until just melted and smooth.  Set aside to cool for about 15 minutes and then carefully spread on top of the frosting layer.  Return pan to fridge to cool.  When chocolate has hardened, use edges of foil to remove entire brownie from pan.  Cut into squares and serve.


Our thoughts:  Beware, these are truly amazing brownies that you won't be able to resist!  This is by far, my most favorite mint brownie recipe ever! I've tried many mint brownie recipes too (never found one that I truly liked until now!) They are rich brownies but not terribly sweet due to the semi-sweet chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate. I loved baking them with the foil method.  Not only was it easy to clean the baking pan, they were so simple to cut into small squares and serve. I ate way too many of these delicious brownies and enjoyed every bite of them!  MMMMMM GOOD!