NFC Champs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was a very BIG Sunday Funday for the Faircloughs. We had a busy day planned with friends and the Giants game at 6:30pm. I found a great recipe for chicken wings that I thought would be perfect for the game. I decided to make the wings in the morning since we wouldn't be home all day and then just reheat them before the game. They were a BIG hit!!!

I found the recipe for Caramelized Baked Chicken on Allrecipes.com. I signed up to get their recipe notifications and they have some great recipes. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Caramelized-Baked-Chicken/Detail.aspx?ms=1&prop25=72925097&prop26=DailyDish&prop27=2011-11-29&prop28=DailyRecipe&prop29=FullRecipePhoto&me=1

When I saw how easy these were to make and the small amount of ingredients needed, I knew this recipe was right up my alley.

You will need chicken wings, ketchup, olive oil, soy sauce and honey. I did not use the garlic or salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Now I only had 1.5 pounds of chicken, so I halved each of the ingredients in the recipe. It still made plenty of sauce for the chicken. I used 1 tbsp olive oil, 1/4 c soy sauce, 1 tbsp ketchup and 1/2 c honey.

Make sure to mix all the ingredients together so the sauce is a good consistency. I added in the honey last, so I had to make sure it was mixed through. Top the chicken with the mixture. Try to cover the chicken evenly.

I baked the chicken in the oven for 45 minutes. The sauce was bubbling and the chicken had browned nicely.

After letting the chicken cool, I covered with foil and put in the fridge because we weren't ready to eat them yet. When we were ready to eat, I heated them in the oven for about 15 minutes at 325 degrees. The chicken came out nice and hot and tasted great!



This was a super easy recipe and it would also be a great recipe for entertaining. You could use this mixture with chicken legs too. I may try that next time.

I'm not sure where we will be for Super Bowl, but I hope to finish up the season with a few recipes. If anyone has any favorite recipes for entertaining, please feel free to share!

GO GIANTS!

LETS GO GIANTS!!!!!

What an exciting Sunday for us Giants Fans!!!  We got a great game with a winning outcome!!  We had a very busy Sunday Funday with lots of goodies. This weekend I decided to make side dishes that can go along with any meal you make when entertaining.  Enjoy!!!!

Side dish 1 - Pasta Salad
I found this recipe a few months ago when I wanted to find a new way to make pasta salad. Every time I make it, it is a huge hit. Here is the recipe http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Veggie-Pasta-Salad

This weekend I decided to use some different vegetables than what the recipe called for. I used green pepper, carrots and corn. It is really up to you if you want to follow the recipe or just use your favorite ingredients.

While cooking the pasta, I combined the vegetables, 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar , 2 t dried basil, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp oregano, 1 t salt and 1/8 t pepper.

Once the pasta was cooked, I drained it and rinsed in cold water. I then added it to the vegetable mixture.  I also added parmesan cheese.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Side dish 2 - Cole Slaw

My friend made a delicious cole slaw for New Years Eve and I wanted to find a similar recipe because I enjoyed it so much. This recipe was pretty close to what we had - http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1843,146164-250206,00.html

I first mixed together the 1/2 c oil, 2 tbsp vinegar, 2 tbsp sugar and the chicken flavor packet from the ramen noodles.

I then mixed in a cole slaw mix (from the store already premade) and the package of chicken ramen noodles, broken into pieces. ***I would only add the noodles in 20 minutes before you want to serve this dish. I added them in to early and they got soggy. They are supposed to give the salad a crunchy consistency. However, it still tasted delicious!

Toss all the ingredients together. If you desire, you can add 1 handful of chopped cashews and almonds to the salad.



Side dish 3 - Vegetable Couscous Salad
I found this recipe in a food magazine I get each month. For 4 people, I doubled the ingredients, but the regular recipe calls for 1 package of couscous, red onion, cucumber and tomato.

Cook 1 cup couscous according to the package instructions. In a medium bowl, combine cooked couscous, 1/4 medium red onion, 1/2 thinly sliced cucumber (halved) and 1 medium tomato, cut into 1/2 inch wedges. Add 1 tbsp each extra-virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper if you'd like.  (To store, refrigerate in an airtight container up to 3 days)

These three dishes were enough to accompany two different meals. They are fun to make for company as well!

Next week is another BIG football weekend. Stay tuned!

Playoffs!

It is a good Monday, after a GREAT Giants win! I have 2 recipes to share with you today.

The first one is for BBQ chicken pita pizza. On Friday night, we made BBQ chicken calzones from this recipe http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/BBQ-Chicken-Calzones/Detail.aspx?ms=1&prop25=75115967&prop26=DailyDish&prop27=2012-01-06&prop28=DailyRecipe&prop29=FullRecipePhoto&me=1. These came out pretty good, but if you try this recipe don't totally cook the chicken. When we baked it in the oven the chicken got a bit over cooked, so we will cook it less next time.

We had leftover chicken, so I wanted to find a good use for it.  I had some pita's in the fridge and decided to make a pita pizza. I preheated the oven to 350. I sprayed the cookie sheet and pita with Pam.  I then spread the mixture (bbq chicken and bacon) onto the pita and topped with mozzerella cheese.

I baked this in the oven for about 10-15 minutes - until the cheese was melted.

I cut up into smaller pieces and this was our lunch during the game! It was definitely a good use of the leftover chicken and bacon!

My second recipe of the day was for a Shepherd's Pie.  I've been wanting to make this for a long time now, so I decided that today was the day! I adapted my recipe from http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/easy_shepherds_pie/

I started with peeling and quartering the potatoes. I put them in a pot to boil for about 25 minutes. I probably could have boiled them a bit longer to help with the potato mashing process.

While the potatoes were boiling, I browned the ground beef. Once the ground beef was cooked I added a can of mixed vegetables and mixed it all together.

I added a half can of beef broth to the mixture and kept it on low heat while the potatoes were boiling. Once the potatoes were done boiling, I put them in a bowl and added some butter. I mashed the potatoes up with a spoon the best I could. Next time I make this I will use a few more potatoes. The recipe called for 3, but I didn't have enough to really spoon over the entire mixture.

I then added the beef mixture to the casserole dish.

And topped it with the potatoes

It was a very thin layer of potatoes - that is why I'd use more next time. I put this in the oven at 400 degrees until it began bubbling. With about 10 minutes left, I turned the oven to broil, so I could get the top of the potatoes to brown.

It came out looking and tasting good! We topped with some cheddar cheese as well.

Looking forward to next weekend! See you then!



Sunday Funday Playoff Edition!

The Playoffs have arrived!!!!  We are thrilled that our Giants are in the playoffs, so we wanted to continue Sunday Funday. I was unable to blog over the holidays, so I hope to make up for lost time. Stay tuned later today for a few recipes included in the playoff edition!!!!!