If you don’t know yet, wings are kind of my thing. 

I play around with flavors, cooking methods trying to find that perfect balance of crispy outside and tender juicy center to compliment.

The texture of wings are what i enjoy the most. I get a sensation from pulling tender meat from its bone. Call it the cave woman in me but I’ve always had an innate urge to chaw at a bone like it was my last meal!

But don’t be too quick to judge, because chowing down on the bone is exactly what you’ll be doing when you try these CRAZY delicious wings. 

 Even better, you don’t need fancy ingredients to prepare this yumminess.  A few easy steps, simple ingredients, and you have a great little appetizer. 

 Squeeze the juice from one lemon. Cover the wings in the lemon juice along with salt and pepper. 

Marinate wings for at least an hour. 

Melt butter in a larger pot. Add some olive oil. 

Add pressed garlic cloves to the butter and olive oil in the pot. 

Simmer butter and garlic on low for about 5 minutes. Watch carefully to prevent burning. 

Add marinated chicken to the pot mix the butter and garlic together with the chicken and make sure all chicken is evenly coated in sauce. 

Cook and mix for 5 more minutes. 

Turn off the stove. 

Turn oven on broil 500 degrees F. 

In a shallow dish place 1 cup of the grated Parmesan cheese. 

Spread Parmesan out evenly. 

One by one put the chicken into the Parmesan and turn around so that all sides are covered in cheese. 

Place chicken on a baking sheet when finished coating.

Place baking rack on the second to the top rack. 

Broil for 15 minutes.

Flip chicken over to cook other side. 

Broil for a remaining 10 minutes or until tops are perfectly bubbly brown. 

I like all food, and sometimes that includes food that other people won’t eat.

From Pigfeet to neck bones I have grown up on it all!

I enjoy it all. I eat it all. 

I realize that this will not be a snack that most will indulge.

But my hope is that this recipe reaches all my friends, and one day I will visit their homes and they will have fried up some gizzards using these instructions.

Then we can dip them in a spicy sauce and enjoy as if there is nothing strange happening.

As of now I’ll take those side eyes’ and rude remarks as I offer up some of the weirdly shaped nuggets to my guests.

I’m an old school girl, and I will try to  carry these strange, overlooked, and discarded cuts of meat on to the next generation. I will try.

Most of us have used them to prepare gravy. 

But did you know that when fried they can make a pretty satisfying snack. 

I first use the gizzards to make a well seasoned broth. They make a really great broth. 

I then batter it up and fry them. 

These’ll be apart of our super bowl spread this year!

Maybe you’ll try them. 

Maybe?

Put gizzards, herbs, and spices into pot, cover gizzards with water. 

Bring to boil, cover pot and turn to low. Simmer covered for 2 hours. 

Turn off heat and let gizzard sit in broth for at least 30 more minutes. 

Drain broth from the rest of the pot. Save broth for use later. 

Store in refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer up to 2 months. 

In a bag with flour mix, salt, and pepper drop cooked gizzards. 

Shake bag up 

Heat lard in pot. When temperature reaches 375 carefully place battered gizzards into oil. 

Fry for 2-3 minutes or until brown. When they start floating to the top of oil I remove them from pot.

They can easily get over cooked, remember they’re already done you just want to get the outside crispy.  

Place finished gizzard on paper towel lined plate. 

Sprinkle with a little salt while still hot. 

I was so looking forward to our first Christmas dinner grain free, everyone was on board and for the most part new what was expected.

Well of course I was thrown a curve ball. 

We had more guests then on the initial list and I found out only the day before Christmas Eve which afforded me zero time to change the game.

My list was made, and most of the food materials were purchased.

With the exception of this goat cheese recipe and my grain free mac and cheese there was no dairy as well.

I was skeptical. I wanted everyone to be satisfied and I knew if I cooked the traditionally less than healthy everyone would be happy. 

The additions on our guest list  happened to be family members that would not be as forgiving about the lack of tradition.

Long story short I took a chance and it went great.

It was a huge positive having honest people around who have never even heard of give and honest opinion on my dishes.

Everyone discussed each dish in depth, and it ended up being a successful sort of  focus group.

I’ll definitely be doing it again in the near future.  

We enjoyed  Rib smoked by my brother and a Lamb baked by yours truly. Both were delicious. Unfortunately are perfectly cooked main course quality meat was duped.

They didn’t get their shine on.

They were not the main attraction nor the bell of the ball.

The grand show was taken, robbed, and overshadowed. 

What could over shadow the star of the Christmas dinner show you might ask?

Well it was something quite simple.

A 6 ingredients 5 minute mix of Goat Cheese, basil, pimentos, garlic, olive oil, and salt. 

That’s it. 

Like most things in life effortless is best. 

Something about this mix brought out the best of flavors in the Lamb. 

But that’s not all it’s good for. You can use this mix for all your dipping and spreading needs. 

Crackers, bread, veggies, and then some will be completely content topped with this goat cheese spread.  

I like chicken wings.

I mean I really like chicken wings.  

I can eat a couple of plates stacked of wings all to myself.

My favorite are the two bone flat ones. Big Noah prefers the little drumettes which works out perfect.

I can have my flats he can have his drumettes. 

I like juicy, wet, and sticky wings sometimes. This time it’s my dry rub juicy on the inside salty on the outs. This recipe is salty and sweet, with a lot of chili powder. 

4 simple ingredients and you have a quick plate of appetizing wangz! Yes, I mean wangz…that’s how I say it in real life anyways.

The trick to cooking tender and crispy wings are the  temperature of the oven. It needs to be high. They need to cook quick. 

Set your oven to 400°

Mix together the salt, chili powder, and brown sugar. 

Pat dry wings. 

Rub the seasoning evenly over the wings. 

Spread the wings out onto baking sheet. 

Bake for 30 minutes. 

Close up of the easiest and tastiest wangz ever. 

I hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has quickly come and gone, and it was nice enjoying my family without doing all the work. I made just a few Paleo/Grain Free Side items and three different grain free desserts.

The Non-Paleo family members enjoyed! So of course I felt good about myself. They have even asked me to prepare an entire Christmas menu complete with the desserts!

Now I’m just a little suspicious that all the praise and enthusiasm over my healthy desserts were really just to get me on the hook for Christmas dinner. Either way I obliged and I’m ready to get the ball rolling on making our families first grain free Christmas so good we continue the tradition….forever! I’m hopeful. 

Bacon, Leeks & Sweet Potato Jalapeno Poppers

The recipe I’m sharing today is one of the appetizers I made at Thanksgiving. Only difference was I used white potatoes at Thanksgiving. They were a hit. I mean they were gone before you could say amen.

When I got home I decided test them again for accuracy and switched it up a bit  to add more nutrition. I switched out the white potatoes for sweet potatoes. It not only added more nutrition, it added more flavor as well.

Switching the potatoes were just the addition needed to kick this recipe up a notch.

These will be served at Christmas and I’m sure everyone will enjoy them even more now that I added the sweet potato.

This entire post is a sort of fluke, no planning on my part at all. I was making dinner as always and thought, ” Why haven’t I posted this go-to potato recipe yet?” Probably because it’s so simple or maybe because it’s just yet another potato recipe. 

I’m posting it anyways in hopes that  it will help someone out there on those uninspiring days you need a quick side to serve with a Hamburger, or a delicious chicken recipe. 

This recipe is more a tutorial. If you follow the steps exactly you can use any flavoring or seasons you desire. If you’re having a classic meatloaf like our 7 ingredient Ritz cracker meatloaf you can mix together a quality Herbs DE Provence and salt for a complimentary side. 

The pictures show a simple sea salt, dried parsley, cayenne pepper, and smoked paprika mix which produced a subtle spice beside our Honey and ginger glazed chicken, this night in particular.

Preheat oven to 450°F

Cut potatoes into wedges.

Run potatoes under cold water.

In a large bowl cover potatoes with cold water. 

Let potatoes sit in water for 10 minutes. 

*crucial* Add Bacon Fat/ Leaf Lard to pan and heat for 5 minutes. 

Remove potatoes from water and pat dry. 

Add seasonings and with hands make sure all potatoes are fully coated in flavors. Place potatoes evenly onto PREHEATED roasting pan. 

Be careful hot pan will sizzle.Place potatoes into oven.

After 15 minutes Shake pan and flip potatoes around. Bake potatoes for another 25 minutes or until potatoes are golden and crispy on the outside, tender on the inside.

All done!

What’s a go-to side dish you love?