Maple Chicken Drumsticks & Prosciutto-wrapped Asparagus

As per popular request, here's the recipe Tom's mom gave me for maple chicken drumsticks. We had it at a family dinner a few weeks back and Tom just goes crazy for it, so I knew I needed to get the recipe, stat!
I'm not sure what book she got it from, and I'll probably never see the book, since it was in storage in the shop during the move-out, tear down the old house, rebuild the new house, move back in phase and it got mouse poo all over it so I think she was going to throw it out after rescuing some key recipes. Whatever book it's from, it's an easy, delicious meat to make for company coming over. Or just to eat because it's so yummy....

Maple Chicken Drumsticks
Serves: 2-3 people
Total time: 1.5 hours


2 lb drumsticks (around 10)
1/3 cup flour
vegetable oil


1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp sherry, or water
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp pepper


1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Put flour in a shallow bowl and coat the drumsticks well with it.
3. In a large frying pan, heat enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan until it is nice and hot*. Once oil is hot, brown the chicken, turning often - about 5-10 minutes. 
4. While the chicken is browning, whisk together the syrup, vinegar, water, soy sauce, ginger and pepper together in a small bowl.
5. Arrange chicken in a single layer in a baking dish and pour the sauce evenly over the chicken.
6. Bake, uncovered, at 375 for 30 minutes. Turn chicken pieces and bake for 45 minutes longer.


ENJOY!!


*You want to make sure the oil is hot enough so the chicken will start sizzling as soon as you put it in. Otherwise it'll just soak up oil instead of browning up nicely. If you're wondering how to tell when the oil is hot enough, I looked it up a tip that I've never actually tried myself (and probably should sometime) on About.com: 
"The easiest, and safest, method I have found is to stick the end of a wooden spoon into the oil. If you see bubbles form around the wood and they start to float up, your oil is hot enough to cook with.
While a drop or two of water will work, a wooden utensil really is safest. I can never stress enough that water and hot oil do not mix."


You can see on the picture, there is also some asparagus on the plate. But what could possibly be wrapped around the asparagus? I'll tell you: prosciutto! Such a tasty treat, such a yummy meat to eat :)


I blanch the asparagus and then dump it in an ice bath to stop it cooking. I then spread a slice of prosciutto with some spreadable cream cheese and wrap it around 2 or 3 stalks of asparagus. I lay them out on a small baking sheet, put it under the broiler for a few minutes until the meat crisps up a little bit and then serve it up. Super easy and delicious.
I was planning to try it next time without the blanching step, to see how the asparagus turns out that way, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. 


Mmm, I almost feel like making a second dinner....

Sweet & Spicy Bacon Chicken with Crash Hot Potatoes

Food, ah food. It seems it's been since February since Tom and I have "eaten". Sorry about that. I usually only feel inspired to post if I make something new that turns out fantastically, whereas if I'm making meatloaf or something else that seems 'normal' to me, it doesn't seem Inspired enough to be worthy of The Food Blog. Besides, we went through a laptop crash somewhere in between then and now as well, so that doesn't help.


Well, I loaded pictures off the camera onto the new laptop this week and discovered some yummy looking meals that we've had in the past while. Today's recipes are for a yummy bacon-wrapped chicken and smashed baked potatoes. Very tasty - when I saw the pictures, I started craving right away, so guess what we'll be eating tonight? :)


Sweet & Spicy Bacon Chicken 

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 30-40 minutes

Total time: around 45 minutes

What you'll need:
4 chicken breasts cut in thirds (12 pieces)
bacon slices

salt and pepper to taste

garlic powder

chili powder

brown sugar

(recipe is from this website)

Crash Hot Potatoes (recipe is adapted from this website)

Total time (using top-heat in the oven, not baking at 450): 30 minutes 

potatoes (as many as you like, cut in half)

3 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

herb of choice to taste (I think I used some basil, oregano and roasted garlic & red pepper flakes last time)

Boil potatoes in a pot of salted water until they are fork-tender.

Generously drizzle olive oil on a baking sheet and place the potatoes on it, leaving plenty of room between each potato.

With a potato masher (I actually found a fork worked better), gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again. You may find they sortof fall apart all over the place instead of just smooshing down. That's okay. They'll still taste good in the end!


Brush the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil and sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and whatever herbs you feel like using.

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. (or, as I think I did last time, I just put them on the top rack and set the broiler on them for 5-10 minutes - much faster, haha).

This results in potatoes that are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Mmm, we loved them and couldn't stop gobbling them up!

Strawberry Vinaigrette Salad or: A Salad Convert's Testimony

Okay, so, growing up, I was never one for salads. My father didn't eat them, we didn't eat them in our house, and I turned up my nose at them at occasions which required me to end up with a plateful of salad in front of me. Thankfully, taste buds can change! My very first enjoyed taste of salad was at the East Side Mario's on Upper James. I believe I was there with my mother and one or both of my sisters. I tasted my sister's Caesar salad and I was hooked! Since that time, if a regular salad was offered, I would usually not eat it, but I would always take Caesar salad when offered the option. Little by little, other salads began creeping into my mouth. Usually what made it passable (tasty, even?!) would be a fruity vinaigrette dressing. 
I was totally unprepared for how deeply I would fall in love with salad when we went to our dear friends, Pete & Bri's, wedding last July (yes, I know the grammar was terrible just there - sorry, sorry). A honey-mustard dressing served over a bed of greens with pecans and roasted pears and, gasp, goat cheese. Oh. My. I have wanted to taste that salad again so many times since then I really couldn't count them.
The next best salad I had between now and then was a delightful concoction served to us at the Barbara Caffe, in Stoney Creek. Tom and I had gotten a discount voucher for a 5 course tasting menu at this fabulous, authentic Italian restaurant, where we had dined once before with his parents. The meal was fabulous all the way through, and I drank so much wine I was afraid of the high heels I was wearing. (No, I was not drunk, just feeling fuzzy - I usually only have maybe a glass or a half a glass, and that night I had 3 glasses of various wines!). But my favourite part of the meal? The salad. 
The description of this salad on their online menu is this:
Insalata Caprino: Mesclun salad topped with warm grilled vegetables, cherry tomatoes and soft goat cheese and tossed with a balsamic and sundried tomato dressing
Um, yum?
Again, it's the goat cheese that gets me. It looks all dry and crumbly but then it's warm and melt-in-your-mouth creamy-delicious. 


Anywho, Tom and I were discussing the possibility of me trying to make my own fruity vinaigrette dressing this weekend and when I asked him this morning what he wanted for dinner, all he requested was a salad with a fruity vinaigrette dressing. 
And this is what we had:

- Spring mix greens
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Grapes
- Chopped walnuts
- Warm crumbled goat cheese
- Strawberry vinaigrette dressing (which was sortof based off a recipe from allrecipes.com: 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 2 tbsp (I added lots more) of mashed strawberries, mixed together)


I see now that usually the ratio is a bit different, with something like 3 parts olive oil to 1 part balsamic. But we love balsamic vinegar, so the taste of it in the dressing was something delightful to us. 
Maybe I'll learn to make proper salads that I can be proud of yet! This was surely a good start - it was sooooo delicious, we both probably could have just eaten that for dinner - all that fruit in there and then the goat cheese. Sigh....Delightful. My taste buds are still dancing, 2 hours later!