Cooking Highs and Lows

Reporting back on the appetizers I made for the Super Bowl, the buffalo wings turned out great. We had them again for dinner the other night, but decided to bake them at 425° for about 40 minutes rather than frying them, just to see if there was much difference. When I fried them, they ended up with a nice golden breading, which helped to absorb the hot sauce mixture, so they weren't too messy. But when I baked them, the skin ended up much more crispy, so a lot of the hot sauce ended up running off. They were tasty both ways though.

The third and final snack I made for the big game, which I didn't include in my post last week, was a new Chex mix recipe. I had recently noticed it on a box of Chocolate Chex, and thought that it sounded good. After trying it out, it is definitely a keeper. Kristen and I kept sneaking pieces on Saturday afternoon, and even considered telling everyone that it turned out gross so we could eat it all ourselves. Can it knock Muddy Buddies off its perch as the most addicting cereal based snack mix? Time will tell.

Chocolate Chex Caramel Crunch

• 8 cups Chocolate Chex cereal
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 4 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup vanilla baking chips

Measure cereal into a large microwavable bowl; set aside. Line cookie sheet with waxed paper.

In a 2-cup microwavable measuring cup, microwave brown sugar, butter and corn syrup uncovered on High 1 to 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute, until melted and smooth. Stir in baking soda until dissolved. Pour over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Microwave on High for 2 minutes, stirring after each minute. Spread on cookie sheet. Cool 10 minutes. Break into bite-size pieces.

In small microwavable bowl, microwave vanilla baking chips uncovered on High about 1 minute 30 seconds or until chips can be stirred smooth. Drizzle over snack (we used an icing tip to get nice thin strokes like the photo). Refrigerate until set. Store in tightly covered container.
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Just so you don't think everything I touch in the kitchen turns to gold, I was making some cookies last night—a recipe I have made several times before. As I started gathering ingredients, I realized we didn't have enough butter. We did have Crisco, so rather than running to the store, I just used that instead, faithfully following the butter conversion directions on the can. The recipe said to bake the cookies for 8-9 minutes, and warned not to overcook them, but when the oven timer went off, they just did not look done, so I left them in for another few minutes. But instead of taking shape like a good cookie should, they pretty much melted. Here's a photo of the deflated final result.