Baked Acorn Squash

INGREDIENTS

• Acorn squash
• Kosher salt
• Butter
• Brown Sugar
• Maple Syrup

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cut squash and scoop out the guts.  Great demo video HERE.
3. Put ’em flesh side down on a sheet pan and toss ’em in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
4. Pull ’em out of the oven and flip ’em over.  Sprinkle with kosher salt and put a pat of butter in the crater.  Follow it with 2 or 3 TBSP of brown sugar and a drizzle of maple syrup.
5. Bake in the oven for another 15-20 minutes or until poking it with a fork is like poking soft butter.
6. Remove and let cool for a few minutes before digging in.

Healthier Option:  Skip the salt, butter, and brown sugar.  Just drizzle with honey when you pull ’em out of the oven.  Still NOM NOM!

NOT Healthy Option:  Before you add the goodies in the “crater” add some breakfast sausage.  OMG NOM NOM!  

Chili Garlic Chicken Wings

My husband’s comment as he ate off the last one:  “ Seriously, if it weren’t for chickens, our world would be such a different place.”

INGREDIENTS

• Chicken wings (roughly 20 of ’em after separating)
• 1 TBSP Olive Oil
• 1 TBSP Chili Powder
• 1 TBSP Garlic Powder
• 1 TSP Salt & Pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Brine wings for 30-60 minutes.  (Brine = 2 TBSP kosher salt in ice cold water.)
3. Pat dry wings with a paper towel.
4. Prep wings by cutting into wingettes and drummettes.  Helpful video HERE.
5. Throw ’em into a gallon size plastic ziploc bag, then dump in the rest of the ingredients and massage until wings evenly covered.
6. Optional:  Let ’em marinate in the fridge for a bit.
7. Pour it all on a sheet pan and toss in the oven for about 45-50 minutes or until done.

Really no need for a ton of olive oil since you’re cooking these suckers in the skin.  Plenty of greasy goodness for flavor but I can’t bring myself to eat it.  The skin comes off before I feast.

Also, the recipe calls for chili powder but these are NOT SPICY.  Just flavorful!