Sunday Football Feast

Sunday's for me mean football, food, and relaxing with my husband. Today the weather was horrible, we live in Patriots country so if you saw the game on TV you'll have seen snow. That's right snow in October in Massachusetts. CRAZY!! Luckily we only got rain, but it was a rain like I have never seen before, heavy and relentless. Thankfully I had no expectations of even leaving the house today, but that meant that I had to make what I had on hand. See I usually head to the market on Sunday a.m. But there was no way that I was going out in this mess. So what would the pantry/freezer/fridge dictate we have for dinner? Since the weather was crummy and I had to watch Fantasy Football Now @ 11:30 ( yes I have a fantasy football team in my husbands league, and yes I am the only chick!! ) I decided to go for a slow cooker dish, and my luck I found some Keilbasa in the freezer so I decided to throw that in the slow cooker to get things started. I then found chicken wings in the freezer so there ya have it, Keilbasa and Wings. I had a couple of store bought sauces/marinades that I had been wanting to try so I thought the wings were the perfect opportunity. 

My husband and I are big fans of Chicken Wings, especially for football. There used to be this place near our house called Wings to Go and they had about 20 different kinds of wings and you could order them in any amount in increments of five. So you could mix and match. It was a chicken wing fans heaven, and then they closed and we were forced to make them at home if we wanted anything comparable. Now there are many different techniques that people use for wings, and I have tried many of them including frying, baking, throwing them in the slow cooker.  I always come back to simplest of recipes, bake the wings with just some salt and pepper in a 375 degree oven for an hour, then sauce them and return to the oven for 10 minutes. This insures a crispy wing that isn't soggy and not burnt from a sugary sauce. 

While I was in the kitchen preparing the wings I noticed that I had a couple fo apples that were just asking to be cooked. So I again went into the fridge to see what I could make. No ready made pie dough and I was just not up for making my own so I grabbed a tin of Biscuits and decided to make mini biscuit apple pies. A great way to end a yummy meal. 

Slow Cooker Keilbasa  

Set slow cooker to High

Items Needed: 

Slow cooker

• Polish Keilbasa, I used a pork, turkey lite mixture, sliced into rounds
• 1/2 squezze bottle of grape jelly
• 1 jar Chili sauce

•  Add kielbasa, grape jelly and chili sauce to slow cooker and mix together then cook for 3 hours. 
• Check keilbasa and stir, take off lid and leave off but continue to cook for 45 minutes to reduce some of the sauce. 

Serve on its own or with bulky rolls.

Baked Chicken Wings 

Preheat Oven to 375 degrees

Items Needed:

Shallow baking sheet( jelly roll ),cooling rack

• 30 Chicken wings, separated
• salt
• pepper
• Sauces of your choice, I used a Stop and Shop Simply Enjoy brand , Sweet Chipotle and Rosemary Garlic, Franks Red Hot Sauce and made my own Teriyaki
  
• 1/2 cup Sesame Ginger Marinade*
• 1/4 cup Honey*
• 1 tbsp Hoisen Sauce*
• 1/4 c Soy Sauce*
• 2 tbsp Butter 
  

* Use this as a guideline to make your own teriyaki sauce. Adding more of what you think it needs for your family taste.

• Cut wings in center to make two wings, and then cut off and discard wing tip. Place on a rack resting in a shallow baking dish lined, this creates really crispy wings. 
• Sprinkle generously on both sides with salt and pepper, and bake for approximately 1 hour checking and flipping half way through. 
• Meanwhile in a bowl mix together 1/2 cup sesame ginger marinade, 1/4 cup soy sauce,  1/4 cup honey, 1 tbsp hoisen sauce whisk together and taste see what is needs add accordingly, set aside. 
• Melt butter with 1/4 cup Franks Red Hot Sauce
  
• If you like your wings crispier than leave in an additional 10 minutes. 
• Remove chicken from oven and dip each wing in sauce then return to rack and bake an additioanl 10 minutes.   

These came out so crispy and delicious and it was fun to try the different sauces. I have to say both sauces the Sweet Chioptle and Rosemary Garlic where delicious, the Chipotle had a smokiness to it and the Rosemary had a citrus touch to it . 

Apple Biscuit Cupcakes

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Items Needed:

Cupcake pan, cupcake paper, saute pan

• 1 Macoun Apple, peeled, cored and sliced
  
• 1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled, cored and sliced
• 1 pkge Pillsbury Buttery Biscuits 
  
• 3 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Apple Pie Spice
• 2 tbsp Butter 
• Sugar for sprinkling on top
  

• Take each biscuit and split in half, press each half buttery side down onto cupcake paper 
• Melt butter in saute pan, add apples, apple pie spice and 1 tbsp sugar, stir so apples don't stick.
• Cook for about 5-7 minutes then add rest of sugar and continue to stir another 2 minutes ,set aside
  
• Bake biscuits for 5 minutes, take out of oven, they will have puffed up a bit so with the back of a spoon push down the centers to form a cup
• Spoon 1 tbsp of mixture  into center of biscuit, and sprinkle some sugar on each one 
• Bake for 12 minutes or until nicely browned around edges.  

We had these with a scoop of ice cream, YUMMY!!!

ENJOY!