Healthy Hot Wing Chicken Strippers

Jason loves his hot wings, and I love Native New Yorker's "hot strippers," although I always laugh when I have to place my carryout order for that.  Full disclosure, I actually prefer the "honey hot" flavor, which just sounds even more stripper-ish.

Alas, I decided to try to make my own- and they were awesome!  Super easy, very healthy and if your chicken tenders are on a good sale price, they cost about $2.oo/lb out the door, which is way better than Native's $9.99/lb, plus the extra frying calories etc.

Healthy Hot Wing Chicken Strippers
chicken tenders (about a pound, two if you have a crowd)
Frank's Hot Sauce (Buffalo, whatever, half a jar will make a pound easy)
honey, if you like a touch of sweet
ranch, if you like

If you have time and the motivation, marinate your strippers in a bag with the hot sauce.  Transfer to a hot, greased grill and let cook for just a few minutes on each side.  The tenders are small and thin and they don't take long to cook.  Toss the grilled tenders with extra sauce in a mixing bowl (whisk in the honey with the sauce before adding the chicken, if you're so inclined) and serve with ranch.

Enjoy!

Appletini Jell-O Shots

I am going to a 4th of July party tomorrow at a close friends house and wanted to bring something festive.  Her dad is quite the Appletini maker and so he helped to inspire this creation.  I never really found a recipe for this- just saw ideas and variations and made this my own.  I did try one tonight and it was really good!  You can definitely taste the alcohol, almost an after effect, but it isn't so strong that it is unpleasant at all.  I think the cherries are adorable and fun!  I recommend using lime flavored jell-O.  I heard there is a sour apple flavor, which I am sure would work great, but I never found it.  You definitely want the bright green color.  The recipe is easy to double, and I would imagine you could do more with it too if you had a big enough pan!  I bought my 2 ounce containers and lids (125 of them!) from Smart and Final for about $6 total, and I have enough left over to try this out again!  So many possibilities!  I am inspired! ;-)   

Appletini Jell-O Shots

3 oz box of lime jell-O 

8 oz. water

5 oz. Sour Apple Pucker

3 oz. Vodka (I used regular but apple flavored would certainly work.) 

maraschino cherries

disposable 2 oz. cups and lids (maybe sprayed muffin tins would work?)

This makes about 16 one-ounce cups (which I guess makes sense since that is how much liquid you use!)  Actually, I made a double batch and got 35, which is about 17, so I guess those cherries fill up the cups a touch. :-) 

Boil 8 oz of water and put one cherry in each cup while you wait.  Add in the Jell-O mix and stir for two minutes, until fully dissolved.  Add in the Sour Apple Pucker and Vodka, and then transfer to a measuring cup with a spout so it is easier to pour.  Fill each cup just to over the cherry, about half way.  Let chill in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours or overnight.   

Bristol Farms Chocolate Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies

So this recipe is getting blamed on my mom, ALL THE WAY.  First of all, every time we come to visit, she has at least a few of these gigantic gourmet cookies sitting on her counter, just calling my name.  They are worth every calorie but they're intense!  Well, she found the recipe and sent it my way, and now I've made it twice in under a week.

It is a very easy and basic recipe, no fancy ingredients needed.  I could have sworn it was chocolate on a peanut butter cookie, but it turns out, it is just a basic cookie with peanut butter in the chocolate frosting that I am tasting.  They taste good on day one, but they will knock your socks off on day two.  None have ever survived longer than that, but I would imagine, as long as you keep them covered from the beginning, they'd keep just fine and in theory, could probably freeze too.  They do not move when they cook at all- I made a double batch of small cookie scoop size balls and fit a ton of cookies on one sheet.  No eggs, baking soda or powder- nothing.  What you see is what you get.  I baked my cookies for probably close to ten minutes, both when I made them big and small.  It is kind of hard to tell that they are "ready," so I had to try to move them softly and sort of pick them up to see if there was any color on the bottom.  The recipe makes about 14 big scoop size cookies, which is not a lot!  One or two of these bad boys all satisfy you, though, in their defense.  This recipe is easy enough to double, however, and if I am making it for a lot of friends, I suggest making smaller cookies. :-)

Bristol Farms Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies
1/2 cup butter 
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 1/2 cups flour 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
2 tablespoons milk

For the filling: 
3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips 
2 tablespoons peanut butter 
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 375.  Cream the butter, add the sugar and then vanilla.  Mix in flour and salt.  Roll into even size balls and push your thumb into each cookie to make a depression.  Bake until light golden brown, about 8-12 minutes, depending upon size of your cookie.  Let cool. 

To make the filling, melt the chocolate chips (carefully, without burning) and add in peanut butter, corn syrup, vanilla and water.  Put into a piping bag with a large Wilton 1M tip.  Cool a bit (might need some time in the fridge, 5-15 minutes depending upon how hot your chips were) and then swirl some of that chocolate goodness on top of each cookie.  

Enjoy!