Buffalo Wings

This is my family's favorite wing recipe.

Buffalo Wings

24 chicken wing pieces
¼ cup melted butter or light olive oil
¼ cup hot pepper sauce
3 tablespoons vinegar
3 tablespoons hot pepper jelly (optional)
1 package dry ranch dressing mix
½ tsp paprika

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. Dip chicken in mixture of butter or olive oil, hot pepper sauce, vinegar, and hot pepper jelly.

The recipe for Hot Pepper Jelly is posted below. I make it every fall. It adds sweetness to the recipe.

Ready for coating

Put chicken in baking pan. Sprinkle chicken with dry dressing mix and paprika.

Bake for 40 minutes. Broil for a few minutes to brown.

Hot Pepper Jelly
2 Medium red or green bell peppers, cut into eighths - The color of the pepper will determine the color of the finished jelly. I do both green and red because it makes a wonderful plate of festive crackers at Christmas time.

6 Jalapeno peppers, cut in half, 4 with seeds, 2 without - I use red jalapeno pepper for the red jelly.
8 Cups sugar
2 Cups cider vinegar
2 - 3 ounce pouches of liquid pectin

Combine peppers in processor or blender; pulse until chopped fine or pureed. In large pan stir together peppers, sugar, and vinegar. Boil over high heat for 5 minutes. Add pectin. Return to boil for one minute. Skim foam.

Ladle into 9 sterilized ½ pint jars, wipe tops, put on lids and rings. Process in water bath for 15 minutes. Store in a cool dark place.

Serve over crackers spread with cream cheese.
I don't have pictures of this recipe being made because I haven't made it yet this year. I'll post pictures later this fall.

Dinner - Stir Fry

Broccoli Chicken Stir Fry
1 package rice sticks
1 ½ pounds chicken - cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup chicken broth
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons basil
4 teaspoons corn starch
¼ to ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots sliced
4 cups broccoli florets
1 bundle green onions - sliced
½ cup peanuts or almonds - optional

Sauce: Stir together basil, cornstarch, cayenne; add broth and soy sauce - set aside. I double the sauce recipe.

Preheat oil in wok or large skillet over medium high heat. Stir fry carrots for about 1 minute. As you can see, I used baby carrots - so I used more than two :)

Add broccoli. Stir fry 2 minutes.

Add green onions - stir fry for another 2 minutes. Yes, I know I used purple onions, but it is what I had on hand - it was still delicious.

Remove vegetables from pan.
While chicken is cooking cook rice sticks. Place in pan of boiling water (yes, you need to take them out of the package first), turn off heat, cover, and let sit for 10 minutes. Drain, return to pan, and keep warm until ready to serve.

Stir fry chicken till done.

Add nuts.

 

Pour sauce over meat and nuts. Cook and stir till thick and bubbly. I made double the amount of sauce because I like sauce.

Return vegetables to pan; stir to coat.

 Serve immediately over hot rice sticks or rice.

One thing I love about making this recipe is taking the leftovers to work the next day. The flavor is even better.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie

After two days of sad posts, I thought I better post something happy so I don't scare all my readers away. Happy for me is food and what says "Happy," better than fresh strawberries and cream cheese? I will share tonight's dinner recipe later today so that I can get pictures for you.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie
1 – 9 inch baked pie shell - cooled
1 pint fresh strawberries (I always add more because can you ever really have too many strawberries?)
1 package strawberry Danish Dessert
8 ounces cream cheese - softened
3 Tablespoons powdered sugar

Prepare Danish Dessert following directions on package for pie glaze.

Chill in sink of ice water - but don't get the ice water in the dessert mixture.

With electric mixer, combine cream cheese and powdered sugar. Beat until smooth. Spread in the bottom of cooled pie shell.

Clean, remove caps, and slice strawberries. Add to cooled Danish Dessert.

Pour filling/strawberry mixture over cream cheese mixture in pie shell. Chill for several hours before serving.

This pie is so good that even my son who doesn’t eat sweets loves it. I make my pie shell using the standard oil pastry recipe. You can use any pie shell you want – even pre-made.

Happy Easter

Today was a beautiful day even though it was too cold for April 4th. We had the 3D kids and grandkids over for dinner - along with the great-grandparents. The food was wonderfully delicious. We had a fun Easter egg hunt; it was funny to see the kids so excited that they ran right past the eggs hidden in plain sight. I love Easter because of the symbolism of re-birth and new life. I am thankful for the gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. His gift to me has helped me in more ways than I can count.

This is what we ate for dessert. This recipe is simple and so yummy!
Strawberry Jello Shortcake
1 large package strawberry Jello
2 pounds fresh strawberries – washed and hulled
¼ cup sugar
1 – 12 ounce container extra creamy Cool Whip
1 angel food cake

Prepare Jello as directed on package; refrigerate to soft set stage. Crush strawberries with a pasty blender.

Stir sugar into crushed strawberries. Stir strawberries into soft set Jello. Tear angel food cake into bite sized pieces and place in a 9X13 baking dish.

Pour Jello mixture over cake. Cover and refrigerate until set. Top with Cool Whip and serve.

Some of you may wonder why a D.I.D. blog has so many recipes. When I was a girl, I went hungry often. One time several years ago a doctor asked me if I had a calcium rich diet when I was young. Her question made me cry because calcium was the least of my worries. I didn’t have a food rich diet. Time will tell what damage those years of malnutrition will do to my body. So far I am healthy. I pray my good health will continue. Now that I am in charge of my life, I can buy and cook anything I want. I get an immense amount of pleasure from well prepared food. I become stressed if we get low on food in our house. Because of this, our home is a house of plenty. I feed people to show my love for them. Everyone who knows me, knows that if they come to my house for any kind of party or celebration, there will be good food - a lot of it. Consider my recipes a way of me sharing love with all of you who read this blog.

Spicy Chicken Wings

I made this recipe last night for dinner. I have another recipe for chicken and we can't decide which one we like better. I'll post that one the next time I make it. I nearly forgot to get some pictures of the finished product. There were four left over after we all ate, so I snapped a picture for you.


30 chicken wings (we buy  them at Costco)
½ tsp salt
½ cup soy sauce
3 T. ketchup
2 T. vinegar
½ tsp. black pepper
1 clove garlic - minced
½ tsp cayenne pepper
3 T honey
1 T lemon juice

Place all ingredients into a large zip-lock bag. Marinate overnight in refrigerator.

Spray baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Place wings and marinade in baking dish. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Turn broiler on low, broil, turning once to add a bit of color.

Ta-Da:

Feed the Littles

I wrote this post last night after dinner.

If you have DID or are familiar with it, you know that littles are the parts, alters, or others who are still babies or children. Alters need the attention and care they didn’t get when the host (the body) was a child. Every person with DID has what is called a system. Each system is unique. DID is a creative coping mechanism that the abused child creates. Because the abuse is severe, alters are created for the sole purpose of helping the host survive the trauma. The child can switch to an alter that was created to deal with the abuse and keep their own identity/mind/self safe. Each alter is created for a specific purpose; they have a role or job. My system has five littles that I am aware of. When I was first diagnosed with DID, I thought there was just me and one child alter. However, as my healing progresses and my alters feel safe, they make themselves known to me. As they become known to me, we can often share co-consciousness which eliminates me losing time when I switch.

When I was a child, we (my sisters, mother, and I) went hungry often. Because of this, I love food and I love to cook. When I am stressed, I find it comforting to feed not only myself, but also my littles. When I take care of my littles by doing things that I know they will like, they learn to trust me which promotes healing and co-consciousness. Some therapists feel that a person with DID is not healed until they have integrated all their parts, but for me, integration is not my goal – co-consciousness is my goal. I hate to lose time more than anything else. When I lose time, I feel like a failure. I know that I need to trust the system and the process, but losing time is scary.

Tonight I made Creamy Chicken Soup and home made bread. The bread turned out so good. I used my Bosch Universal – best kitchen appliance we ever bought. Here are the ingredients I used:

2 cups warm water
3 teaspoons yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons salt
2 handfuls of rolled oats – crushed up a bit
and because I was out of milk, I added two large spoonfuls of plain yogurt.

I mixed in enough flour to make a soft, smooth, non sticky dough, let it double, punched it down, shaped it into two loaves, put it into Pam sprayed loaf pans, let is rise again, and baked it at 375 for 30 minutes. After it came out of the oven, I rubbed butter over the top of the loaves.

This bread was so good. It rose higher, was moister, and had a wonderful texture. I think I’ll keep plain yogurt on hand for the next baking day.

The soup is one of our favorites. It is warm and creamy with chunks of chicken and potatoes.

Creamy Chicken Potato Soup
4 large potatoes, peeled and diced
1 lb chicken breast diced
2 carrots grated
1 cup diced onions
3 cups water
1 cup milk
4 oz cream cheese or Velveeta
1 bag country gravy mix
1 tsp parsley flakes
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese - add at the end - just before serving

Cook chicken until done. Combine water, chicken, potatoes, carrots and onion in large pot. Bring to boil then simmer 15 minutes. Add parsley and cream cheese or Velveeta stirring until cheese is melted. Add milk and gravy mix, stir with wire whisk until all lumps are gone. Cook over low heat or in your crock pot for 2 to 3 hours. Top with shredded cheese just before serving.

Because I never have country gravy on hand, I mix up some chicken bouillon, flour, and spices and use that instead. Tonight I was a bit heavy handed with the pepper and salt, but it still tasted good. My husband who is a salt-aholic said it was just right. My 3D family and my internal alters are all satisfied. Yum!