Image Map

Friday, January 16, 2015

Junk @ Home 2015 - Wheat Thins


Welcome to the first installment of my 2015 - Junk @ Home Challenge! I decided to start off this something simple and easy to make. Sadly, it turned out to be a little more tricky than I originally expected. I had to experiment with a few different recipes, roll out the dough in a variety of thicknesses and determine the optimal time to bake the crackers.


In the end, I was successful in making Wheat Thin-like crackers but they weren't the shining star of this particular experiment. If anything, I should re-name this post - Homemade parmesan cheese powder. Years ago, Wheat Thins came in a parmesan flavor. The boyfriend loved this particular flavor and was so sad when it disappeared from the shelves. I thought that I would try to recreate them and set about trying to figure out how to make a chemical-free parmesan powder.


After a little internet searching, I found that you can create your own cheese powder by dehydrating a low-moisture cheese. Since I don't own a dehydrator and don't have the space in my kitchen to put sone, I decided to go with the low-fuss, oven-drying method. I left Shredded parmesan in the oven, with the light on, for twenty hours. At the end of that period, I was left with a crumbly, low-oil parmesan cheese. A quick whir in the food processor with some freshly cracked black pepper and I had a flavorful parmesan cheese powder. The crackers were tasty, but it was this cheese powder that will be topping my pastas for the next few weeks!


One Year Ago: Slow Cooker Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
Two Years Ago: No-Bake Granola Bars
Three Years Ago: Cherry Stripper Cookies
Four Years Ago: Pineapple Chutney & Chicken

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Smokey Baked Chicken Wings

Some people are spouting on and on about "New Year, New You!"

I'm eating chicken wings.


And French fries. French fries that I deep fried myself. (But we'll talk about those another day)


Sure, I could spend January lecturing you all about "eating healthy!" and "turning a new leaf!" and "detoxifying your body!" But that's not my thing. We make candy here in the Wilde Kitchen. No date on the calendar is going to change my cooking habits!


To be serious though, these chicken wings are actually not terrible for you. They are baked in the oven and flavored with a spice rub and minimal oil and... THEY TASTE AMAZING! You seriously need to make these wings tonight. You need a bunch of different spices for this recipe, so you may need to hit up the grocery store for this one.


Go to the grocery store. Make these chicken wings.  Do it do it do it!!!

Thursday, January 1, 2015

2015 Challenge - Junk at Home!

It's a new year and that means it's time for a new Wilde Challenge! I failed miserably at my 2014 challenge. I only wound up cooking from 19/115 of my cookbooks. And... I bought a few more cookbooks this year. Maybe this will just be an ongoing personal challenge.  

I think my failure was for three reasons. 1. I was traveling for about 1/3 of the year and didn't cook very much during my heavy travel times. 2. We moved house and our kitchen was a huge mess for about a month and a half. 3. This challenge wasn't very exciting! I really enjoyed my Homemade 2012 challenge because I had specific goals and really fun food items to make.

I polled my all of you on Facebook and asked "What are your favorite junk foods?" I decided to go with a similar format as the 2012 challenge this year and have scheduled some pretty fun and tasty junk food challenges for 2015!



January 16 - Wheat Thins - Parmesan Crackers

January 30 - Cheez Whiz - Spray Cheese!

February 13 - Girl Scout Samoas (aka Caramel Delights) - Dark Chocolate - Salted Caramel Samoas

February 27 - Twinkies - Gourmet Snack Cakes

March 13 - Cadbury Creme Eggs - Half-Shell Creme Eggs

March 27 - Jelly Beans - Attempted 3 times! So many failures...

April 10 - Cheese Popcorn

April 24 - Oreos - Classic Oreos

May 22 - Chipwich - Chocolate Cookies with Mint Ice Cream

June 19 - Sno-Balls - Classic Sno-Balls

July 17 - Girl Scout Thin Mints - Thin Mints (From 2013)

July 31 - Snickers with Homemade peanut butter nougat and from-scratch caramel!

September 25 - Donuts - Brownie Donuts with Peanut Butter Frosting

February 4, 2016 - Fritos - Fauxritos

February 18, 2016 - Moon Pies - Classic Vanilla Moon Pies

March 24, 2016 - Tootsie Roll Pops - Chocolate taffy coated in Grape Hard candy

April 14, 2016 - Coca Cola - Cherry Coke

To complete in 2017...

Cherry Poptarts

Nacho Cheese Doritos

Oatmeal Creme Pies

Orange Soda

Little Debbie Cakes

Hostess Apple fruit pie

Combos

Candy Canes
Related Posts with Thumbnails