HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2018

So thankful for so much: my followers, my family, my wife. For the opportunity to eat so many wings. Health and life in general is good.

Thanks and I wish you all the best as well.

Wing Long & Prosper

Wing King Lord of the Wings

#tbt ~ Happy US Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day & Weekend to those of you down south!!!

See my original post for this photo back in 2013 -  the meal wasn't appropriate for American Thanksgiving (mashed potato poutine, hello? too Canadian), but the spirit is.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2017

Could we change the name to "Thankswinging" ???







#lotw31

Happy Thanksgiving 2015!

This year I'm thankful for a lot of things:

• Chicken wings
• My fiancee
• My family
• Chicken wings
• My Friends
• My Job
• My Apartment
• Chicken wings
• People who still read this blog
• This Blog
• and did I mention chicken wings?

What are you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving!

LOTW

Thanksgiving Wings & Mashed Potato Poutine

I'm on my own for Thanksgiving again this year - working over the weekend - which meant declining two Thanksgivings outside the city. But that's ok because it's also nice to spend some time solo, and cooking. A few years ago I did the same and I made a Turkey wing. I felt I would do something similar but I wanted actual wings . . . but what if I made them Thanksgiving style? What did that mean?

When I think of T-Day, I think turkey obviously, but the other flavour of this holiday for me is stuffing. Stove Top stuffing to be specific. So what if I combined that into a chicken wing breading?

Here are my ingredients:

• 7 Chicken Wings (fresh, split)
• Salt & Pepper
• Cajun Seasoning
• 1 Egg
• about 1/4 package of stuffing (Turkey flavour)
• flour 

I prepared my breading station.

The stuffing mix is basically breadcrumbs and seasoning. Seemed like a natural breading. But would it work?

1. Pack wings in flour/seasonings on wings to give egg wash something to stick to and give some underlying flavour.
2. Dip dusted wing in beated egg.
3. Roll said wing in dry stuffing mixture. Coat well.

Well that looked like it was going to be a big crunchy wings. If it works. PS: those are some jumbo wings even before the breading. I got them from St Lawrence Market. Awesome fresh jumbo wings.

I put the 7 wings on parchment paper and baked them in the oven at 450 degrees for 40 minutes, turning once. I baked them because a) I thought deep frying might burn the bread and b) You roast a turkey in the oven right? Well these should be roasted then.

I gotta say, the smell in the house was roasted poultry and stuffing good. They wings came out and they were lighter in colour than I expected, but the crispy coating looked good. The breading actually stuck on there too!

I like my wings with spice, or at the very least some sort of bold flavour - so I feared that the stuffing flavoured wing (even with some Cajun seasoning) might have been a bit boring. So I made a sauce.

Now I didn't have cranberry sauce, which I thought would be the best accompanyment for this wing. Instead I looked to a pepper jelly sauce, that I have experimented with before (but haven't yet logged on the blog). It's simple; those three ingredients boiled down. The bottle on the right is Third Degree Sauce.

This sauce is sweet, tangy, and zingy with heat. The pepper jelly is my secret ingredient for a wing sauce. Guess the secret is out. Dang.

I decided the wings should be drizzled with sauce and not tossed - partly as to not soggify the wings, but also to make sure the breading stayed on.

Guess what I found at the grocery store? EGG NOG!!!! I can't get enough of this stuff. And for my Egg Nog Project - the Irresistible brand is good - creamy and eggy. Mmmmm.

So at St Lawrence market I picked up some cheese curds. I bought some potatoes and decided I would make poutine. But I got lazy to make fries, and decided to experiment and make Mashed Potato Poutine.

The ingredients above are almost too similar in colour to tell apart.

I used a St Hubert poutine gravy packet - this was some good gravy! Poured over the hot mashed potatoes and the cold cheese.

Now that's a Feast for 1. I also forgot a salad I made and was in the fridge. Oh well, it will go over well with leftovers . . .

The colour palate of the meal was very autumn-like but without the salad, lacked and greenery. But dang it was a good meal.

The mashed potato poutine was a hit. Good potatos, warm soothing gravy. The only complaint was the curds weren't that squeeky, and not all of it melted because I put them on cold.

The Thanksgiving Wings worked out pretty well too.

Structurely they held up really well. The Stove-Top breading clung on well, and the drizzled stinger sauce was just right. Actually, more sauce would have been better. I expected a stronger flavour from the stuffing, but it was kind of mild. But the stinger sauce really kicked these wings up. Sweet and stingy.

These wings truly recreated the experience of a Thanksgiving Meal. 

And as I said the last time:

I am thankful for family

I am thankful for friends

I am thankful for my job and my coworkers

I am thankful for my health

I am thankful for chicken wings

I am thankful for the wing nation and for those of you that read the blog.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011 Thanksgiving Turkey Wings

This Thanksgiving I'm on my own, away from family and friends, doing work and chilling out. And that`s OK because I`m not a huge lover of turkey etc anymore. But around lunch time I thought about doing something wing related, and something T-Day related. I thought, why not make turkey wings?

So I marched down to St Lawrence Market (which was easy because it was simply beautiful out) and toured the stands for turkey wings. Witteveens (witteveens.com) was one of the few stands that did (there were lots of turkeys for sale everywhere though!). I asked for one turkey wing, and the young guy at the counter looked at me like "seriously?". I confirmed just one. One turkey wing was just under a pound. Crazy.

That is a monster wing. Seriously, look how big it is. That's a big wing.

Here's what I did with the turkey wing:

1. Put the wing in a brine: vinegar, water, pepper, spice mix. - it was in for about an hour.
2. After drying the wings, I rubbed them down with garlic powder, pepper, salt, Hungarian Paprika, and a small vial of spice I made for some unknown rub.
3. Bake the wings at about 400. 20 minutes, then flip and bake for another 20 minutes.

After that, I basted the wings in a hot/bbq sauce mix I made, flipping 2 or 3 times every 5 minutes.

With my wings I needed to have something. A vegetables. I walked around the market, looking at all the vegetables. I don't like a lot of vegetables. I was like "I know I won't eat this or that." Then I saw this green cauliflower. I thought, that looks funky, and maybe I can do something with this.

Here's what I did with the cauliflower:

1. Chopped up into florettes, boil for about 5-10 minutes, then drained them.
2. Dusted with flour, seasoned with Cajun seasoning and Hungarian Paprika.
3. Toss.

While the Turkey was in the oven at 400 degrees, I popped these in for about 20 minutes. I love the colours!

To go with the cauliflower I whipped up a quick dip: a little sour cream, cream cheese, mayo and dill popcorn seasoning.

While at the market I walked by the cheese mongers and saw "Red Hot Chili Cheddar Cheese" and "Smoked Gouda with Pepper." I kind of feel bad about how much I spent on these cheeses, because I feel that's decadently expensive. But I'm weak.

I also went over to a chain grocery store and picked up some stuffing. Yes, Stove Top. No matter how 'good' you say homemade stuffing is good, I've yet to try one that I would take over Stove Top. I'm a foodie, but not a gourmand foodie.

Oh, and they had Egg Nog. In early October. Egg Nog. Normally I hate X-mas stuff that is out this time of year, but for Egg Nog, I will make an exception.

And then I brought it all together for a nice little Thanksgiving for one.

I just had the wingette of the turkey wing. It turned out really well. Visually anyway.

Actually taste too. The skin was nice and crispy. I could have just eaten the skin.

 The meat was relatively tender - more than I expected but less than I would prefer. The brine helped for sure.

The best part was dipping the turkey. It was simple, margarine, vinegar, sriracha, BBQ sauce, Worcestershire sauce. Sweet with a little heat.

The cauliflower was actually good. I mean, for someone who hates veggies, this was something I would have in the future. The dip also made an excellent accompaniment. Creamy and dilly. I want to make this dish again, and I might consider frying them to make it crispier.

The cheese was good. The Gouda was smokey. The cheddar spicy. And no, I didn't eat that entire mound.

And the stuffing was good too. I went with "Cornbread" because I had never seen that variety. And it had a hint of cornbread flavour, but not so much that it overpowered the stuffing taste. I made it a little too moist, but it was good. I love stuffing.

Overall, very good meal, complete with leftovers. I am both stuffed and satisfied.

I am thankful for family
I am thankful for friends
I am thankful for my job and my coworkers
I am thankful for my health
I am thankful for chicken wings
I am thankful for the wing nation and for those of you that read the blog.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving, the way it should be

My good friend Ricky from over at "Fuzzification.com" sent me a photo for Thanksgiving. I know, Thanksgiving was several days ago, but I'm just catching up.


It's the message board for a Bar & Grill in London On called The Oar House stating: "SAVE A TURKEY EAT CHICKEN WINGS AT THE OAR".

I totally agree. I would rather have had wings than plain old turkey!

I have yet to go to the Oar house. We were going to go several months ago but it was way too busy. Next time in London hopefully.

Thanks Rick!

Happy Thanksgiving 2008!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

You know what I'm thankfull for . . .