I also tried out a new recipe: buffalo wings. Since I don’t have a deep frier (*sigh*), I poked around and found a recipe for baked wings. It’s linked here and pasted below.

The dude loved them (I’m guessing since he ate like eight of them in 15 minutes) and they’re also super yum reheated in the oven. If you like things mega hot, you could sprinkle some red pepper flakes on them after you’ve coated them in the hot sauce.

Ingredients

    3/4 cup all-purpose flour
    1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
    1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    20 chicken wings
    1/2 cup melted butter
    1/2 cup hot pepper sauce (such as Frank’s RedHot®)

Directions

• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and lightly grease with cooking spray. Place the flour, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and salt into a resealable plastic bag, and shake to mix. Add the chicken wings, seal, and toss until well coated with the flour mixture. Place the wings onto the prepared baking sheet, and place into the refrigerator. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Whisk together the melted butter and hot sauce in a small bowl. Dip the wings into the butter mixture, and place back on the baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, and crispy on the outside, about 45 minutes. Turn the wings over halfway during cooking so they cook evenly.

My favorite part of the game time fare was dessert. I’d been craving cupcakes all weekend, so I grabbed a box of Betty Crocker, a can of frosting that sounded like it had the most chocolate/fudge/cocoamazingness in it, and made these little bites of heaven. I think I ate three …

They're round, but I think you get the point.

According to the National Hurricane Center, this is what you need to survive a hurricane. As I have no infants or elderly people living at my house, I obviously chose to focus on the “snack foods” recommendation. Thanks for giving me an excuse, NHC. I stocked up on Sour Cream & Onion Baked Lay’s and (my favorite) Flavor Blasted Goldfish.

Probably the most awesome and important thing I bought at the grocery store was a 90 count bag of Totino’s Pizza Rolls. Pizza rolls are an even guiltier pleasure of mine than Flavor Blasted Goldfish. Pizza inside an egg roll wrapper? Oof. While delicious pretty much any time, they’re especially delicious at 3 a.m. when you’ve just gotten home from the bar. The dude friend and I housed a bag in this fashion a few weeks ago and in a pizza roll-induced euphoria, this is the conversation that transpired:

D: What are these called?

Me: What are what called?

D: These pizza things.

Me: Pizza rolls?

D: Right. But what’s the name name?

Me: That is the name. Pizza rolls.

D: But what if I wanted to buy them? What’s the name?

Me: Oh. Like the brand name? No idea … But they come in a yellow bag. Pizza Rolls.

D: There has to be a brand name. But anyway, I wish we had more of them.*

90 pieces of awesome.

And that’s the thing about pizza rolls. You always wish there were more of them. Lucky for all you guys, you now know the brand name and lucky for me I bought 90 of them on Friday so wishing there were more wasn’t a problem during the weekend of Irene.

The other important purchase I made with regard to hurricane survival was beer. While Stop and Shop seemed to be out of some essentials, like bottled water, Marty’s Liquors was plenty stocked up on supplies that were just as important (if not more so when you’re planning to be trapped in the house for two days). I bought some Sam Summer, which is quickly on its way out, and some Shipyard Pumpkinhead. It was kind of a bridge between the seasons, which I made sure to enjoy all weekend long.

It's that time of year again. Pumpkinhead time.

Finally, to beat the boredom of a rainy Sunday, I baked (and then ate) brownies. When the thought originally occurred to me, I was intent on making them from scratch. I figured it would take more time and they would be more delicious than anything that came out of a box. While I’m sure I was right, the thought of cleaning up several bowls/pots/pans, checking to see if I had all the appropriate ingredients at home, and paying fairly close attention to what I was doing all seemed a little bit much and I settled on a box of Duncan Hines. I figured even if the brownies came from a box, I’d still get to lick the bowl, which everyone knows is the most important part of brownie making.

mmmmm brownie batter.

All in all, I think the biggest lesson I learned this weekend was food (and beer) can help you get through anything – even a category 1 hurricane that’s downgraded to a tropical storm that’s downgraded to “you probably didn’t need to stay home drinking and eating pizza rolls all weekend.”

*To be fair to D, this is probably not the way this conversation happened. I’m sure there was a lot more incoherentness on my part. To be fair to pizza rolls though, this is the gist: they’re the best.

First I want to back up a little bit – I think I said last time that we played Frisbee in Central Park during the day, but really we threw an Aerobie around. If you’ve never played with one of these things, you totally should. I had one when I was a kid and it got stuck on the neighbors’ roof and I vividly remember being devastated. It’s like a hybrid Frisbee/boomerang, and if the wind catches it right it can sail forever. I noticed a lot of people wanted to get into our Aerobie toss – and then I noticed they were all dudes. And then I realized that if you’re single, tossing a Frisbee/Aerobie/football on the grass in Central Park is like going to a bar, only you get to run around more and you don’t have to spend as much on drinks. Even with Patrick around, Becca and I must have been “accidentally” thrown at least five Frisbees/footballs that didn’t belong to us.

Anyway, I digress. With all that Aeorbie throwing and chasing, we were hungry for dinner (and of course more sangria). The the sangria prepared, Becca got started on dinner, and she cooked some of the best chicken I’ve had in a really long time – cutlets stuffed with fontina cheese and arugula with some panko bread crumbs on top. A-mazing.

Pre-oven cutlets with lots of garlic and a little bit of salt and pepper.

Even before tasting it, I decided that I was going to have to make this chicken myself at one point or another, so I asked Becca for the recipe. Turns out it’s from Williams-Sonoma – those people are the absolute best at being delicious. Here’s the recipe, straight from the W-S crew:

Baked Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Arugula and Fontina

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing
5 oz. fontina cheese, preferably fontina Val d’Aosta
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, each about 7 oz.
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 large garlic clove, minced
16 arugula leaves, tough stems removed
2 eggs
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried rosemary, crumbled
1 lemon, cut into 8 wedges

Directions:

Position a rack in the upper third of an oven and preheat to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lightly oil a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

Trim off and discard the rind from the cheese. Cut the cheese into four 2-by-1 1/2-inch rectangles about 1/8 inch thick.

Using a flat meat pounder, pound each chicken breast half until flattened to an even thickness of about 1/4 inch. Season the chicken breasts with the salt and pepper.

Place 1 chicken breast, with the long side facing you, on the work surface. Top with one-fourth of the garlic and 4 arugula leaves, torn as needed to fit the breast half, leaving a 1-inch border uncovered on all sides. Top with a piece of cheese. Starting at a short end, roll up the breast, tucking in the arugula as needed; set seam side down. Repeat with the remaining chicken, garlic, arugula and cheese.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and 1 Tbs. of the olive oil. In a shallow dish, stir together the bread crumbs, oregano and rosemary. One at a time, coat a rolled chicken breast with the egg mixture and then roll in the bread crumbs, coating evenly. Place the breaded breasts, seam side down, on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Place the oiled baking dish in the oven and heat until very hot, about 3 minutes. Carefully arrange the breaded breasts, seam side down, in the hot dish. Drizzle evenly with the remaining 1 Tbs. oil. Bake until the bread crumbs are golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center of a stuffed breast registers 170°F, 25 to 35 minutes.

Transfer the chicken to a carving board. Cut each stuffed breast crosswise into slices about 1/2 inch thick and transfer to warmed individual plates. Serve immediately, and pass the lemon wedges at the table. Serves 4.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma New Flavors for Chicken, by Rick Rodgers (Oxmoor House, 2008).

Becca served her version with asparagus and when everything came out of the oven I almost ate it all right off the baking dishes.

Baked Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Arugula and Fontina + asparagus

Patrick suggested that we eat at the table, rather than standing around the kitchen island, so I poured myself another glass of sangria, loaded up my plate and promptly began stuffing my face. Not only did we eat every piece of chicken and every piece of asparagus, Becca and a meticulously ate all the extra melted pieces of cheese and stray panko crumbs that were left in the baking dish. Ballin.

Ready to rock with sangria in the background.

With bellies full and showers taken, we were ready to get really crazy – it was time for Catch Phrase, one of my all time favorite games. Patrick and Becca’s friend Chelsea joined us and things got a little competitive. And also increasingly difficult as the sangria ran out and the beers were cracked open. I think we played best two out of three and I think Patrick and I lost to Becca and Chelsea … I think.

Patrick admiring Becca's Catch Phrase skills.

After that we headed to a local bar with Patrick’s awesome sister Jen where we set a high score in Nudie Photo Hunt. The last stop of the evening was the Galaxy Diner for mozzarella sticks and chicken fingers, because, you know, I really hadn’t eaten enough that day.

All in all, it was the perfect weekend trip. I’m unimaginably lucky to have such great friends and additionally lucky that they love to eat just as much as I do.

Pomodoro. Lots of garlic. No sauce.

Mmmmm Diavola.

Becca makes sure I'm presentable at all times.

The pomodoro was a great choice for a hot day – it’s not cooked and there’s no sauce, so it’s pretty light. I gotta say, though, the soppressata on the Diavolo (which I definitely had to Google as I was perusing the menu) was amazing. It was kind of like a less greasy pepperoni. I think it was the table favorite. Food-wise, anyway. The real table favorite was the sparkling sangria.

I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous that we weren’t going to get any sangria. The waiter suggested it and as Patrick and I were discussing red, white or sparkling, Becca chimes in with “You guys want to drink? It’s only noon.” It would have been cute if it wasn’t so dangerously close to putting a damper on the best part of Saturday brunch. Luckily, we were able to persuade her and it was probably one of the best decisions I’ve made in recent history because it was the best sangria I’ve ever had. We even asked the waiter for the recipe, which goes like this:

• Prosecco
• Peach nectar
• A mix of fruit
• Coconut rum
• Something I can’t tell you (literally, that was the last ingredient he told us)

We decided we had to make it and after a few hours of walking and Frisbee in Central Park we stopped at the Amish and picked up the fruit (we used orange, lemon, lime, white peach, green apple, red apple and mango).

Sangria fruit!

We cut up all the fruit and let it marinate in the coconut rum for about an hour (mostly because we were really impatient, I’m not sure how much rum actually soaked into the fruit). Then we mixed the fruit with a full bottle of peach nectar and two bottles of Prosecco. Brilliant.

Rum soaked fruit.

With sangria in hand, we set our sights on dinner and decided to cook at home. Mouthwatering descriptions and photographic representation of what we ate to come in Part 2.

I recently downloaded the Martha Stewart Cocktails app for my iPad and even more recently got to try out my first recipe. Barbecue bound and intent on winning the hearts of my dude-friend’s sister and brother-in-law, I (with the help of said dude-friend) decided on a bourbon drink with muddled peaches, blackberries and mint.

Sounds awesome, right? Well I’m not going to say it was unawesome, because if you like bourbon it was fantastic. But I like peaches and blackberries and mint and there wasn’t a lot of fruit flavor going on in those drinks.

I think the problem was in my muddling technique, which is weird because I watched a video about it in the Martha app so you can understand how I’d be baffled by my non expertise. I’ve come to the conclusion that you really need one of those wooden pestle things. Remember that Bacardi mojito commercial where the bartender is muddling the mint with the wooden pestle thing and all people uncontrollably dance around to the rhythm of his mashing? Yeah – that wooden thing he’s got there. I need that.

I’m not trying to say that these drinks didn’t make us dance around a little, Bacardi mojito style, but I am saying of you want to make muddling happen do yourself a favor and equip yourself properly.

Slow Cooker Chili
I use bison meat (which is super delicious f you’ve never tried it) and ground turkey, which is why I’m giving it the low fat label – both these meats are definitely better for you than beef, so happy chili-ing.

1 lb bison
1/2 lb ground turkey
1 can kidney beans (or pinto beans or whatever kind of beans you like)
1 or 2 cups onion, diced (depending on how much you like onions)
1 tomato, diced
1 large can crushed tomato
1 small can tomato paste
pepper
salt
garlic powder
cumin
chili powder
red pepper flakes
paprika

Brown the two kinds of meat together and combine it with all the other ingredients in the slow cooker. I never really measure the spices – I just put in what I assume is enough (if this is new for you, you might want to low ball it a little) and then taste it frequently as it cooks. I add a little more of whatever tastes good as I go. You’ll figure it out, don’t worry. Cook it in the slow cooker on high for an hour or two, then turn it down and cook for three or four hours more. The longer it simmers, the better it tastes.

I usually serve it with lots of extra sharp cheddar and tortilla chips (which I guess probably negates the low fat business from earlier). Yums.

My birthday was this week and it seems that the older I get, the less I want a crazy party and the more I just want to eat all day. Luckily, I have friends that know me so well that that’s exactly what I got to do this year. The day started with two birthday gifts from my mom – a gift card to Dunkin Donuts and a bag of Flavor Blasted Goldfish.

I think this is an appropriate time to go off on a bit of a tangent about how awesomely awesome Flavor Blasted Goldfish are. I open a bag and I’m immediately in snack time heaven. We’ve even taken to buying the giant carton size rather than the bag at my house because they’ve become so popular. Do yourself a favor and get your hands on some. And then lick your fingers. You won’t be sorry.

Anyway, my birthday pre-brunch morning time snack was an iced blueberry coffee with cream (yep, cream. birthday splurge) and a handful of Flavor Blasted Goldfish, as my mom had sent me three bags of them in my birthday box. That great start to the day got even greater with the arrival of an amazing bouquet from Winston Flowers.

Swoon.

And because it seems that I can’t do anything without food making an appearance somewhere, there were mint leaves in the bouquet – a fragrant detail the Bouquet Bearer was quick to bring to my attention.

After delivering his partially edible gift, my flower bearer and I headed to Parish Cafe on Boylston for a completely edible gift. Parish is my usual Saturday brunch destination with Ilena, but it has my favorite chicken salad sandwich in the city so I strayed from routine and enjoyed the Bond Herb Roasted Chicken Salad sandwich and a strawberry basil martini.

Birthday brunch at Parish.

As if Flavor Blasted Goldfish and chicken salad sandwiches weren’t enough, my roommates and I did birthday Chinese food in style from Golden Temple. It’s been my favorite Chinese food since I was a kid, and getting takeout was definitely the way to go – game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals had all our neighborhood joint overflowing with fans. So we stayed in and praised Tim Thomas and the Bs from the comfort of our couch.

Spending the day with my favorite foods, a few of my favorite people and another championship for the city of Boston – not a bad way to spend the first day of 27.

So I’ve given in to the requests and resigned myself to doing something that I actually enjoy. Here we go:

As the summer and warm weather have finally arrived in Boston, I find myself anxiously anticipating weekends and frequently in search of bars with patios. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much everyone’s plan in this city when the sunshine arrives, so the other weekend Ilena and I found ourselves lunching next to some huge windows – an acceptable alternative to patio dining.

We sat in the lower level of The Met Back Bay on Newbury Street, under huge picture windows that not only let in the sun but allowed us to wave at a cute kid eating with his family on the patio (which, admittedly, got less cute the longer and more frequently he stared at us). With the filtered sun on our face, we needed cocktails in our hands and, as we’re known to do, picked the best drinks on the menu. A sucker for Bloody Marys, Ilena ordered one that was as spicy as she could have hoped for and packed with olives. I ordered Blueberries for Sal, Shock Top beer, blueberrry vodka and fresh lemon. It was more than amazing and perfectly refreshing for the super warm Saturday.

As tasty-delicious as our drinks were, the food was even more yum. Ilena had a chopped salad, one of her favorite things. She said it was amazing and I believed her – there was absolutely none left in the bowl about 15 minutes after our server brought it to her. I had the BBQ Pulled Pork, which came on a perfectly toasted roll with slaw and a pork rind on top, just in case you really needed a reminder that this wasn’t a low cal lunch. I wound up eating it with a knife and fork, which might be against some kind of barbecue rules, but being a rule breaker never really bothers me much.

BBQ pulled pork with Blueberries for Sal in the background.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that this won’t be my last trip to the Met. Apparently they have a ham and cheese bar (we walked passed it on the way to our booth), and frankly pretending I can tell the difference between ham that’s been expertly smoked for three weeks and what comes in the Hillshire Farm deli pack sounds awesome.

Get excited. We’re coming back.