COOKING: Sides and Desserts

I experimented for the first time with chicken wings today. I've been craving them so I bought a pack of 20, found a recipe, and went at it. Last night I covered them in a flour mix and let them sit over night. Today I got them out, added butter to them, and popped them into the oven. They sat on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet so the juices would drip down and keep the chicken crisp instead of soggy. I realized too late that it was only in my imagination that we owned hot sauce (as Bill said we have never bought hot sauce ever) so it was just regular chicken wings. We dipped them in ranch and they were juicy but grease free and yummy.

Since it was cold today, I needed a reason to keep the oven on to warm the house. So after the chicken was done, I made pie dough and let it sit while preheating for pie #1. I cleaned the kitchen up and took care of Katie, then got one pie dough out, rolled it flat, and made a coconut custard pie (one of my favorite types of pie!) it came out looking beautiful and perfect!

After that was pumpkin pie. I made this in a rush though and Katie started to cry. I couldn't believe how easy and fast it was, and though the batter was super liquidy, I decided to go with it and pop it in the oven since Katie was still upset. I started to hurry and put the ingredients away when I grabbed the unopened pumpkin can and went to put it back on the shelf. Oops! I grabbed the pumpkinless pie out of the oven and mixed the pumpkin in, then popped it back in. My other problem was I forgot to cut down the recipe and made enough for two pies. Knowing I wouldn't be making more pie dough soon as I'm out of flour and butter now, I decided to do a deep dish - but forgot to lower the oven temp so it would cook slower and thoroughly. I ended up with dark crust and taking double and a half the normal amount of time. I've yet to try it, but my fingers are crossed. It's the first time I've ever experimented with deep dish pies, so I'm not being too hard on myself.

This morning I wanted to also make cookies, but after I was frazzled with the pie and I needed to prepare dinner for Bill coming home, I decided to stop baking and leave the rest for another day (plus I was running out of room in my fridge!)