I have recently become obsessed with eating chicken wings. There is large debate where I come from, as to which restaurant us best, Buffalo Wild Wings or Wing Stop. In an attempt to quell this disagreement I have visited both establishments, and have come to a conclusive conclusion.

If you really want to know where your money would be best spent follow me after the break as we discuss the benefits of either wing place.

Buffalo Wild Wings: This place is wild. If you haven’t been before I would definitely recommend it. They always have multiple football games on their large screen plasma TVs as well as games like trivia that customers can play while waiting for their food (Caution, these activities may be habit forming.). Depending on when you go there will probably be a very loud crowd watching the game there, and cheering for their team, but that’s all part of the experience. They have a long list of flavors that all range in varying levels of spicyness. Even the honey barbecue has some kick to it. This is without a doubt the nicer of the two restaurants. When you go in you are seated by a hostess and served by a waiter/waitress.

Wing Stop: I went here on a whim a few nights ago because Qdoba was closed. It’s a totally different experience from BWW. Wing Stop is very much a fast food place. You order your wings at a counter, and pick them up after they are done cooking. There’s not much to say about the environment other than there’s not much to it. There isn’t nearly the selection of flavors that BWWs has, but what they have is pretty good. Don’t expect anything spicy unless you go for a traditional buffalo flavor.

Both restaurants are about the same price as far as wings goes, but there are some exceptions. On Tuesdays and Thursdays at BWW they have half price boned and half price boneless wings respectively. On the other side you don’t have to pay a tip at WS, so that’s probably going to be easier on the pocketbook either way.

In conclusion both places have their merits. I prefer BWWs because of the amount of flavors, and the service you get, but if you’re short on time or money, and don’t mind picking from a limited 6-7 non-spicy flavors Wing Stop is a great alternative.

Ok, you might be thinking to yourself: “Dormchef, why are you teaching us how to make crepes? I’m pretty you need a stove for that, and I don’t have a stove in my dorm room.” The answer is that I don’t have a stove in my dorm room either. However I think that crepes are probably a good thing for everyone to know how to make, and you’re not always in your dorm room. Even I venture out every once in a while, and when I do I sometimes happen across a kitchen. So follow me after the break and find the secrets behind crepes.

There are two secrets that I know of to make crepes. The first is the batter, and the second is the way in which it is cooked. We will discuss both of these in detail, but first the batter. The batter is a lot thinner than a regular pancake batter, and you don’t put any baking soda into it, because you really don’t want the crepes to rise at all while cooking. In general you’ll probably have something like this:

• 1 c. flour
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 c. water
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp. melted butter

Add some sugar and vanilla extract if you’re making a breakfast/dessert crepe.

The key is to get the temperature exactly right, which can be a difficult practice. I like to keep the burner on anything from 6-8 for making crepes. Once you get the pan heated up, grease it with a bit of butter and pour in about 1/4 to 1/2 c. (depending on the size of your pan) batter into the pan. As soon as you do that begin to rotate the pan to get it completely covered. You just want a thin layer of batter equally distributed along the bottom of the pan.

When the batter appears dry on top and starts to peel up on the edges it’s time to flip. Flip the cake and let it sit for about 15-20 seconds before removing.

Cakes will keep in the oven (covered with a dish towel) at 150 degrees for up to 2 hours, in the fridge for about 2 weeks, and frozen for a couple of months, if you’re really into leftovers.

Anything can really go into crepes. I like to serve them with small apple chunks and confectioners sugar, other people use honey or nutella. Really, use your imagination. Anything goes.

I was able to go to the store and pick up everyone’s favorite holiday spices in preparation for some exciting seasonal baking. I also picked up 2 cans of canned pumpkin. I’ll probably use those too.

This week I made pumpkin bread. Now I’m going to warn you, I’m not a pumpkin bread aficionado, in fact I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten it before this week. I’m a much bigger fan of ginger bread, but the former was a suggestion from one of my friends.

I used canned pumpkin, which I assume is acceptable in most holiday baking. I’ve never cooked a pumpkin before, but I’ve read about it and I’m not sure I would be very successful in the dorms.

Anyway, let’s get on with it. Here are the software separated between wet and dry:

• 3/4 c Sugar (to most bakers considered a wet ingredient, don’t as me)
• 1/2 c Vegetable oil (or fat of choice)
• 2 eggs
• 8 oz canned pumpkin or pumpkin purée

• 7/4 c flour
• 1 tsp salt (I forgot to add this — not a good idea)
• 3/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/3 c water?

Ok, quick story. I was just now revisiting the recipe and I saw the water at the end. I totally didn’t add water to my pumpkin bread and it worked out really well. I can only imagine what would happen if water was actually added.

Well first off mix all the dry ingredients and all the wet ingredients together separately*. Pour the dry onto the wet and slowly fold until mixed**. Pour the ingredients into a pan, or two, and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

As always if you try this one I’d like to hear about it. Especially if you use water. This really intrigues me. I might make another loaf…

*Mix the dry together really well. I got a few bites of unmixed baking soda, and sense you fold make sure it’s really well mixed.

**Make sure not to over mix the ingredients once the dry meets the wet.

on a bed of ramen pasta

I am one of those people who really doesn’t like meat sauce on spaghetti. I don’t know what it is about the meat being ground into the sauce, but I just don’t really like it. I think it’s because it’s difficult to get a good serving of meat, sauce, and noodle on one fork.

Because of this I have developed a taste for meatballs. They aren’t really much more than ground meat shaped into balls and thrown into spaghetti, but in my opinion they really add something to an otherwise average dish.

There are only a few ingredients to meatballs, which makes them very simple to make. Really there’s nothing to it.

What you’ll need:

• 1 lb. Meat (ground)
• 1 – 1 1/2 c. Crackers/Bread
• 1-3 Eggs
• Seasonings (salt, pepper, anything else you have laying around)

For the hardware all your gonna need is:

• a bowl
• 2 hands
• a toaster oven/oven
• an oven trey

Preheat oven to 350.

Basically making the balls consists of crumbling up the bread, and mixing all the ingredients together into a large bowl. After you get a really gross raw meat consistency throughout reach in there and pull out a handful.

Next is my favorite part. Gently shape the meat into a ball in your hands. Roll it between your palms to get the right shape. When you have it place it on the trey to bake.

Bake the balls for about 20 minutes or until brown all the way through*, and you’re done!

Now that you have a ton of meatballs you might be wondering how you’re going to eat them. I find that they go best with a nice red sauce you can buy at any grocery store in a jar or a can. After mixing the red sauce and the meatballs you really can’t go wrong. I ate them atop a bed of ramen, but you can eat them in a bun, between two slices of bread, or even plain.

As always you should try this recipe yourself. Weather you are restricted by living in a dorm room or have the luxury of a full kitchen making meatballs is going to be fun. Make them yourself, and tell me how it turns out!

*Consuming raw or uncooked meat is bad for you and should be avoided at all costs

The prettiest one.

When I think of pretzels I think big and soft, not thin and crunchy. Which usually leads me to the mall. The mall is home many a pretzel shop. When I was but an adolescent, one of my favorite things about going to the mall were the delicious pretzels.

Today pretzels are enjoyed all over the US, not only in malls, but also street corners of large metropolitan areas in the NorthEast. This is another dough recipe, so grab your flour and left over yeast packets and get ready to get messy.

Pretzels are very similar to bread in the fact that they use dough. They have this in common with almost all other recipes that use dough actually. Which is largely the same recipe prepared in 100 different ways. Given this you can simply use the same dough we used for the cinnamon rolls.

We used:

• 1 1/4 oz. package yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup milk (room temperature)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 4 cups flour

You’ll also need:

• Boiling to near boiling water
• About a cup of baking soda (give or take)
• Salt (preferably the big stuff)

Dissolve the yeast into the warm water and set aside. In a large bowl mix together the milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and egg. Add about half the flour and mix until smooth. Add the yeast mixture followed by most of the rest of the flour. Mix until you get a dough consistency, then kneed it for 5-10 minutes using whatever flour you have left over to dust the kneading surface. Put the dough into a well greased bowl and wait for an hour.

After the wait comes the fun part, the rolling. Cut off a piece of dough small enough to easily fit in your palm (even if you have small palms don’t worry). The first thing you’re going to do is press it down into a small rectangle, and roll the rectangle up like a burrito making sure not to trap any air in it. Next begin to roll it, like a snake out of play-dough. You want to get it to about 24 inches long and very thin. Don’t worry if it looks too thin, chances are that it’s not, plus it’s going to rise while baking.

Preheat oven to 400-450 degrees.

After you have your snake the most essential part comes, the shaping. Unless you want a bunch of pretzels shaped like snakes you’re probably going to want to fold it to look like something else. We all know what pretzels traditionally look like, but feel free to make anything you want.

About this time you’re probably wondering how this is going to turn out differently from any other kind of bread. You want a pretzel consistency, not bread shaped like a pretzel. In order to achieve this state the outer pretzel needs to brown at a much faster rate than normal. To do this we must drastically raise the pH level of the outside of the pretzel. With a higher pH level the outside will brown a lot faster.

Raising the pH.

Pour the baking soda into the near boiling water and give the uncooked pretzels a 30 second bath. Sense baking soda is a base, this will work to lower the pretzel’s pH enough to see significant browning. If you want to go one step further make an egg wash by mixing the yolk of one egg with a few tbsp water and brush a little on top of each pretzel right before baking. Salt now if you have it.

Throw the pretzels into the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until sufficiently brown. Pretzels are best enjoyed warm, so eat them right out of the oven if you can.

I have lived in Norman for a little longer than 2 years now. There aren’t a lot of places to eat left that I haven’t yet visited, yet when my professor suggested eating at a pizza place I had only briefly heard of I was honestly a little nervous.

First off, I didn’t even really know where Hideaway was. Anyone who’s been to Campus Corner knows that you can’t just do the usual ‘drive till I see it’ approach. Parking up there is all kinds of awful at any time of the day when any normal person would want to park, but I had a plan.

First off I left the dorms, where I live, with plenty of time. I didn’t want to get there so early that I would be sitting around forever, but I also definitely didn’t want to show up late to a meal with my professor. I decided 15 minutes would be appropriate. Before leaving I carefully checked google maps to get a precise location on where I was headed.

Knowing where I was going and having plenty of time to get there, there was one more thing that I needed. I quickly came up with a little bit of small change. When going to a new place on Campus Corner it’s always good to be prepared. You might need to park at a meeter, and if it’s during the day on a weekday you’ll need change. Fortunately Hideaway has its own parking lot. Customers are allowed to park there while they enjoy their pizza as long as they get a coin from the register on their way out.

Hideaway is definitely worth the trip if you’re looking for restaurant quality pizza. It far surpasses any delivery place, and even competes in my mind with larger restaurants like BJ’s. It will cost about $10 for a small and $20 for a large which will easily feed two hungry guys.

The variety offered might be a little overwhelming to a first time Hideaway visitor, but most see that as a good thing. I ordered a large ‘Little Kahuna,’ a pizza made with an olive oil base and topped with sun dried tomatoes, bacon, grilled chicken breast, and feta cheese. If I were to do it again I’d not want the cheese, as it was a little sharp for my taste, but it was a great pizza either way.

I’ll be sure to hit up this place again sometime. Tell me what your favorite things to order are.

Delicious

My mother used to make cinnamon rolls for me and my siblings all the time. We would wake up to the smell of the rolls in the oven. It was one of my favorite ways to start the day. My mom would make a delicious lemon flavored glaze to pour over the rolls, that really added something unique to her breakfast.

Now, I haven’t begun my day with cinnamon and sugary goodness in a very long time. I do most of my baking at the end of the day, never before classes, and it’s a shame. If I ever have the foresight to make the dough the night before maybe I will wake up one of these days to that beautiful scent once again.

Now you’re going to have to make your own dough, but don’t worry. You’re only going to let the dough rise once and after you’re done it’s all easy from there. I used to shy away from recipes that asked me to make my own dough, but it’s really not that bad.

Cinnamon rolls are thought to have been invented in Sweden, but now they are commonly eaten all over North America and Northern Europe. They range in size shape and most importantly filling. These little guys can be filled with whatever you think will taste good baked in a cinnamon sugar mixture nestled between two strips of roll. Raisins and grapes are used frequently, but why not other fruits? Apples would be delicious. When I made them we drizzled honey over a few of them and they turned out lovely.

For the dough you’re gonna need the basic dough ingredients:

• 1 1/4 oz. package yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup milk (room temperature)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 4 cups flour

and to bake you’ll need:

• a toaster oven
• a microwave would be nice
• a baking sheet
• maybe a rolling pin, but water bottles work nicely too

Dissolve the yeast into the warm water and set aside. In a large bowl mix together the milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and egg. Add about half the flour and mix until smooth. Add the yeast mixture followed by most of the rest of the flour. Mix until you get a dough consistency, then kneed it for 5-10 minutes using whatever flour you have left over to dust the kneading surface. And the hard part is done! Wasn’t that easy?

rolling the dough

Just put your dough into a well greased (you can use butter or pam, or whatever really) bowl, cover and let rise. Let it sit for at least an hour. You want it to rise to about twice it’s original size. If it gets bigger don’t worry, if it’s not big enough give it a few more minutes. Now my favorite part, punch the dough. Just give it a few good hits to prepare it for rolling.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle. Don’t try to get it too thin or the rolls wont taste right, but too thick and their going to be doughy. This call is up to you. Roll it to your desired thickness, and start to think about what you want in them.

Either way you’re going to need these things:

• 1-3 tbsp butter (melted)
• sugar*
• cinnamon*

*Notice I didn’t put amounts, that’s up to you to figure out. Just grab a spoon and sprinkle some on.

three thirds

After you have a rectangle spread on the melted butter followed by liberal amounts of cinnamon and sugar. Now you get to be creative. If you’re boring roll and bake now, if you want to have fun throw something else in there too. I used raisins on one third, and honey on another.

Next step is to roll them up, cut them into pieces, and bake them at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Make a glaze from powdered sugar, milk, and butter to drizzle on top before serving. Just mix said ingredients together until you get a glaze like constancy. Too thick add milk, too thin and sugar.

Not all our meals are a thing of beauty.

This is a very simple to make cake that Tom and I threw together in about 8 minutes, including baking time.

This is a recipe anyone can do. All it calls for is a few essential ingredients and a microwave! Who doesn’t have that? So here we go, no excuses.

There’s not really much to talk about here. I’m sure everyone has made and enjoyed plenty of cakes in their lives, so let’s get right down to it.

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp flour
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp milk
• 3 tbsp oil
• A small splash of vanilla extract
• 1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe)

Just mix this stuff up in a cup (starting with dry ingredients) and microwave it for 3 minutes!

If you want to make an icing for the cake that’s easy too. Just add some powdered sugar, water, and vanilla extract together and smear on top. You’re looking for about the consistency of frosting. Too thin and you get a glaze. Too thick and you get wet powdered sugar.

Be creative and resourceful though. Don’t just follow the recipe. I’ve seen microwave cakes with things like applesauce and cherry pie filling mixed in. Tom and I added chocolate chips, which actually didn’t work well at all, but that’s what’s wonderful! Try new things and as always, let me know how it goes!

on a pallet of delicious vegetables

So, I’ve been wanting to try out this recipe for a while now, and when someone from the paper called me and said he wanted to do a story on me it seemed like the perfect opportunity. Today we’ll be looking at a method of cooking older than most food itself. This is a French method that is so fast and easy I’ll probably never cook another meal without it. It’s called ‘en papillote’ which means in parchment.

When you cook anything en papillote the parchment really seals in not only the moisture, but also the flavors. The reason parchment cooking works well for so many different types of food is because the parchment seals in all the steam and basically steams the food. We’ll take a closer look at this devastatingly simple way of preparing wonderful food that will wow your friends and family.

A simple rule of thumb when cooking in a pouch is to stick to things you would normally steam. Poultry and fish work great, but red meat doesn’t come out as well. I used very specific things in my recipe, but that doesn’t mean you have to use the same things I did. I would actually prefer that you make your own way. There aren’t a lot of rules with pouch cooking. For me it was a lot of experimentation, but if you really want you can follow this recipe, or find numerous others on the internet.

The pouch is obviously the most important part of this recipe, so spend some time thinking about what you’re going to use to make it. Parchment paper is what I would recommend, but it’s not always just laying around everyone’s dorm room. A close runner up would be aluminum foil, which works really well if you’re just gonna throw the pouch on a campfire, but never ever microwave aluminum. If you’re in a fix, anything from a ziplock to a  brown paper bag will work. I used a pre-made oven bag specifically made for this type of cooking. Make sure to cut a small hole in the pouch to allow the steam to escape, or it will blow up like a ballon and you’ll just have a big mess.

This is what I used:

• 1.3 lb Salmon
• 12 crushed saltines
• 1 red bell pepper
• 15 asparagus stalks
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp pepper
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 c orange juice

All you’re gonna need on the other end is:

• Something to make a pouch out of
• microwave/oven

Before you do anything give the fish a generous helping of salt and lemon juice. This will help to bring out the flavor of the fish.

we made a tower of vegetables on top of crushed cracker

Now you take the rest of your ingredients and begin stacking them. The hardest part about this dish is assembly. You want the dry ingredients on the bottom and the wet ingredients on top. Make a similar stack and just put the fish right on top. Sprinkle the vegetables with salt.

Cut the butter into little slices and lay them right on top of the fish.

Drizzle the entire thing liberally with orange juice. This is what we’re using to cook the fish. Normal recipes will call for wine or something else you can’t have on a dry campus.

After that just microwave that sucker for 11 minutes. The baking time is going to change drastically depending on the size of the dish prepared. With an easily 2 lb. meal 11 minutes was a surprisingly speedy bake time.

This easily feeds 2, maybe more if there are girls present.

There you have it! A speedy meal that will easily impress anyone (especially if you make it in a dorm room). If you try it out post your own creations, I want to know what worked well!

caramel top

Eggs eggs eggs.
Some of you might have noticed that my last three recipes have been centered around eggs. I love eggs, and really what’s not to love? They are fun, easy, and best of all cheap!

This week we’ll be making the delightful desert enjoyed all over the world known, at least in America as flan. We will also be taking a closer look at the egg. Follow me after the break to explore what makes this ingredient one of my all time faves.

Eggs are simply delicious any way you cook them. Weather it’s scrambled, over easy, or in a cake the egg never fails to deliver. Eggs are extremely high in protein, classifying them as a meat. They are enjoyed all over the world in almost every culture and the number of ways they are prepared is unending.

Something every culinary aspiree needs to know is how to interpret the grade of an egg. Eggs come in three grades AA, A, and B. The grades refer to the relative freshness of the egg, with AA being the most fresh and B being the least fresh. You might think to yourself “Do I really need a grade AA fresh egg for cooking something as simple as a cake?” and the answer is no. For most recipes grade B is very acceptable, and in a few cases even preferred*.

Any time you will be cooking the yolk and the white separately (not scrambled together) you might want to think twice about skimping on the quality, or leaving your eggs in the fridge for too long. This is because as an egg ages the Chalaza dissolves. The Chalaza is the part of the egg that separates the white from the yolk. In an egg with no Chalaza the egg would be pre-scrambled, with no clear distinction between white and yolk**.

Enough about eggs, today we’re cooking flan. It’s not certain where this dish originated (my guess is Germany along with the quiche) but today it is enjoyed all over the world. In France they call it ‘crème caramel,’ and in Japan it is often enjoyed in pre-packaged individual pudding cups.

It’s really easy to make (but takes forever) and if you’ve been following my blog the recipe is going to look very familiar.

• 6 eggs (3 whole, 3 yolks) You can freeze the left over whites and use them in your next angelfood cake
• 1 cup half and half
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 dash vanilla extract (or any extract if you want to mix it up a little

the hardware is gonna be very similar to last week too:

• 2-4 custard cups
• casserole/cake pan at least a few inches deep
• toaster oven

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix up all your ingredients in a bowl and get ready to bake.

For traditional flan put a bit of sugar and water in the bottom of the custard cups and microwave for about 2 minutes (keep an eye on it. I burned some sugar). For non traditional flan jelly and chocolate syrup works too.

Put the custard cups into the cake pan and pour warm water around them.

Bake for 40 minutes and fridge for an hour. Serve chilled and enjoy!

*the century egg is an egg that has been fermented in a mixture of clay, wood ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months

**Might be great for scrambled boiled eggs. Shake and bake, I like the sound of that