Spicy Buffalo Wings and Homemade Ranch Dressing

Mmmm...who doesn't love spicy buffalo wings!! And on top of that, homemade ranch dressing?!
To be completely honest, Austin wanted Bleu cheese dressing but I can't stand the smell of blue cheese. So he was sweet enough to compromise for ranch. "But." he exclaimed. "I'm not eating store bought ranch, if we're having ranch, it has to be homemade." swoon* And that is another little moment where my heart melts. I put him in charge of making the best ranch dressing recipe.

So there's a few ways to make buffalo wings. One way is to coat the chicken in flour and bake them so they get nice and crispy and suck up all the sauce, and the other option is to marinate them for 8 hours and then bake them so that the chicken has the flavor infused.
Which option do you think I chose?

I washed and patted the chicken wings and legs dry. Salt and peppered them. Coated them in flour and placed them on a baking sheet and baked them for 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Then turned them over and baked them for another 20 minutes.

While the chicken baked in the oven. I made the sauce. NOW. NOBODY TOLD ME HOW MUCH BUTTER GOES INTO BUFFALO WINGS!
Instead of 2 sticks of butter I used one. Jeezus... 2 sticks? Really?

I melted 1 stick of butter, put the heat to low, added about 1/2 cup of Schultz's hot sauce, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder, pepper, and a dash of worcestershire sauce. Poured it all into a big bowl and tossed a few wings at a time.

Really yummy, but I would also make sure you have another appetizer or entree planned because I was still hungry after eating them.

Till next time~

Tofu Lettuce Wraps and Pork Gyoza

My mom used to make us something like this once in a while and I would basically have a whole head of lettuce to myself. And I wonder why my brother was always so skinny. The recipe I use is a knock-off the chinese/vietnamese version and instead of tofu you can substitute ground chicken or pork as well.
I wanted to stay on the healthy side and this is one way to get me to eat tofu.

The tofu mixture consisted of:

1 Block extra firm tofu
1/2 diced yellow onion
1 can diced water chestnuts
1 cup of  chopped bean sprouts
1/2 bunch of  diced green onion
4 cloves garlic minced
1/2 tsp. sesame seed oil
2 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sesame seeds

1. I wash the head of iceberg lettuce really well and leave it to dry. Do this first before you make the tofu mix.

2. I sauteed the onions, garlic and water chestnuts, then added the tofu. Kept it on high heat to burn off as much of the liquid as possible. About 15 minutes. Then I added the sesame seeds, sesame oil, and soy sauce. I think at this point I snuck in some chili flakes too :)
When the tofu is mixed well and the liquid has burned off, turn off the heat and toss in the green onions so they don't lose their color.

3. Throw some gyoza on a pan and fry them until golden brown. Set heat to medium, throw in a 1/4 cup of water and put a lid on it to simmer until all the liquid is burned off.

And enjoy!!! I'm telling you. Easy Peasy~