Cambodian Style Hot Wings

A few months ago I made these sticky and spicy wings and a few friends asked for the recipe.  So here I am today on my very neglected blog sharing with you my recipe for wings.  I'm calling them Cambodian style because that's what I am and the ingredients are found in my "Cambodian" kitchen and cooking. 

A ton of people love Sriracha now, but I grew up with this stuff.  As a young girl I called it rooster sauce.  Growing up in a Cambodian-American household we had a lot of condiments in our fridge that my American friends looked at with a very puzzled look and NOT wanting to try.  I don't blame them.  Open a jar a shrimp paste and it knocks your socks off! Lol.  Fish sauce is definitely found in many refrigerators these days so you might not need to run out to your grocery store for the ingredients.

So basically if you love hot wings.  Or Asian flavors, or you ever wondered how my food tastes that I'm constantly taking pictures of. You will dig these deliciously spicy, juicy, messy wings!  Mario and I can inhale these bad boys.  They are not on our girls taste buds yet.  Someday I hope.

Here's what you'll need:

3 lbs. chicken wing drumettes
3 Tablespoons Sriracha Sauce
3 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
1//2 teaspoon chili spice blend
Cilantro to garnish

Put your oven on the broil setting and the rack on the 3rd rung, not the top rung.  Line your cookie sheet with foil.  Mix your marinade in large bowl and reserve a good amount in another small bowl for basting wings.  Then place your chicken wings in bowl and cover with your hot marinade.  Let them sit for 15 minutes.  After that spread wings onto cookie sheet and cook for 10 minutes under broiler.  They will get dark on the edges but that's good.  Then take out and flip your wings.  Baste on the remainder of sauce and put back into the oven for 10 minutes. 

Go ahead and transfer onto platter or serve straight off the sheet.  Sprinkle on some chopped Cilantro (because that is my favorite) and enjoy!!  I hope you try this one out and please let me know what you thought of them!  Thank you so much for reading.

Recipe, Organic Vanilla Sugar

Hello friends, and happy Tuesday!  Today I'm sharing a delicious recipe for organic Vanilla Sugar.  It only has two ingredients which makes it uber easy to whip up. This sugar has a warm, sweet vanilla flavor and scent that makes it even more delightful than basic white sugar. It is the perfect accompaniment to your teas, coffees, toast, fruit, or anything that needs a sweet sprinkling of something!

Also, if your the kind of person who loves a good DIY or Mason jar gift, this a good one for you.  Personally I love anything in a mason jar.  They are so cute and popular which makes finding the jars at your craft store very easy.  They come in different shapes, colors, and sizes.  So you can tweak this recipe to make more if needed.  The size I made is perfect for giving as a gift or just leaving out on your coffee and tea station.

Organic Vanilla Sugar
2 Cups organic Granulated Cane Sugar
1 whole organic Vanilla Bean
2 clean and dry Mason jars

Kitchen tools you'll need is a pairing knife and a food processor.  I tried using my stand mixer but it didn't work, sorry.

Measure out your sugar and place inside food processor.  Then take your vanilla bean and cut off dryish tips. Slice it in half length wise.  Using the the dull side of your knife scrape along the half collecting all the vanilla caviar.  Do that to both halves of bean and set them aside. Then drop the vanilla caviar inside sugar.  Put on lid and lock food processor, begin to grind on 5 second intervals.  I did this for about 20 seconds till all the vanilla and sugar was mixed together.  The specs of vanilla should show throughout all the sugar.  You don't want any big clumps of vanilla. 

Now you'll want to place one half of the vanilla bean inside each jar.  Then pour your sugar carefully inside Mason jars.  Go ahead and put lids on jars and decorate them as you wish.  For mine I just used some chalk labels I had on hand and some ribbon. 

I hope that you enjoyed this recipe.  If you try it out let me know how you liked it.  Thank you so much for reading!

Gia's 3rd Birthday!

My little baby Gia is now 3.  I guess that's not so baby anymore. A great quote; "The days are long, but the years are short."

If you asked her what she wanted for her birthday she would have said a puppy.  The fluffy white FurReal Friends one to be exact.  Well I was sure to pick that up at least a month prior.  Having a birthday so very close to Christmas can be a drag I hear.  So my hubby and I make sure to give her a special day to remember. 

Her actual birthday fell on a Tuesday so we, mainly Mario secretly decorated the kitchen in the wee hours of the morning.  She opened one present in the morning and then waited for daddy to get home from work to open the rest.  I always feel bad he misses so many cute moments!  I made her a vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting and a pony on top.  That was her idea, all I kept hearing was she wanted a pony cake!  I'm definitely not talented enough so I opted for a mini figurine.

That weekend we hosted her birthday party at the local pizza place.  I was able to decorate a little bit so that made my heart happy.  She wanted a princess theme so I found the cutest décor on Zulily.  I made her cake, dawning a unicorn this time.  And 60 cupcakes, omg I've never baked that many before.  After a while all the frosting was looking like pink piles of poo!  The kids decorated trees with glitter stickers.

Mostly all of her family on both sides came and lots of her little friends.  The kids were running around like crazy having a good ol' time.  Gia was very spoiled with love and gifts.  We are so grateful to everyone!  These days are just flying by and our daughter is growing like a weed.  So articulate and spunky, she never leaves us a dull moment.  Her beautiful brown eyes and curly dark hair gives her a magical charm.  We love you so much sweet Gia!!!