Thanksgiving recipe I: Bracciole

This is an authentic Italian dish and it's delicious! Bracciole is a stuffed, rolled steak, simmered in sauce. There are a few ways to make this, but I love the simple way my grandma makes hers and eat a ton of it each Thanksgiving. She follows the recipe that her mother (who emigrated from Italy in the early 1900's) gave to her. Some recipes call for bread or egg or meat also rolled into the steaks, which doesn't sound as appealing to me. For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braciola

It's hard to give exact numbers because we make at least 8, maybe 10 of these each year. I'll give you what I made a few weeks ago and you can take it from there!

8 thin round steaks (my grandma's butcher gets these for her, about 4 inches wide and almost a foot long. He also labels them "bracciole steaks" for her.)
8-12 cloves crushed garlic
2 bunches parsley-coarsely chopped
Salt & pepper
kitchen twin
2 large jars sauce or more (or homemade!)

Lay steaks on counter or cutting board. Salt and pepper steaks, not a lot, but lightly cover the entire steak. Rub crushed garlic on steak, lightly covering entire side-same side as salt and peppered side. Add more garlic if you like, I cover them copiously because I love garlic! Cover thoroughly with parsley. Starting with the end closest to you, roll tightly to the other end. I use two pieces of string to tie the short, rolled end, and one string on the long, opposite ends. Some recipes call for quickly browning them in a frying pan first before simmering. Which would be fine, but we don't have time for that at Thanksgiving. So, just throw them in a big stock/soup pot with sauce and simmer away. My grandma simmers them all day on Thanksgiving. When you slice them they are so soft and melt in your mouth. Serve the slices with sauce from the pot. Oh. My. Sooo good!

Garlicky Chicken Wings

I looked at a few random recipes for a different wing recipe, you know, beside the Buffalo hot wings. So, I did the only logical thing: made up my own. Come on, what else did you think I was going to say?!

15 wings (that's just how many i grabbed from my huge BJ's bag)
1 stick melted butter
1 tbsp seasoned salt
1 tsp cracked pepper
1-2 cloves crushed garlic (I used 2 because I love garlic!)

Mix all together and pour over thawed wings in a bowl or bag and shake, stir to coat thoroughly.

I made the mistake of using frozen wings and it just congealed the melted butter! Not good. So, use thawed wings and it will be fine. I cooked them at 400 for about half hour. I brushed more of the melted butter sauce on the wings 2-3 times throughout the cooking process. They came out great! Kevin liked them, score! Kian and I loved them! It wasn't extremely garlicky but just enough.

Chicken Wing Dip

This is my most favorite. So delish. You can adjust the heat level by how much hot sauce you put in to it.

Ingredients: 2 pkg Cream cheese (btw-don't use low fat, it doesn't turn out as well!)
large can chicken (or 1-2 med chicken breasts, cooked, chopped/shredded)
Buffalo wing sauce (some people use franks red hot, but i prefer the wing sauce)
Bleu Cheese (optional)
Mozzarella and/or Cheddar (your preference)
Tortillas, crackers, celery for dipping

You can either layer this dip, or mix it all together. I like the layering, but it gets mixed up either way. I start by spreading the cream cheese in the bottom of a 9x9 pan (or is it 8x8?) Then I spread some bleu cheese over that. I probably use 4 tbsp, but you can leave it out if you wish. In another bowl, mix chicken and hot sauce. The hotter you want the dip, the more sauce you add. I usually use 1/3 of the bottle, sometimes more. Then spread the chicken/sauce mix on top of the cream cheese. Then sprinkle with cheese. Not a lot, just to give it some gooey-ness. I bake it at 350 for about 30 mins or until it starts bubbling, but the cheese isn't brown on top yet. I love this with tortillas and celery. C'mon you know they always give you bleu cheese and celery with your wings! Mmm Mmm