Barbecued Steak Pinwheels ***

This was the very first recipe I had tried out of the Gooseberry Patch Country Quick & Easy cookbook. A successful meal was served overall but could have been improved a second time to take this meal to even better heights.

My partner, Richard, and I prefer a more medium rare steak roast and would suggest flipping the steak every 3 minutes but keeping the veggies longer as the cookbook suggests. Along with this, I was informed by a friend that keeping the oven door cracked open while broiling helps even out the ventilation while cooking. I think next time I would like to test out this suggestion. We followed the directions to a tee this first time making it and we had never “broiled” anything before. This required a bit of research on our part, teaching us a new cooking skill we had never tested before.

We also used sugar free barbecue sauce to make our meal more healthy. While I was excited for this meal, Richard, being a steak “expert”, was uncertain about adding a sauce to the steak. He usually prefers his steaks salted and with nothing else. It was a pleasant surprise to see him enjoy the meal with the barbecue sauce and vegetables.

We would definitely make this meal a second time. Think of this as a southern BBQ fajita.

Easy Honey Drummies ***

The Easy Honey Drummies was a super simple meal to make! I enjoyed, most of all, that there was a small ingredient list that allowed for a cheaper grocery bill. When I went to the store for the frozen chicken wings, they only had bags of 2.5Ibs or 4 Ibs. While the recipe calls for 3Ibs of chicken wings, I went with the 2.5Ibs option. This seemed like a good amount for two-three people.

As Richard critiqued the meal, he suggested that marinating the chicken with the honey sauce overnight might be better. Or to make extra sauce for dipping. I agreed with him on this. While the flavor was good and coated on the skin, the chicken itself just tasted a little plain. Marination or dipping sauce could have prevented this.

I had prepared this meal with a side of oven roasted broccoli. However, if wanting a more traditional wing-style presentation, perhaps adding ranch, blue cheese, or more marination dips and celery/carrots would be good too! To add more variety to this meal, a barbecue sauce or buffalo sauce on the other half of the wings might be appreciated by those who like options.

One thing to note about this particular marination and dip is that the honey mixture (the cumin specifically) had stained the light grey cookie sheet I used to bake the wing on, yellow. For me, I was not too concerned about this since the majority of my cookware is worn and cheap. But for others, this may be a good cautionary suggestion and could advise to use parchment paper down first.

Goodies to go

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