Taco Cups

After 30 years as a police officer and detective, my wonderful dad retired from the Blue Springs Police Department a few weeks ago! His career was so spectacular that September 17th is now "Troy Pharr Day" in the city of Blue Springs! He had a huge retirement bash at city hall, which was covered by a couple local papers...
Kansas City Star Article
Blue Springs Examiner Article
My mom asked my cousin and me to cater the party... yikes! So we made a few appetizers (stuffed strawberries, bruschetta, chocolate covered pretzel sticks, etc.) but the most popular appetizer were these Taco Cups! The boys enjoyed them so much that we had to make them again, they are so yummy!

Ingredients
Tostitos Scoops Chips
Seasoned Taco Meat
Shredded cheddar cheese
Salsa
Sour cream (put the sour cream in a pastry bag with an icing tip)
Sliced black olives, drained

Directions
Get a Tostitos Scoop, spoon on some taco meat (I used a melon baller spring scoop), spoon on some salsa, sprinkle on some cheese, use an icing tip and bag to pipe on the sour cream, and top with an olive slice!

These are so easy to make and the boys have a blast assembling them!

This is Andrew making our Taco Cups (for my email readers, I think this animated picture will only work on my website).

Potato Skins

Ok, so it isn't just the skins of the potato, it's the entire potato. Really, why would I waste the inside?! Instead of scooping out the insides I cut the whole potato into slices. These make a great snack but I also serve them as a potato side dish with dinner! Or... serve them with dinner but then continue to snack on them the rest of the night, yikes lol! The boys have abandoned me for a trip to Best Buy so I am watching a great chick flick (Because I Said So with Diane Keaton) and snacking. What is it with guys and Best Buy?!

Ingredients
4 russet potatoes
2 tablespoons oil
Salt and pepper
Colby-jack cheese
Bacon, cooked and diced
Green onions for garnish, optional
Sour cream, optional

Directions
Clean and scrub potatoes well. Slice the potatoes into 1/4" thick slices. Place the slices in a plastic bag with the oil and shake. Place the oiled potato slices on a lightly buttered baking sheet and season each side with salt and pepper. Cook at 375 for 30 minutes. Flip potatoes over and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Remove the pan from oven and place a pinch of cheese and bacon on top of each potato slab. Return the pan to the oven and cook until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 5 minutes. Serve with green onions and sour cream, if desired.

Sweet and Sticky Wings

Colleen had these Sweet and Sticky Wings on her blog and they looked so good! Drumsticks were on sale so I didn't actually make any wings, just drummies! It was the perfect Friday night meal for Andrew and his friend! Speaking of Andrew, we got a letter in the mail yesterday congratulating him for being one of only 25 kids in his grade to be placed in advanced math next year! Not that I am surprised, this is the child that got 6th in a state mathletics competition. I am just so proud of him... and thankful he got his dad's intelligence ;-)

Ingredients
2 pounds chicken wings,tips removed (or in my case drumsticks)
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple drained
Optional- sprinkling of red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper

Directions
Cut the wings into two pieces and thow away the tips. Put the chicken in a greased baking dish big enough so that they do not touch each other and are in a single layer. Stir the soy sauce, brown sugar and drained pineapple together and pour over the chicken wings. If you like your wings sweet and spicy, just add some crushed red pepper flakes to the liquid mixture before baking.
Colleen buys the wings that are called party wings (frozen and already cut up). She doesn't even thaw them, just toss them with the soy/brown sugar/pineapple mixture and bake them at 375 for 1½ hours (turning every 20 minutes). My chicken legs weren't frozen and they were done in an hour. I know you are thinking that is way too long, but it isn't, trust me. It takes that long for the chicken to get super tender. Your chicken will be nice and shiney and sticky when its ready.
The soy/sugar mixture will become very dark. Do not serve this...throw it away.

Chicken Cigars

Holy Macaroni, make sure you read the comment left for me on my Dutch Baby post! That made my day!

This chicken cigar recipe is from Rachel Ray’s poker night episode (one of the maybe five Rachel Ray episodes I’ve ever seen). Andrew had a friend spend the night and I thought it would be the perfect boy’s night snack. The cigars were very easy to make and fun to eat. The seasonings ended up resembling a taco seasoning. The boys dipped their cigars in salsa but I would have loved to have some sour cream for mine.

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds ground chicken breast
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons grill seasoning (Montreal Seasoning by McCormick)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves
4 sheets phyllo dough
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions
Place chicken in a bowl and mix with spices and parsley. Place a piece of phyllo on a nonstick cookie sheet, butter it and top with a second sheet. Divide the chicken in half. Form a 1-inch thick log the length of the long side of the phyllo dough. Roll the log in phyllo tightly. Cut the chicken filled phyllo into 4 "cigars" and brush with a dab more butter. Repeat to make a total of 8 chicken and phyllo roll-ups. Bake at 425 for 12 to 15 minutes until golden.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Justin’s brother Chad makes a spectacular Spinach Artichoke Dip that has been on our minds a lot lately (I think it’s all the spinach I’ve been sneaking into our diet so our taste buds are craving it)! I’ve been sick the last couple days and this dip is one of the few things that has sounded good (I am a strange breed)! We just sat around the bowl as a family and devoured it with tortilla chips, Mmm!

Ingredients
1 (13 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 (6 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
3 tablespoons diced jalapenos
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 1 quart baking dish. In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients together. Transfer mixture to the prepared baking dish, and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of Monterey Jack cheese. Bake in the center of the preheated oven until the cheese is melted, about 15 minutes.

Chicken PotStickers

There’s a TGIF right by my school so I go there sometimes with friends and teachers. I am obsessed with TGIF’s Zen Chicken Potstickers! They are just delicious and go perfect with a mudslide, yum! Anyways… since there isn’t a TGIF by home Justin and the boys haven’t ever had an opportunity to try the Potstickers so I decided to give them a try at home and was pleasantly surprised! They were really very good!

Ingredients
1 pound ground chicken
1-2 green onions (I used both the green and white part)
1 can chicken broth (I only used about ½ of mine)
1 package of wonton wrappers
1 tablespoon soy sauce
½ tablespoon rice vinegar
½ tablespoon sesame seed oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
(the garlic, ginger, and spicy chili garlic sauce were just added to suit our taste)

Dipping Sauce
6 tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 tablespoon sugar

Directions
In a food processor I mixed the green onions, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame seed oil (really I was just trying to mince the onions as fine as I could get them because my boys won’t eat onions). Once the onions were small enough I added the ground chicken and seasoned it with out usual Chinese seasonings… garlic, ginger, and chili garlic sauce. I pulsed it in the food processor for a good minute until it looked well mixed.

I then made all the dumplings. I would just hold the wonton wrapper in my hand, put a gumball sized dollop of the meat mixture in the middle, dipped my finger in water, wet the edges of the wonton wrapper then folded it in half and sealed. Towards the end I got better at forming the potstickers and squishing the meat around to fill the edges of the wonton wrapper but they tasted no better than any of the others.

I heated my skillet to medium-high on the stove and drizzled a little of the sesame seed oil in the bottom (just so they didn’t stick too much). I laid the potstickers in the pan and let them cook for around 3 minutes. When the bottoms were a nice bubbly brown color I flipped them all over and drizzled in the chicken broth. Just a couple tablespoons until it evaporated away and then added a couple more tablespoons. This steamed the potstickers and kept them moist. I let the other side cook for 1-2 minutes until it was bubbly brown and served warm.

Justin was in charge of the dipping sauce and made 2 different kinds. I preferred the sweet soy sauce like TGIF serves (just sugar and soy sauce), but Justin also mixed a soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic sauce for himself. It was pretty bitter though. To make either you just combine the ingredients in a bowl and warm in the microwave (so the sugar will mix in with the soy).

All in all these were delicious! We ate them with homemade Lo Mein Noodles and baked Crab Rangoon (both were disasters). But hey… 1 out of 3 isn’t too bad in a family of picky eaters!