Dinner and a Movie

Well, it seems like forever since I blogged about some of my new kitchen eats.  This week Frank and I had 2 "dinner and a movie" date nights at our house!  Sunday I was feeling like eating a couple of different things, rather than a large dinner entree.  And I had to save some room for popcorn!  I sifted through my stack of hoarded appetizer recipes and found an easy recipe for sweet and savory chicken wings.  My brother, Matt, is the king of wings!  I know that these hardly compare to his, but I thought I'd give them a try.  This is from a "Take 5" (meaning 5 ingredient) section in the Everyday with Rachael Ray mag.  I paired these wings with some stuffed portobello mushroom caps.

Here's what I did for the wings:

3 pounds of chicken wings

3 boxes of Jell-O lemon flavored gelatin (be careful not to buy the pudding/pie filling)

1 cup of soy sauce

1 cup of pineapple juice

1-2 T of poppy seeds

Marinate the chicken in the soy/pineapple juice mixture for 15 minutes.  Preheat the oven at 400.  Spread out the wings in a single layer on a foil-lined cookie sheet.  Pour 1/2 cup of the marinate over the wings.  Sprinkle 1/2 of the lemon Jell-O on the wings (yes, you are sprinkling a powder form of Jell-O on the wings).  Bake for 30 minutes.  Take out the wings and flip them over.  Cover with the other 1/2 of the lemon Jell-O and the poppy seeds.  Bake another 30 minutes.  *The lemon flavor was really good, yet different all at the same time.  Next time I'm going to try orange Jell-O for a different flavor.  Maybe sprinkle with some white and/or black sesame seeds instead of the poppy seeds for an Asian inspiration*

I did my own thing for the 'shrooms...no recipe needed!  I literally threw a ton of things from my frig in a bowl and then stuffed the 'shrooms.  I used: ground white turkey, fennel seed, garlic, lemon zest, spinach, onion, salt, and pepper.  I stuffed the 'shrooms and baked them with the wings for the last 30 minutes.  Topped them with a little cheese at the end and gave them a quick broil until bubbly!