A Geek Goes Flying

Crispy, tasty chicken wings have been my holy grail for a while now. I’ve tried probably a dozen different kinds of pre-packaged buffalo wings, including T.G.I. Fridays ’, and none have satisfied. They’ve always turned out soggy and meh, even when I tried making them in the Ninja . Until yesterday. I settled in for some football (WTF was that , Chargers?!) and whipped these up, and they were perfection. Mmmm. Tasty crispy chicken wings. 1.125 lbs of “ party wings ” Frank’s Red Hot Wing Sauce (or, the way I used to do it old school, Whirl (or melted butter) and Cayenne Pepper Sauce , mixed to taste), 2 Tbsp / pound of wings Baking powder (1/2 tsp / pound of wings) Ground white pepper , to taste (I use less than 1/2 tsp per pound of wings) Kosher salt Canola oil , I used about 4 spritzes from my Olivia oil sprayer (which, now that I have, I wonder how I ever lived without)[1] Start with thawed wings. Set the Ninja for Air Crisper, 400°F, 21 minutes. While the Ninja is pre-heating, bl...

Have been watching the Ninja Foodi Grill XL (DG551) , and its smaller sibling, the Ninja Foodi Grill (EG201), for a minute. The EG201 hit a Black Friday price of $159 and was tempting, but I wasn’t sure about the site; the XL doesn’t seem to dip below $219 much these days (and when it does it’s down to $199) . I liked it at $219, not at $299, so when it returned to that price, with same day delivery, I pounced. I have an old BLACK+DECKER Countertop Convection Toaster Oven (CTO6335S) and a George Foreman 4-Serving Removable Plate Electric Grill and Panini Press (GRP1060B) . Both were ... Fine. The toaster oven had a habit of heating up to the point where the LCD screen turned black and was unreadable, and it was hard to clean and cooked somewhat unevenly. The George Foreman ably served me through two dying dogs (Maynard, lymphoma and chemo; Astrid, old age), where cooking up fatty frozen hamburger patties was clutch in keeping them interested in eating. But it took up a lot of coun...