You might have noticed a recent trend on this blog. I have always cooked spicy, but lately I have been going a bit over the top. That’s all due to my roommate, Sal. I thought I liked spicy food until I moved in with him! Now each time I try to make it hotter and hotter, and after eating he just looks at me, shrugs his shoulders, and says “meh, it was kinda spicy.” That is not the reaction I want! Even at Hell Night this kid ate his meal stone faced. This week I decided enough is enough. I vowed to serve the hottest wings we have ever eaten, or give up the spice game forever…

Yep. 9.6. Those familiar with the scale may know that I have yet to achieve over a 7.2, and that everything over 9 is inedible to 90% of the population! These wings burned. My whole face is tingling right now despite finishing eating over 3 hours ago and having taken a shower since! The funny thing was that we both ate our first wing, looked at each other, and gave kind of an “I don’t know…” look. I thought my spice days were finished. 2 wings later, I had literal tears dripping from my face. I ran to get milk and realized my critical error not purchasing some at the grocery store. Blue cheese and carrots were my only salvation. Sal and I pushed on, finishing about 13 wings each, and he finally showed signs of pain and fatigue. Success! This didn’t stop him from scooping up remaining wing sauce with pieces of celery! Did I forget to mention that these wings were just as delicious as they were hot?

Since gnocchi are mostly potato, I had the idea to serve them with my favorite baked potato toppings. This dish came out amazing! It was one of the fattiest richest things I have cooked in awhile, complete with a bacon fat-butter-sour cream sauce, but it was worth every calorie. The possibilities are endless here, you could top these with whatever you like on your potato. I like mine with chili! The potato flavor really came through in the final dish and everything meshed really well together.