Meatballs

Mouth watering, delicious meatballs

It's a family tradition to get together a couple of times a year to make pounds and pounds of meatballs for freezing and enjoying later. Today, we did our summer batch, and the stats are astounding: we used roughly 14 pounds of ingredients to yield 20 dozen meatballs for just $35 in under 3 hours. I'll walk you through how we did it, and then provide a pared down recipe at the end so that you can try it out for yourself without having to invest the amount of time we did. Don't worry, make these bad boys once, and you'll want to make big batches, too!

First up, groceries! We got all of our food at Walmart because I decided to do this at the last minute, but if you're making a bulk batch, we highly suggest you consider pricing out your meat at someplace that sells it in bulk such as Costco or Sam's Club.

5 lbs. Ground Pork

7 lbs. Ground Beef

6 Carrots (About 2 1/2 cups ground in food processor)

4 Stalks Celery (About 3/4 cups ground in food processor)

1 1/2 large onions (About 3 cups ground in food processor)

5 Eggs

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

3 cups plain bread crumbs

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup mustard

1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 tbs. salt

1/2 tbs. black pepper

1 tbs. hot paprika

1 tbs. oregano

1 tbs. basil

1 tbs. tarragon or thyme

3 tbs. minced garlic (roughly 6 cloves if you do it yourself)

A few of my mother's advice on the ingredients follow:

• You can substitute turkey for pork if you keep kosher or otherwise dislike pork. We use pork because it is delicious and more affordable.
• It may not seem like enough salt, but most sauces used with meatballs are salty, so you don't want to overdo it in your meatballs.
• If you want your meatballs to be sweeter, just add more ketchup.
• If you want your meatballs to have that pretty flash of green, add a tablespoon of parsley.
• You can do 3 tbs. of Italian seasoning mix instead of the oregano/basil/tarragon or thyme as listed.
• This is a "sniff and touch" recipe for my mom. You mostly want to make sure it smells like meatballs and feels like a meat play dough, smooth and elastic without being wet. If your recipe needs something else, you can tweak it.

Crockpot Curry

It's the youngest daughter here tonight, and I will freely admit that my idea for this freeze ahead crockpot meal is totally taken from my dear friend Steph over at Cupcakes and Curls. I did, of course, adapt it to be my own.

Here's Steph's original recipe:
Chicken Curry

4 Chicken Breasts - Cut up in strips or chunks
2 Bottles of Trader Joe's Yellow Curry
4-5 Red Potatoes sliced or cut into chunks

This one is easy - Cut up your chicken and potatoes, toss them in a Ziploc freezer bag and pour in your ready made sauce. Freeze. When ready to cook, defrost in fridge overnight and cook on low for 8 hours. Serve with Trader Joe's Microwave Jasmine Rice.

I tweaked this in a couple of ways, mostly to include a bigger variety of veggies, since Steph's husband is notoriously picky about vegetables, but I am a huge fan of veggies of all stripes.

Here are the ingredients I used to make two freeze ahead bags of curry tonight.

Ingredients
2 bottles of either red curry or yellow curry
1/2 curry bottle of water, shaken to get lose curry
1 gallon size freezer bag full of the following:

• 2 of those massive frozen chicken breasts
• 2 red potatoes, cubed
• 2 gold potatoes, cubed
• 1 1/2 bell pepper, variety of colors, sliced
• 1/2 large yellow onion, sliced
• FREE CHOICE - Add more or less of any of the above ingredients, as well as different vegetables. I fully intended to include eggplant and bamboo, but I fell short on two accounts. My eggplant had gone bad and I forgot to buy a can of bamboo. I upped how much potato and pepper went in, accordingly. If you don't like veggies or use smaller hunks of chicken, you'll need to put in more breasts to fill the bag.

Steps

1. Label bag before adding food, as it is much easier to label an empty freezer bag. I specify what the dish is, the date it is made, and any cooking instructions (low 8 hrs).
2. Chop and slice all meat/veggies according to preference. I did not slice the chicken, as it was already frozen. I will just fish the chicken out and either cube, slice, or shred it when it is time to serve.
3. Dump all chopped meat/veggies to the ziplock.
4. Pour two bottles of curry sauce (yellow or red to taste) over top.
5. If you're like me and your crock is often on for longer than 8 hours--work, am I right??--this step is crucial to maintain moisture. Fill one bottle about 1/2 way with water; cap and shake it. Dump the curry water into the other bottle; cap and shake it. Dump into bag. This gives you extra moisture and maximum flavor!
6. Seal the bag and squeeze it to be sure all veggies are coated in cooking liquid. Freeze flat.
7. The night before you use it, leave in refrigerator to thaw.
8. The morning of, dump contents into crockpot; set it; forget it.
9. Cook rice when you get home to serve with curry. You can use instant rice, stovetop rice, or a rice cooker (my preference). 
10. Chop, shred, or slice chicken if need be.
11. Enjoy! This is really easy, delicious, and satisfying.

The bag between bottles. Is your mouth watering yet?

Date Night Italian Feast

Youngest daughter here, and let me tell you about how awesome my date night Italian feast went. My husband grasped my hand, looked me deep in the eye, and said, "Is there something I'm missing or forgetting? You're being so romantic." Yeah, success.

Yes, date night means light drinking to the tune of the baby monitor at our house.

What's my recipe for a great date night? Two very simple recipes taken and tweaked out of my favorite cook book, Better Homes and Gardens: New Cookbook, Prizewinning Recipes. I cooked "White Bean and Sausage Rigatoni" and used their directions for fresh zucchini.

I acquired the food for this from a few places, but you could easily get a comparable list all from just Walmart or any other standard grocery. I started at Trader Joe's because I wanted their delicious parmesan reggiano.

Shredded using my Cuisnart Food Processer

That trip was not my last because Trader Joe's was missing two key ingredients (Italian tomatoes and turkey sausage), hence the split between stores. Here's how my shopping split up:

Costco
Franconia Beer (a local brewery)

Trader Joe's
Trader Joe's Block Red Shiraz
Parmesan reggiano block of cheese
Rigatoni
1 can cannellini beans
Sweet Italian pork sausage
Ciabatta bread
Three-pack of zucchini squash

Walmart
1 Bag Marketside Caesar Salad Kit
1 can Italian-style tomatoes
Sweet Italian Turkey sausage
Dried crushed basil (I had this at home, but if I was out, I would have purchased it at Walmart.)

To start, we had the Marketside Caesar Salad Kit, which is assembled by opening, dumping, and tossing.

To accompany, we had the ciabatta bread. I dunked mine in a little olive oil and basalmic vinaigrette. My husband went with Country Crock. It's really a taste thing.

For the main dish of white bean and sausage rigatoni, I made a slight tweak to the recipe because I ended up acquiring both the type of sausage called for and a back-up flavor. I will note it in the recipe that follows the photo. I mixed both types of sausage because I wanted left overs of both types for an upcoming dinner party, and because I was skeptical of the flavor of the turkey sausage, as it was my first time to cook with it. As it turns out, either would have been fine alone because the two types were pretty indistinguishable. Turkey is lower fat and pork is cheaper. Pick your battles!

Ingredients
2 cups dried rigatoni (8 ounces or half the package, eyeballed)
1 15-ounce can of cannellini beans
1 14.5-ounce can of Italian-style diced tomatoes
8 ounces (1/2 package) sweet Italian turkey sausage (changed to be 4 ounces turkey and 4 ounces pork, not necessary... pick one)
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried basil, crushed
1/4 cup shredded Asiago or Parmesan cheese (1 ounce)

Steps
1. Cook sausage and chop into bite size pieces. I put this in because I hate it when recipes assume you've already cooked and chopped your meat. This takes about 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, bring your water up to boil. This time is also always left out of the recipe.
3. Open your two cans. Drain and rinse the beans. Leave the tomatoes be.
3. About the time the sausage is done, you'll be able to put the pasta in the boiling water. It takes 12 minutes if you use Trader Joe's variety. When it is done, drain it and place in your serving dish.
4. While your pasta is boiling, heat the tomatoes with the dried basil (if using) and sausage in a saucepan.
5. Shred a chunk of your big block of parmesan cheese in the food process. Skip this if you buy it pre-shredded or grated.
6. Add beans and fresh basil (if using) to sauce. Heat through.
7. Toss sauce with pasta and serve sprinkled with cheese to taste.

Nutrition Facts (for Turkey Sausage Only)
Per 2 cups: 432 cal, 10 g. total fat (3 g sat. fat), 46 mg chol., 961 mg sodium, 65 g carbo., 7 g fiber, 25 g pro.
Daily values: 4% vit. A, 3% vit C., 11% calcium, 23% iron

For my side dish of vegetables, I decided on zucchini. I prepared them the plain way that Better Homes and Gardens suggested, but they were a little bitter without seasoning, so I tweaked them to include garlic salt and olive oil on their way to the table. The tweaked recipe follows the photo.

Ingredients
3 zucchini squash
Pinch of salt
Pinch of garlic salt
Drizzle of olive oil

Steps
1. Boil salted a few inches of water in the sauce pan.
2. Cut off ends of zucchinis. Slice zucchinis into 1/4 width slices.
3. Cook zucchini in salted water for 4-5 minutes.
4. Drain zucchini and toss in a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of garlic salt to taste.

When it was all said and done, the meal was filling, wholesome, and delicious. I got the go ahead to make it again. I was surprised that the sauce was so hearty and flavorful considering how few ingredients it included, but it was great. The recipe really "stretches flavorful sausage with white beans" as the cookbook indicated. It was a ton of food, and it yielded a good deal of left-overs, even in our home of hearty eaters. I personally was skeptical of the cannellini beans, but they took on the flavor of the tomatoes and had a similar texture to the meat; it was a delightful addition of fiber and frugal protein. 

When it was all said and done, I wrapped up date night by putting away the laundry and my husband did the dishes. That's our love language, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Cool-proof Cool Rise Pizza Crust

I first used this recipe with about 130 7th and 8th grade students and it worked well for all of them.  So I brought the recipe home to try with the grill master since he fixes pizza on his grill pretty much weekly.

Step 1:

2 1/4 tsp yeast ( this is the amount in one packet of yeast if you prefer)

1/4 cup warm water ( about skin temp)

1/2 tsp sugar

Mix the above ingredients in a small bowl.  The yeast will "dissolve" in the water and feed on the sugar. You should smell a familiar yeasty smell and the mixture should be bubbly.

Step 2:

2 3/4 to 3 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1TBSP sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

1 TBSP olive oil

Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Add the liquid ingredients and then the yeast mixture and stir.  The mixture should form a soft sticky dough.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 6 to 8 minutes, adding flour to the surface as needed until the dough is smooth, elastic and no longer sticky.  Form the dough into a ball and rub with additional olive oil to prevent it from drying out.  Put the dough into a one gallon zip-lock bag and let it rest in a warm place for 20 minutes.  The dough should have roughly doubled in size.  Punch it down.  It should be ready to roll into pizza crust within 30 minutes or you can put the dough into the refrigerator for up to two days.

Roll the dough fairly thin as it will rise in the baking process.  This recipe will make one thick crust pizzas or two thin crust pizzas.  After you roll the dough out on a floured surface, coat both sides with a thin layer of olive oil.  This adds a little flavor and crisps the bottom.

Top as you want.  Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes in the oven or using a pizza stone on the grill for about 5 minutes.

One of my favorites topping combinations is prosciutto and arugula. Add a thin layer of red sauce to the very thin crust.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese or asiago cheese and top with prosciutto slices.  Bake the pizza and then top with arugula after it has cooled slightly.

Chicken Yakisoba

Well, friends. It's been months since any of us posted, but that's what happens when life happens :-). I've tried tons of great recipes and always forget to take pics! In fact, today's post nearly didn't happen. You see, I got all set up and took a nice ingredients photo: 

Then I got started prepping all those lovely ingredients. I was using a new knife that I'm not quite used to, and distracted by my two very tired and starving kids. Not to get into too much detail, there was a lot of blood, and my sweet husband had to help me wrap myself up. As I sit here, I can still feel my pulse in my finger, and I'm just hoping that my fingernail survives. But, there are hungry people to feed! So I finished up, but totally forgot to take any other pictures until it was on the table:

My husband compared this to restaurant food, and my son was literally slurping this off his plate (he's not even 2). The best part? I have most of these ingredients in my pantry, all I actually had to buy today was the ginger, ramen and cabbage. I also love dishes like this because they are super forgiving. Don't like onions? Leave them out. Love broccoli? Add more! All right, enough of that. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

1 lb chicken breast, cut into thin strips

1/2 head green cabbage, cut into thin strips

2 inches fresh ginger, minced (food processor to the rescue)

Handful baby carrots, shredded

1 crown broccoli, bite sized pieces

1 yellow onion, sliced thin

1 tbsp Sriracha (less if you want a mild dish)

1 tbsp ketchup

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp sugar

3 packages ramen noodles, seasoning packets discarded

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp sesame oil (optional)

Steps

1. Add ramen to boiling water and cook 3 minutes. Drain and return to pot. Toss with sesame oil to keep from sticking and set aside.

2. Heat vegetable oil in wok over medium high heat. Add ginger and sauté about 30 seconds. Add chicken until browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the veggies at once. The pile is huge, but stir often and they will wilt right down in about 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile in a small bowl, make the sauce. Mix soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sriracha, ketchup and sugar. 

4. Add sauce and noodles to veggies until well combined and heated though. Enjoy!

Good Things Delayed

Those who know me well know that I have been substitute teaching this year.  My training is science but I have been in life skills for several weeks.  So anyway, the past two weeks, the science job needed doing so the cooking had to wait.  The Mac and cheese we made was a hit and tomorrow I'll be back and we will be cooking fudge.  The trial batch I made this afternoon tastes good and hardened quickly.  We'll try it several times tomorrow but I think we have a winner.  Keep you posted

Some Terminology for beginners (a good review for experienced cooks)

When I share a recipe, I throw around terms without giving them much thought.  Usually, my audience doesn't question them but as I am now teaching extreme novices, I realize that a precise definition can make or break a recipe. For example, what is the difference between bread and dredge? If I said to dredge something in a recipe, I would know what I mean, but will my reader? So for the next few days here some cooking terms and their definitions.

Bread(ing) Dip the food such as chicken strips or fish filets into a liquid, such as milk or an egg wash (lightly beated eggs with water or milk).  Then dip the food into seasoned or unseasoned crumbs made up of crackers, bread crumbs, corn meal or flour.  The breaded food can then be fried or baked and should develop a delicate crust.  Sometimes the food is dipped first into the dry mixture, then into the wet mixture, then back into the dry mixture to develop a thicker crust.  With some recipes, the food being breaded should be frozen to help the breading stick until the food is cooked.

Dredge refers to coating a food with a dry ingredient, such as flour.  Place the dry ingredient(s) into a large plastic bag. Add the food, a few pieces at a time and shake the bag to coat.  This technique is often used to coat meat such as beef or chicken, before browning in a stew or cassoulet.  Cookies or candies can be dredged in sugar either before or after baking although I prefer to place the sugar in a shallow dish for cookies and candies to maintain their appearance.