On Top of Spaghetti, (Or Not)

 

Oh my gosh, these are the best meatballs ever!!! They’re a Nigella Lawson recipe and every time I make them only about half of the recipe actually makes it to the table. *Ahem* They are so addicting! And the meatballs are tiny, so my kids just love them! The original recipe calls for lamb, and while I think they’re spectacular, my little kids are less than thrilled. So I substitute lean ground beef. They also have semolina flour in them, which gives them a really good, interesting texture. So, so yummy!

I made them while my mom was visiting last time and she suggested baking them instead of frying them. I was skeptical, but except for losing their shape a bit and lacking that slight bit of crunch to the outside, they turned out pretty good! And much less fattening – not that I care too much about that ;)

You can freeze these meatballs ahead of time, and they make a great party appetizer! I usually serve them for dinner along side a big dish of rice, some roasted veggies and my favorite cheese bread. They’ve made it onto my list of Top Five Dinners of All Time, even! Just another note, if you’re going to be standing around rolling tiny meatballs, you may as well do a ton and freeze what you aren’t going to immediately eat! I usually triple this recipe.

Exotic Tiny Meatballs

Adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Feast

1 pound lean ground beef (or lamb)

1/4 cup finely chopped scallions

2 cloves garlic, grated or finely minced

1 teaspoon ginger, grated or finely minced

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons semolina flour

1 egg

vegetable oil for frying

 

In a large bowl, place the ground meat, scallions, garlic, and ginger.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cinnamon, cumin, allspice, salt and semolina.

Add spice mixture to the meat mixture.

Use the same small bowl (cuts down on dishes!) and beat the egg lightly, add to the meat mixture.

Use your hands and mix everything very thoroughly.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Set out a small bowl of water and a baking sheet.

Dampen your hands with a bit of the water and scoop out about a teaspoonful of the mixture. Roll into a tiny ball and set on the baking sheet.

When all the meatballs are rolled, heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a frying pan. Line another baking sheet with paper towels.

Fry the meatballs in batches and avoid crowding the pan.

Cook for a minute or so on each side, until brown all over. Check one meatball from each batch with an instant thermometer to see that the meatballs are reaching 165 degrees. Try not to eat half of each batch. It’s hard, but I think you can do it. (Although I can’t!)

Alternatively, if you’d like to bake them, place the baking sheet in a 350 degree oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Check temperature with an instant thermometer to see that the meatballs are reaching 165 degrees.

You can freeze these either after frying or raw. If you freeze them raw you won’t be able to fry them, you’ll have to bake them later. Either way, they’re awesome! They take about 20-25 minutes to bake after they’ve been frozen.

You Say Tomato. . .

I really like recipes that use convenient amounts of ingredients. The whole can of tomato paste, not 3 tablespoons. A whole pint of cream, not 1 1/3 cups. Don’t leave me stranded with a quarter of a box of pasta, please. It makes me crazy. So, with that in mind, I’ll give you my basic tomato sauce. It uses whole amounts and is also a fantastic way to use up any little odd amounts of things you have hanging around. That 2/3 cup of cream you have languishing around your fridge? Tip it in before you serve this sauce. Those three carrots you have left that are feeling neglected? Chop ‘em finely and add them in with the onions. Got a handful of leftover pot roast still sitting around? Pop it in with the tomatoes and simmer it into submission.

Basic Tomato Sauce

2 tablespoons butter

2 medium onions, chopped

4-5 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped finely

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flake

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon kosher salt

freshly ground pepper to taste (I use a LOT)

1 can of tomato paste

Two 28oz cans of ground or crushed tomatoes (or whole peeled tomatoes run through your food processor)

1-2 cups of water

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

 

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium low heat.

Add the onions, garlic and red pepper flakes and sauté until tender.

Stir in the oregano, salt & pepper, and tomato paste. (I like to add it now because it mixes nicely with the onions and I don’t end up chasing a glob of paste around my sauce later!)

Cook for another minute, then add the tomatoes. Then I rinse the cans down with a little water to get every last bit of tomato and dump that slurry in. Hence the vague amount of water. If your sauce is still looking a bit thick you can just add a bit more water.

Stir in the sugar and balsamic vinegar.

Bring the sauce up to a boil, then lower the heat and keep the sauce to a simmer.

Simmer for at least an hour, stirring occasionally.

Enjoy!

Rrrrrrrrrisotto!

 

That was my attempt at an Italian accent. Sorry.

At our house, risotto is our rice of choice. We have risotto almost every week. It’s one of those foods that I can count on the kids eating if they’ve been picky. Warm, creamy, comforting and would you look at that! Gluten-free! One of the very few things I make around here that is gluten-free. *I had to edit that, I totally put ‘carb-free’ in a non-thinking moment. Woops. But you knew what I meant, right?* There are about a billion recipes out there for risotto, but this one is my favorite, go-to, basic recipe. My favorite way of getting the veggies into it is to roast them separately and toss them in at the last minute. There’s lots of ways of doing it, but I think it’s the easiest and I like that the veggies keep their shape and don’t become mush.

Basic Risotto

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

2-3 large onions, finely diced

a head of garlic, finely diced

3 cups of arborio rice

large pinch of saffron, optional

3 quarts cooking liquid (I usually use chicken broth)

1 cup cream/half and half

1/2 cup grated parmesan, optional

salt and LOTS of pepper

roasted veggies of your choice

 

In a medium pot, bring your cooking liquid to a boil. When it boils, turn the heat down to keep a constant simmer.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat.

Add the onions and garlic and saute until tender 5-7 minutes.

Add the saffron and saute a minute longer.

Add the rice and saute for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly so the rice doesn’t burn.

Add about a cup of liquid and stir.

Note: Here’s were a lot of people get picky, in my opinion. I don’t hover over my risotto. Some people stir continuously the whole time. I don’t have that kind of patience. Plus I have stuff to do. So I’ll stir and then empty my dishwasher. Stir and add some more liquid and then set the table. Stir and get out a coloring book for my little girl. Stir and add some liquid. See where I’m going with this? Don’t forget about your risotto, but I don’t think you have to hover either. I stir it every few minutes and keep an eye on it to make sure it’s not getting dry.

When the liquid has mostly evaporated add another cup and stir. Repeat this process until you’ve used MOST of the cooking liquid. Then start tasting the risotto every so often checking to see when the rice is al dente.

When the rice is al dente, add the cream and parmesan. Stir to incorporate. Then turn the heat off. Give it about 10 minutes to cool (or you’ll scorch the skin off the roof of your mouth. Trust me on this.)

Add whatever veggies you’ve roasted, salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

P.S. I cut my veggies into bite sized pieces, toss with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and then lay them out on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake at 400 until golden brown (and maybe just the slightest bit black, yum) and delicious. Last night we had asparagus in it, but this is also dreamy with cauliflower or broccoli or zucchini or mushrooms or grape tomatoes or . . . you get the idea!

P.P.S. This does make a nice, big, lovely batch of risottto. Which is good. Because it’s almost better the second day! Just be sure to hide a separate container for yourself in your fridge. Because your hubby WILL steal all the leftovers if you don’t. Consider yourself warned.

P.P.P.S. Just in case you’re wondering, the risotto pictured does not contain saffron. Which is a shame. I ran out. Will be ordering more T.O.D.A.Y. It gives it such a nice flavor *sigh*

P.P.P.P.S. The risotto pictured was my leftovers. It is a little creamier the day you make it.

P.P.P.P.P.S. Okay. I’m done with the post-scripts.

P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Really.

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Okay, no, really. All done counting ‘P’s. Ciao!

Finally, a Little Decorating!

Well, we’ve been living here for two months and I’ve fiiiiiiinally gotten around to doing a little project for our new home! It was totally spur of the moment and cost me nothing but gas money and I just love it. Wanna see?

We are fortunate enough to have this lovely sunroom on the front of our house. It’s probably my favorite room in the house and I have done NOTHING with it yet! The only furniture in it is our little wicker loveseat, but MAN does this room have potential! And lovely light. And free heat. And a pretty blue floor. And. . . .

Ooops, sorry, was getting off track. Anyhow, the sunroom really heats up during the day. Like, a LOT! I walked out there the other day and it was so warm and wonderful that I went into the kitchen and grabbed the thermometer. It was 23 degrees outside and 90 (!!!!) in the sunroom! It has two doors into the house and I like to leave the kitchen door open during the day for a little free heating. (I’d open both doors and warm up the living room too except that would make a wonderful loop that a couple of small children I know would love to run around.)

So, I have been using an old laundry soap bucket - that we now keep Lucy’s dog food in – to hold the door open.

Lovely, no?

My mom gave me this glass jug a while back and it’s just been sitting on my mantle waiting for me to decide what to do with it. So today I decided. It’s a doorstop.

 

Isn’t she pretty?

So, since it was 37 degrees out (practically balmy! LOL!) and I had decided I needed a chicken to roast, I tossed the kids in the car and headed to the grocery, with a little stopover at the ocean. (Sorry, I thought that was funny! It’s still surreal to me that I live this close to the ocean.) I brought some zip top bags and some measuring cups and I got the kids set up scooping sand while I took Lucy on a quick walk down the beach! Amelia was SO PROUD of her bag of sand! (No picture, sorry. I was going to bring my camera down there, but between 3 kids, two bags of sand, a frisky doggy, and no pockets, I just didn’t think I could manage.) We all had a great time!

On the way home all three kids fell asleep. I carried them, one at a time, into the house and put them down for naps. Since I had some newly acquired free time, I got started! I sifted the sand first, there were bits of seaweed and rocks and sticks in it, and poured it into the jug.

Then I broke out my stash of beads, some ribbon, and my twine and got to work prettying the jug up! I can’t for the life of me remember how I came by these green beads, but they were just perfect for this! Some of them are chunks of jade, some resemble sea glass, and some look like bottle glass. I just strung them haphazardly together and wrapped them around the jug. I really liked the ribbon, but when I looped it around the jug it just sat there looking too pristine. So I tied a bunch of knots in it and tried again. Much better! Turns out I really like the look of knotty ribbon! I thought about tightly winding the twine around the top of the jug, like people do, but I really liked the messy, layered, necklacey thing I had going on.

 

What do you think???

Forgive the mess, I didn’t even bother to tidy up! Not the most mind blowing transformation in the world, but how much better does my jug look than that ratty old bucket??

I love it! And I love my door. It’s dinged up and the paint is crackling and when it’s closed I can see daylight almost all the way around it, but I love it!

Speaking of chicken. . . . . I realize this isn’t the most appetizing-looking bird you’ve ever seen, but Oh My Gravy, if this was a scratch and sniff picture you’d be trying to gnaw your way through the computer screen!!! So simple and so delicious. Oh, and if I were serving this to guests then I’d tie the legs up and tuck the wings in and make it look presentable. But it’s just the family tonight and they could care less, so she’s flying (frying?) free.

Scrumptious Roast Chicken

One 4-5 pound chicken

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 lemon, sliced

4-5 cloves of garlic, smashed

2-3 sprigs of rosemary

olive oil

LOTS of kosher salt

pepper

 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and get out your roasting pan.

Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels.

Place the chicken in roasting pan and lightly coat it with olive oil.

Liberally, and I mean liberally, sprinkle the chicken, inside and out, with salt. (I don’t like the skin, so I’m not much concerned about the sodium. It brings out SO much flavor, it’s totally worth it!)  Sprinkle with lots of pepper.

Stuff the cavity with the onions, garlic, some of the lemon and some of the rosemary. (I just layered it in, sometimes if I don’t mind dirtying a bowl I’ll mix it all up in one. But you don’t have to.)

Run your fingers under the skin on the top of the chicken breasts. Sometimes I have to work it apart from both ends. It should lift up a bit. Carefully insert some of the lemon slices.

Sprinkle the chicken with the remaining rosemary.

Pop into the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes, knock the heat down to 350 degrees.

Continue roasting another 1 1/2 hours or so. (Depending on the size of your bird) Roast until a meat thermometer, inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, reaches 180 degrees.

Enjoy! Your home will smell A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!

P.S. You may have noticed that there isn’t any basting. Yup, that’s right. No basting. And it still turns out juicy and delicious! Seriously, if you have your ingredients ready to go, the prep on this is, what, five minutes? Amazing little bird :)

 

P.P.S. I think Lucy has made it her mission in life to appear in every one of my blog posts. (Well, since we’ve moved to Maine anyway.) Care to play Where’s Waldo Lucy and tell me which of the pictures in this post she appears in?

Tasty Taco!

Have you seen Julie and Julia yet? It is such a cute movie! I loved it, well, right up until the phone call towards the end of the movie. Then I spent the rest of the time wondering, ‘why? Really? Why not?’ Anyhow, there’s a scene in the movie where Julia’s husband comes home to find her madly chopping a mountain of onions. That’s how I felt this afternoon! I wanted to get things ready for our camping trip and was chopping all the veggies for our meals.

 

*sniff, sniff* Makes my eyes water just looking at it! Is it just me or does anyone else think organic onions make you tear up more?

I got my sewing done a little earlier than scheduled so I made Reese’s Bug and Amelia’s Sweetbaby some cloaks too. The kids loooooove the cloaks for their plushies! I wish I’d had a bit of Amelia’s fleece left over, but I used every little bit of hers.

This soft taco came together out of ingredients I was trying to use up before we leave tomorrow. Yum yum!

5 Minute Soft Tacos

1 cup of cooked chicken, diced

3 scallions, sliced on the bias

2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, chopped (I was trying to use up my parsley here, if you have cilantro I think that would be even better!)

juice of 1/2 a lime

2 cups of lettuce, shredded

1/2 cup of sour cream

6 tortillas

 

Toss the chicken, scallions, parsley and lime juice together in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Put about 1/3 cup of lettuce on each tortilla, spoon on some of the chicken mixture onto the lettuce and top with sour cream.

Done. How easy was that? Enjoy!

Linguine Carbonara

This is one of my favorite go-to dinners when I am tired/lazy. I always have a couple of packages of the super thin cut pancetta that Wal*Mart carries stashed in my freezer and there are always eggs in my fridge. I think this pasta comes in second place on my kids' list of favorite food. (Mac 'n cheese being number one.)

Linguine Carbonara

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, minced
4 ounces pancetta, diced
1 pound fresh linguine
3 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/2 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
3/4 cup finely grated parmesan, at room temperature

Heat oil and butter in a large saute pan over medium heat.
Add the onion and pancetta and cook until the onions are translucent and the pancetta is beginning to crisp.
Remove from the heat and set aside.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the linguine according to package directions until al dente, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Drain pasta in a colander (reserve a small amount of the cooking liquid in a small bowl) and return pasta to the pot.
Return the pot to the heat and add the reserved pancetta and onion mixture.
Stir over high heat until pasta is coated with the pancetta mixture.
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and heavy cream and add to the pasta, along with the parmesan.
Remove the pot from the heat and toss the pasta until it is well-coated.
Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.
If needed, add a bit of the reserved pasta cooking liquid to help toss the pasta if it is dry.
Serve immediately.

This Works For Me (Wednesday!)

One thing that really Works for Me is my chicken marinade. I've posted it before, but as a component of a sandwich. This is really the best ever marinade and it takes all of about 5 minutes (plus grilling time) to put together. Later you just slap it on the grill and dinner is done! Works for Me!!!

For the marinade:
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 lemon, sliced
3-4 cloves of garlic, smashed
3-4 sprigs of your favorite fresh herb, I usually use thyme or rosemary
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup of your favorite vinegar, I use red wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups of olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
6-8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts



Put all the ingredients for the marinade into a large ziplock bag. (I squeeze the lemon slices when I add them in.)
Close the bag and mash everything together.
Let sit in the fridge for at least an hour so the flavors meld. (I've forgotten about it once and left it overnight with no problem at all.)
Preheat your grill or grill pan to medium.
Place chicken on grill and cook about 7 minutes.
Flip and cook another 5, until golden and delicious.
Enjoy!

Head on over to We Are THAT Family and see some more Works for Me Wednesday posts!

On the patio, eating lunch.
Reese and Lia: Go away, Airplane! We're trying to eat!
Reese: Ok, now that's better.
Lia: (conciliatory) Bye, Airplane! Have a nice day!