Random Bites-- Meatballs and Fish (not on the same night)

Meatballs and Fish... what a combo!

I'm at the tail end of cleaning out my freezer. I found a package of ground pork and ground beef that I wanted to use, before it expired. I remembered watching one of my favorite (new) Food Network chefs (Anne Burrell, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef) making a recipe for meatballs. That must've been months ago, but I decided this would be the best way to use these meats.

I have to tell you, that this really is an excellent recipe for meatballs. Those of you who have been following my blog (and I sure appreciate all of you) know that I like to show how I make things-- me, being highly visual myself in how I learn.

Let's just say that something happened on the way home from the office and I felt cranky... downright ornery. Many of you foodies understand the therapy that goes with chopping and being in "the zone". It's that forcefield that I put up that my husband interprets as "don't come in the kitchen...don't talk to me and don't ask me when dinner's going to be ready". He quietly read a book and I got to work...and I worked...and then I realized that this recipe should be made on a lazy Sunday. Too late! I was on a mission to finish this recipe but the natural light was fading (and I try not to do flash photography).

I abandoned focusing on photography, because I didn't want eat late. I sure hustled on this meal. My photos do not do justice to how delicious this meal turned out to be.

I got 24 meatballs... a little bigger than a golfball...



I browned these in 3 batches and then roasted in the oven for 15 more minutes.

As for marinara sauce-- why post a recipe? So many of you have your own way. Me? I keep San Marzano (ready the label to make sure they don't say "San Marzano style") crushed tomatoes on hand as a staple. You know the drill-- onion, garlic, basil, oregano and some improvisation-- I had a wonderful sauce to dunk these meatballs in. I stopped buying bottled spaghetti sauce years ago-- though I love Trader Joe's Tuscan style marinara sauce for quick dinners.



My son claimed that these meatballs were the very best he's ever eaten. That's a huge compliment. I have to say, that the combination of ground pork, beef (and I bought 1/2 pound of ground veal), the parmesan-romano blend (all I had), eggs, cooked onion and garlic and freshly cut flat-leaf parsley was really good.

I ended up freezing half of this meal for one of those nights when I just don't have the energy to cook.


What about the fish? I'm really trying to eat healthier. I've been enjoying a lot of comfort foods, this winter. It's time for me to eat less heavy cream sauces, and to eat more fish.

I dragged myself home, tonight. I was really tired. I had a cauliflower that needed attention-- olive oil, salt & pepper and herbs de provence in the oven at 450F for about 15 minutes. I found some baby carrots that "somebody" (not me) left opened...and they were looking dry. Those became my candied carrot recipe. As for the fresh tilapia-- I made tilapia picatta.

In way less than 30 minutes, dinner was ready.

That's the only reason I can blog tonight. The boys cleaned up the kitchen and I'm enjoying a little "me time".

I'm counting the days until July 1st rolls around. That's when my school job shuts down for a month-- this is a great perk in working at a school.

I plan to swim every day and learn some new things-- canning, for one. Yep, that's my summer project. I want to learn how to can fruits and make homemade jam.

Two more months to go...

Quick Tagine-Style Chicken , Morrocan Style

Before I share this recipe with you, I have to tell you that I have not learned to appreciate Indian food. I really want to, but I have an aversion to yellow curry that I have tried to overcome-- but to no avail. When I was dating my husband, I knew he loved Indian food. So, for one of my "seduction dinners", (about 5 years ago) I made this recipe by Rachael Ray. This isn't "Indian" food, but I thought the spices would be exotic enough to impress him. I was very nervous about making this recipe, because tumeric is found in yellow curry, and the color reminded of that awful Chicken Curry recipe that my mother made us eat, as kids. That's where my aversion came from...

I love kitchen gadgets, but I have not been able to justify buying a genuine tagine. This isn't authentic tagine, but I think that Rachael Ray has captured a perfect blend of spices that lend this dish a nice Moroccan flavor. I have come to love this recipe... and my husband did propose to me (but not the night I served this) and we've been married for 3 1/2 years.

I had completely forgotten about this Rachael Ray recipe until yesterday...when I thawed the last of the chicken breasts that I buy at Costco. I was tidying up my pantry (that's in my garage, because I do not have a pantry in my kitchen) and I found my stash of dried fruit.

If anything, I can tell you that the spices are so aromatic! I used paprika, tumeric, coriander, cumin and cinnamon.

I've been cooking lots of meals-- in my head-- but I have been lacking the energy to make any kind of meals that require a lot of time and energy. I think I overdid my swimming, because my muscles are barking! I was hungry, but I wanted something really fast. Calling Rachael Ray!!

This delicious dinner truly came together in 30 minutes. No lie! Okay, maybe 40 minutes.


The original recipes uses golden raises and prunes. I like to add dried apricots.

Rachael Ray serves this dish with couscous. My husband cannot stand couscous (bummer). Instead, I sauteed some onion toasted some white rice and cooked it with chicken stock and a little bit of saffron...just a pinch.

Cooking this meal came together super fast-- in olive oil I browned the chicken (seasoned with Montreal Steak Seasoning...and I have to admit that I use this all the time) for about 2 minutes, then added the fruit, onion, the spices and the chicken stock.

At the risk of sounding like Rachael Ray-- wow, this smells so good! Honestly, I was getting pretty hungry by this time.

With a lid on, the dish is cooked for about 8 minutes. That gave me a chance to cut some cilantro, from my herb garden and to slice some scallions as garnish. Rachael calls for chutney as a garnish, but we're not big chutney people.

This is an kitchen gadget that I have really bonded with. It's by OXO and it chops herbs. I find that I get less wear and tear on my good kitchen knives this way-- besides, I'm a gadget freak.

I keep my secret weapon on standby when I do make Rachael Ray dishes... for some reason, her sauces don't thicken up the way she says they should. I make a slurry of water and some corn starch, whisked together on standby.


I add about 1 Tbsp of it at a time, until it thickens to my liking. I prefer my sauces to be a little thick-- but not like wallpaper paste.

I have learned to plate and photograph, before calling my boys to dinner. Once I yelled "dinner!" the men emerged with their noses in the air. Suddenly, they were calling out difference spices, trying to figure out what they were smelling. Still, they seem to know when dinner's ready.

I still haven't learned to fall in love with yellow curry, but I have learned to love this spice blend. I'm going to make extra, for future quick meals. By the way, you can use tofu or lamb if you want-- I am sure that either one of these would be a fantastic substitute.

Forget fancy plating for my boys--my son ate two helpings. There is one serving left. That's for my lunch tomorrow. I call dibbs!

I promised my son I'd bake chocolate chip cookies. I need a second wind. We shall see-- then again, how many laps in the pool will I need to work those off? I can tell you that this dish is actually low in fat.

Broccoli-- Two recipes, hot and cold

Goodness! I'm behind in posting pictures of recipes I've made! I am cooking, but I'm too tired to blog on work nights. I'm also taking a night class on Digital Photography, so I have been extra tired. You won't be seeing anything new and exciting with my photography...yet... but, I will tell you that I've discovered bells and whistles on my camera that I never knew existed! What a concept... read the manual!

All of my photos are taken in auto mode, using the macro feature. My goal is to learn more about depth of field and to learn Photo Shop (which I don't have loaded on this old laptop). I've taken photo shop classes, but I've forgotten much of it! It's a powerful and complicated program, in my opinion. It's also a memory hog!

I digress. Back to broccoli. In my C.S.A. (Consumer supported agriculture) box, I received a lot of fresh broccoli. We love broccoli-- roasted, steamed, raw. I haven't made broccoli salad in ages, so I decided to go for it. Since I had a lot of broccoli stalks, I also decided to make cream of broccoli soup.

I didn't measure, so I will do my best to help those of you who like to follow recipes to the "letter". I thought I'd admit to all of you that, when trying a brand new recipe, I tend to follow it precisely. I rarely improvise, unless it's something I feel really safe with. I make notes, and the second time around I'll improvise.

That's what I did with my broccoli salad. I checked around for recipes, and I decided that I wanted to use dried cranberries, instead of raisins. I also wanted to use rice vinegar (unseasoned) so that I could use less sugar. I decided to use sliced almonds and so I got busy:

My florets are a little on the chunky side. You can cut them teeny tiny, but I like shortcuts...

In boiling water, I blanched the broccoli for 2 minutes.



Using one of my favorite kitchen gadgets (my "spider") the broccoli was immersed into an ice water bath.

I had cooked bacon from a previous recipe that I re-heated in the microwave. I'd say it was about a cup of bacon...maybe a little less. I used about handful of sliced onion, about 1/2 cup of red onion (be careful, or it can overpower your salad, about 1 cup of dried cranberries, a handful of sliced almonds and I was ready to add the dressing...



I used approximated one cup of mayonnaise, 2 Tablespoons of rice vinegar, 1/4 cup of sugar and whisked it as my dressing. Adjust seasonings to suit your taste.

This is about the time that my boys show up. How do they know when something is almost ready?


My son, who has usually been skeptical of broccoli took a taste. He loved it!

Personally, I think this salad tastes best fresh. The next day, I find that it can become soggy. But, that's me...

What do I do with the leftover broccoli stalks? Soup! My soup was a total "throw what I've got" and I didn't measure a thing.

I had a pot of hot water, from branching the broccoli florets. I decided to toss the broccoli stalks into the water and to cook them for about 10 minutes; then they were drained.

I looked at the water and wondered if there would be enough flavor to make a vegetarian soup. No, I decided and I dumped it.

The cooked broccoli was added to the last of my homemade turkey stock (about 1 1/2 cups...and I emptied the rest of some chicken stock (about 1 cup). Would it taste weird, I wondered? (My fears were put to rest. It worked out just fine.)


In my garden, I cut fresh parsley, oregano, thyme and marjoram. In my fridge, I found one green onion that looked like it was getting old. I'm a huge fan of bouquet garni... I think they're fun to make. So I tied all of these with some kitchen twine. (I'm out of cheese cloth and I keep forgetting to buy some.) This was put into the pot and the soup simmered for about 30 minutes.



My immersion blender made the soup nice and smooth. About 1/2 cup of heavy cream was added, and just a little bit of fresh lemon juice.


Yummy!

So, there you have it. Broccoli salad and broccoli soup!

I have quite a few more recipes I've made that I need to organize and upload. Today, I've enjoyed one hour of swimming. I have so many recipes that I've bookmarked, from so many fellow food bloggers. It's so hard to decide what to make!

Today, I'm leaning towards meatballs, since I thawed some ground pork and beef. I've had a hankering for Chicken Cordon Bleu...where did that come from? I've been seeing recipes for Hummingbird Cake (using bananas and pineapple) and a few thousand others.

But, first... I have some house cleaning to do. Then, I can play in the kitchen.

Mexican Rice Casserole - South of the Border Comfort Food

I have to thank Pam, from "For the Love of Cooking" for this recipe inspiration. Pam loves Mexican food as much as I do. I had all of the ingredients, and I am still emptying out my freezer, so I decided this would be tonight's dinner. I made a few changes, because I have a lot of canned goods in my pantry I want to start using up. If I'm not careful, I tend to hoard food!

From the freezer, I thawed about 1 1/2 pounds of pre-cooked and frozen ground beef. (This is a great time saver for work night cooking).


The rest of my ingredients included El Pato Mexican tomato sauce (can pack some heat) and regular tomato sauce, olive oil, onion, garlic, an orange bell pepper (that was nearing the end of it's life).
My cilantro is thriving in my herb garden, so I cut what I needed.

I really liked Pam's choice of spices, so I decided to mix up a larger batch so that I can use this for other quick Mexican inspired meals:

Cumin, garlic powder, paprika, chili powder and oregano... I save spice jars for my own blends.
I love the colors!

While the rice was cooking (40 minutes of time) I prepared the meat mixture:

Since the meat was pre-cooked, I shoved it off to the side of my non-stick skillet, and I cooked the onion and bell pepper with a little olive oil. Fresh garlic was added, for just 1 minute and then the meat was combined with the cooked vegetables. I added 1 Tablespoon of my Mexican Seasoning. Wow, that smelled good!




Now, for the liquids-- one small can of diced green chili and then the tomato sauces were added (I like a combo if El Pato sauce and regular tomato sauce-- the heat is just right). I didn't have fresh tomatoes, so I used one can of petite diced cut tomatoes. I was so tempted to add corn and sliced black olives, but I resisted. Next time...




I added about 2 cups of brown rice, fresh cilantro, and gave this a stir...


After tasting the meat filling, it was perfect. I didn't feel a need to add salt, pepper or red pepper flakes. Then into a baking dish (coated with olive oil spray)...


Last, a nice layer of cheddar and Monterey Jack was added. You can use any kind of cheese, but this is what I had on hand.



I liked Pam's idea of coating aluminum foil with non-stick spray (clever girl) so that the cheese won't stick.

Into the oven at 350F it went, for 20 minutes. That gave me time to tidy up the kitchen, and whip up some guacamole (I use avocado, salt and pepper, fresh lime juice and a smidgen of minced garlic (or garlic powder).

Pam, you are an inspiration! This was really delicious!

If you haven't paid Pam's blog a visit, please do. She's an amazing cook and quite the photographer.

This recipe is a keeper!

Juicy Pineapple, anyway you slice it

I absolutely love pineapple! My favorite way to eat pineapple is cut up with cottage cheese. For real. It's one of my favorite snacks.

I bought a pineapple, last week, that was as green as they come. It was on sale for $2.75. Sweet! For one week, I let that beautiful fruit sit on my kitchen window sill and ripen. On Sunday, it was ready and I want to show you one of my very favorite kitchen gadgets.

If you already own one of these, then you know what a great invention these are. If you don't own one, they can be found at Williams Sonoma, or Cooking.com.

Watch how easy this is:

Cut the top off...

Position the pineapple slicer so that the cylinder is in alignment with the core...

Keep turning, clock wise, until you feel it has reached the bottom...

Now start to pull up....

Magic!

I gently fan this spiral cut pineapple and cut these into individual slices...

Imagine the possibilities that you can make with this perfectly carved out pineapple!

I am so going to tease you... I've been very busy grilling, and making soups, salads and all kinds of great meals. I'm just a bit overwhelmed with work to blog about this recipe. It's my own version of grilled chicken teriyaki burgers with grilled pineapple-- and I made the sauce myself... and it was fantastic!

Oh. I've also been very busy doing this...



Enjoying the purple carpets of spring lupines in the cattle pastures off Highway 68 between Monterey and Salinas...


A cattle chute, still used for calf branding. I've helped out here...back in the day...when I was much younger and appreciated a good lookin' cowboy in tight Wranglers.

I'll be sharing more recipes by this weekend. It's been in the 90's, so I've been swimming after work and grilling and eating salads.

I love this Spring Weather!

Spring flowers in the neighborhood