Asian Spaghetti-and-Meatballs

I've been too busy to cook.  The last months have been insta-food, burgers, pizza, and even [gasp] eating out at restaurants.  I did it again today: I stayed at church far too long working and then rushed home to drive Mag to work and do some errands.  And then it would be time to eat -- boom.  Having eaten way too many hamburgers recently, I snatched up some Aldi ground turkey for a variation on our burgers.  My brain was thinking I might throw in some grated onion, carrot, and celery with a teriyaki sauce for the burgers.

Problem 1:  Teriyaki sauce was gone and I had to whip up my own sauce.
Problem 2:  We're nearly out of bread.  The grain would have to be noodles or rice.
Solution:  Get creative.  Besides, I hadn't had the fun of cooking creatively for months.  Pad Thai was the starting point.

Cut veggies:
about 5-6 cups slivered cabbage
about 1 cup julienned carrot
about 1 cup slivered onion
(Slaw mix with some onion would work nicely, if you have it.)

Meatballs:
1.5# ground turkey
lime juice
cilantro
2 eggs
1/4 sesame seeds
1/4 cup flour or fine bread crumbs
extra flavor: garlic, onion, chili powder, pepper, salt

Stir-fry the veggies.  I used a blend of coconut oil, olive oil, and sesame oil.  Remove from skillet and set aside.

Set a large pot of water to boil.
Start frying the meatballs in the skillet.
(Option: bake meatballs in the oven instead of cooking them in the skillet.)
Mix up a sauce of  soy sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, pineapple juice, chili-garlic paste, and garlic.
When meatballs are done, remove from skillet.  Pour sauce into skillet and use whisk to loosen meat-bits.  Return veggies to skillet and simmer for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook in the boiling water:
8 oz dry spaghetti, broken into 2" lengths
Drain.

Add pasta to the veggies and sauce.  Mix well.  Top with meatballs.


When Gary asked what I was making for supper, I told him what I was inventing.  He put on a brave face.  I was a bit leery too.  But I liked it.  As for my poor guinea pig of a husband, after a few bites, he declared, "Hey, this is pretty good!"  Success!

Katie's Birthday Cake

There is a certain time of year when neighbors are trying to foist their excess zucchini on friends, co-workers, family, and even enemies.  Imagine your birthday falls at that time of year.  Somehow, inexplicably, this ends up as your birthday cake year after year. 

I may have been terrible at Making Memories (TM) and Establishing Traditions for my kids, but this cake is a tradition we stumbled onto.  Because zucchini.  August.  Chocolate.  Delicious. 


Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Preheat oven to 350.
Grease your pan: either a bundt pan or a 13x9.

Combine in mixing bowl --
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
1.5 cups sugar (maybe 1 cup or 1.25 would be sufficient)
1 tsp vanilla


In another bowl, sift together --
1.25 cups ww flour
1.25 cups white flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

Grate --
3 small zucchini (or whatever you need to yield 2 cups grated zucchini)


Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the zucchini to the sugar+egg+oil mixture.
If 13x9, bake about 45 minutes.
If a bundt, bake about 60-65 minutes.

Pad Thai

I don't know if this is how Pad Thai is supposed to taste, but we enjoy this recipe and could eat it frequently.  This serves 4 of us.

Set large pot of water to boil for pasta.

Prepare vegetables:
4 cups thinly sliced cabbage
1 cup julienned carrots
maybe also include:
~ sliced mushrooms
~ bean sprouts
~ thinly sliced sweet bell peppers
~ thinly sliced onion halves (particularly if the green onions called for later in the recipe are unavailable)


Sauté vegetables  in olive oil and a small amount of sesame oil for extra flavor.


Prepare sauce while veggies are cooking.  Mix:
4 Tbsp soy sauce
2.5 Tbsp lime juice 
2 Tbsp pineapple juice*
1 Tbsp chili-garlic sauce
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp fish sauce (optional)

To cabbage and stir-fried veggies, add:
16 oz shrimp
Cook briefly until shrimp is nearly cooked (or heated, if using precooked shrimp).
Add
4 cloves garlic, minced
and the sauce.
Simmer 4-5 minutes.

While meat and vegs simmer, cook
8 oz of vermicelli or angel hair pasta
(Break uncooked pasta into pieces about 2-3" long before cooking.)
(Also cook eggs now if you're making a larger amount.)

Drain pasta.  Add to veggies.  Toss.

Beat 3 eggs in small bowl. 
Shove pasta/veggie mix aside and cook the eggs in the skillet.
Mix eggs into the cabbage and pasta.
(Depending on the size of the pot and how much vegetables you prepared, you may wish to fry up the eggs in a small skillet, and then crumble into the pasta/veg mix.)

Add:
3 green onions, sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 Tbsp peanuts

Toss.  Serve.



* You can substitute orange juice for the pineapple juice if necessary.  I found that it works to drain the juice off a can of pineapple and freeze it in ice cube trays.

Pork Tenderloin

For my kids: This is the recipe for the pork we had on Sunday.  I don't know who/where I got it from -- probably a melding of several online recipes.  It takes about 40 minutes.

The pork tenderloins at the Pig come with two in a 2.5# package.  Each tenderloin is a little over 1#.  The whole package would be 4-6 servings.  The recipe below is for cooking both the pieces at the same time.

Use a paring knife to trim any silver skin from the tenderloin, as this silver skin will get tough.
Pat tenderloin dry with paper towel.
Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a cast iron skillet or dutch oven over medium heat, till oil shimmers.

Coat the meat pieces with
1 Tbsp olive oil
and season with 
1/2 Tbsp salt 

Sear meat in skillet.  Cook each side for about 3 minutes, until nicely browned, for a total of 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice or chop
2 onions
2 apples

Begin preheating oven to 450.
When meat is seared, remove to a platter.

Add another Tbsp of oil to the skillet (if necessary) and saute onions and apples for about 5 minutes.
While the apples are frying, rub into meat:
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
3/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper

Add 1/4 tsp thyme to onions.  Top onions/apples with meat.   Slide skillet into hot oven.
Roast 10-15 minutes, until meat thermometer reads 145-150.  Don't overcook.
Put meat on clean platter; cover with foil; let rest 10 minutes.
Put skillet back on a medium burner.  Add
1 cup chicken broth to skillet.
Stir and scrape browned bits from bottom of skillet.
Bring to boil.  Reduce to simmer.  Cook until sauce reduces by half.
Slice meat. 
Apples and onions go on the bottom of the platter, topped by meat slices, topped by the sauce.



I substituted the 10 minutes of roasting with the crockpot.  After frying the apples and onions, I added the chicken broth to the skillet, stirred to remove brown roasty bits, and then poured it in the bottom of the crockpot.  I put the meat on top.  Crockpot on low for 3 hours was a bit too long, and I did a double recipe.  So probably two hours on low [for a modern crockpot] would be good.  I don't know how much longer for a good, old-fashioned, lower-heat crockpot.  If you use the crockpot, pour the apples, onions, and sauce into a saucepan or skillet to reduce the sauce on the stovetop. 

Do you have a meat thermometer?  It's really handy for a recipe like this because you don't want to overcook it and have tough meat, and you don't want to undercook it and get trichinosis.  And on that cheery note, we should all go buy tenderloins while they're still on sale.

Summer Rice Salad

This was part of Christmas dinner.  Nobody in our family is allergic to anything in it, and that's no small feat.  The recipe makes 5-6 quarts of salad, but don't make a bunch and expect to eat it all week.  After a day and a half in the fridge, the dab of leftovers was a little soggy.  All you kids who said you wanted the recipe, here ya go ...

Toss together:
3 cups cooked & cooled brown basmati (that's 1 cup rice + 2 cups water)
2 large or 3 medium cucumbers, chopped
3 pints of grape tomatoes, halved
1 carrot, grated
4 green onions, sliced
16 oz pea pods, cut into pieces about 3/4 to 1" long
2 avocados, diced
1/2 bunch of cilantro, leaves chopped

Drizzle with olive oil and the juice of 1 lemon.
Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika.
Toss.

Champagne Vinaigrette

We fell in love with a salad dressing from the California Pizza Kitchen.  After hunting up a variety of recipe-fakes, the following concoction has been whipped up many times over the last couple of months:

¼ cup white wine vinegar *

¼ cup raw olive oil

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard**

1 lime or ½ lemon, juiced (1 to 1½ Tbsp)

1½ Tbsp honey

1 clove garlic or ½ a shallot, lightly minced

½ tsp salt

½ tsp fresh ground pepper

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth and somewhat emulsified.  Stores nicely in the refrigerator, unlike my other oil-and-vinegar dressings which separate and where the oil solidifies.  This isn't as healthy as my usual homemade dressings, but it's so yummy it makes me want to melt into the floor with joy.

* The recipe is supposed to use champagne vinegar.  Several recipes suggested letting leftover champagne sit out for several days to become vinegary.  Ummm ... we seldom have champagne, so it's a little hard to make champagne vinegar from the leftovers.  Conveniently, Aldi offered white wine vinegar as a special purchase not long ago, and I nabbed several bottles.

** I usually use plain old hotdog mustard any time a recipe calls for whatever-type mustard.  Aldi also ran a mustard extravaganza recently, so I bought my first jar of Dijon.  The Dijon definitely makes a difference in this recipe.

Energy Balls

You know those energy bars that are available at the grocery store?  The ones full of ingredients that sound like you're doing a science experiment instead of eating food?  Well, here's a real-food alternative that is quite easy.

Combine:
1 cup oat
2/3 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup flaxmeal or wheat germ
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
(optional: 1/4 cup finely ground nuts
and/or 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder)

Mix well.
Chill 30 minutes.
Shape into balls.
Store in refrigerator up to 1-2 weeks.

Delicious.
They're like candy bars to tide you over when you're famished.
Problem is, they are high in calories, and they're so little that it's easy to just grab one or two and snarf 'em down like as if they're nothin'.  Certain people have gained some weight since I made these.  The energy balls sit in the fridge, tempting us, while ostensibly waiting to be a late-morning snack on those days at work where I can't go to lunch until nearly 2:30.

Caribbean Salmon

My housemates who aren't exactly fond of salmon requested that this recipe be made again!  The original recipe is found here.  My [lazy] adjustments are as follows:


2# salmon fillets
2-3 Tbsp Jamaican jerk seasoning
1 tsp lime juice
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 Tbsp pineapple juice (because I didn't have oj opened)
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp brown sugar

Preheat oven to 450.
Mix all ingredients except salmon.
Spread a few tablespoons of olive oil on a jelly roll pan.  Place fish in the pan, skin side down.  Spread spice mix evenly over the fish pieces.  Cover pan with foil and bake until done (when thick part of the meat flakes with a fork).

Caramel without HFCS

I was recently making Glenda's Most Evil Dessert as a thank-you treat for some of my co-workers.  Of course, it never crossed my mind to buy a bag or two of caramels (which is one of the main ingredients).  So Maggie and I determined to mix up some caramels right-quick.  That's when we discovered we had no corn syrup either (a main ingredient in the caramels). 

So I substituted honey.  Y'know -- real honey.  Made by bees.  Instead of chemists.

Guess what?  Those were darn good caramels!

Non-Dairy Brownies

If you can't have butter, and if you're trying to turn cocoa powder into fudgy brownies, this worked superbly!

13x9" recipe

1.5 cups white flour
2 cups sugar
10 Tbsp cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 cup coconut oil  or olive oil (solid, not melted)
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup nuts (if you're not allergic to them)


recipe for 28-35 sq-inches
(I used a a small serving dish for veggies.
A 6" skillet would also work.)
3/8 cup flour (that is, 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp)
1/2 cup sugar
2.5 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil or coconut oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla


Put all ingredients into a bowl.  Mix.
Beat for another 3 minutes.
Bake a 13x9 at 350 for 30 minutes,
or the tiny pan for about 25 minutes.

Katie, even Dad liked these ... even with the coconutty taste.  The texture is just as nice as when made with butter.  They're not crumbly.  They're not dry.  Maggie told me not to eat the whole pan. I didn't -- not the whole pan.  I'm still thinking I should give this recipe a try with chilled olive oil, but that experiment hasn't happened yet.

Update from the following day:
We experimented with olive oil instead of coconut oil.  The brownies turned out even better!  I measured the olive oil, poured it into a small bowl, and then refrigerated it until it was a soft solid.   The brownies had a lovely fudgy texture, but without the coconut taste of yesterday's experiment.

Fish Recipes

Thawed tilapia.  What to do with it for dinner?  Yowza -- I hit the jackpot with an online recipe.  I used 2# of fish and cooked it in two 10" skillets.  It's quick, easy, healthy, and so delicious that I'm wishing I could make it again tomorrow!

To start, grab a pint of canned tomatoes and drain the juice off for some other use; or chop a few tomatoes.  Chop a couple of onions too.  Then sprinkle a spice mix on both sides of the fillets.  (I used Emeril's Essence.  Next time I'll reserve Maggie's fillets to be seasoned with salt and pepper only.)  Heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in each skillet.  Cook fillets in the hot oil for about 45-60 seconds per side. Gently lift fillets and toss the onions and tomatoes underneath.  Lower heat to low-medium, cover skillets, and cook for about 3 minutes.  Pour in enough coconut milk to make a nice sauce (about 1 cup per skillet), heat through until fish flakes and sauce is somewhat thickened and, well, saucy.  Serve over a small amount of rice.





Our other fave fish recipe is for salmon.  Meghan turned us onto this.  For each 4-oz salmon fillet, you'll combine about 1/2 Tbsp each of butter and mustard with 1 tsp of honey.  In another bowl you'll combine 1.5 Tbsp each of bread crumbs and finely chopped pecans with 1/2 tsp chopped fresh parsley.  Salt & pepper the fillet; brush with honey-mustard; sprinkle with bread crumbs & pecans.  Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes or until fish tests done by flaking it with a fork. 

I also want to try another of Meghan's recipes.  My only problem with this one is thinking ahead far enough to do the marinating. 

Dairy-Free Tomato Soup

Saute in some olive oil:
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-3 tsp hot pepper, minced (may substitute a pinch of red pepper flakes)
until onion is transluscent.

Add:
2 quarts of canned tomatoes (or about 4# of fresh tomatoes, chopped)
1 bay leaf

Bring to boil.  Then add:
1 Tbsp brown sugar
3 slices of bread (or 1-2 oz of soda crackers)

Continue to boil over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
In small batches, put soup through blender to puree.

In saucepan, bring 1 pint of chicken broth to a boil.
Add tomato-smoosh to broth. Heat through.
Adjust seasonings with salt, black pepper, and other spices of choice.

If soup is too thick, water it down with water (for those who must avoid dairy) or with whole milk.





Hat tip to Sue's blog. 
Thanks for the yummy suggestion!

Fresh-Tomato Chili

Saute together in a humongous pot:
1.5 pounds hamburger
2 onions, finely chopped
1 large sweet green pepper, finely chopped
1 large hot pepper, minced (or a medium-sized very hot pepper)

Meanwhile, use the food processor to chop up a whole gob of tomatoes (about a gallon of diced tomatoes with their juice).

When the hamburger is browned and the veggies soft, add
1 Tbsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
3 Tbsp dried parsley
1.5 Tbsp chili powder
1.5 Tbsp cumin
1/4 tsp basil

Stir well.  Add tomatoes.  Mix. 
Drain water from 4 pints of of canned kidney beans.
Add beans to soup.  Heat.  Adjust seasonings.



Mmmmmm.   This is the chili which I tried to can, and I shouldn't have.  Batch #2 is bypassing the pressure-canner and going straight into freezer bags.   Mmmmmm.

Heart Recipe

Cover the heart with water and soak overnight in the refrigerator.
Drain.  Trim away the connective tissue and any other icky stuff.  Chop into cubes, about 1-2" square.
Sprinkle with seasoned salt.
Cover with water again, and let soak several more hours.
Drain and pat dry with paper towels.

Dredge meat cubes in white flour seasoned with pepper and Emeril's Essence.
In batches small enough to fit in your Dutch oven, brown cubes in bacon fat.  This will take about 5 minutes per batch.  Remove meat to a bowl and set aside for a few minutes.

Chop 3 large onions.  Saute them in the same Dutch oven.  I used bacon fat and a splash of sesame oil.  While the onions are cooking, roughly chop 1 rib of celery and 1 carrot.  Give them a whirl in the food processor to mince them, and then add them to the onions.  When the onions are soft and beginning to brown, return the meat to the pot. 

Add about 3-5 teaspoons of beef Better-than-Bouillon, stirred into 1/2 cup of water.  Or you could use bouillon if you fail to buy the yummy stuff, about 3-5 cubes.  Then add about 1 cup of wine.  I used Madeira this time.  Add any other seasonings you might desire, such as garlic. Put the lid on the Dutch oven, and bake it for 3 hours in a 350 oven, until meat is tender.  Check occasionally to stir and to see if stew needs more liquid.

Serve over noodles or mashed potatoes.

Meal Plans

~ lasagna
~ Maggie makes hamburgers and frozen veggies
~ beef vegetable barley soup
~ chicken marsala
~ leftovers, and maybe egg-&-ham sandwiches
~ crab and screw noodles*
~ ham & bean soup
~ baked beans
~ baked potato bar

Gee with that line-up, I'm thinking that it would be getting high time for some meat. And the next day is Ash Wednesday. Hmmm.



* Crab and screw noodles is a quick pasta dish. Thaw the fake crab. In one pot, boil up a package of California blend vegetables (broccoli, carrots, cauliflower). In another pot, boil up a package of rotini, preferably the multi-colored kind. Drain the water from both pots. Slop a bunch of butter on the noodles so they don't get sticky. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried onion flakes, parsley!, and parmesan. Toss crab and veggies into the buttery spiced-up noodles, and enjoy.

Gumbo

Katie's old blog disappeared. That's where I stored my gumbo recipe. I used to just wing it, but she and Rachel wanted to follow my recipe. (Recipe? There's a real recipe?) So the deal was for me to make gumbo while somebody wrote down the tweaks to the written, "kinda-sorta-guideline" recipe. Gary helped me find a cached copy of her blogpost, and now I'm rescuing it from electronic destruction when the caching peters out. And so, without further ado, my gumbo recipe --


Stew one chicken (or four leg quarters).
Let cool enough to handle.
Debone. Chop chicken.

Chop:
1 onion
2 ribs celery
1 green pepper
some hot peppers if desired.
Saute in olive oil until the onion is softened and translucent.

Add 1/3 pound sausage or ham.
Fry until meat is cooked.

Add 1/4 or 1/2 cup white flour.
Cook on low heat 10-40 minutes,
scraping the bottom of the pot frequently
so that the flour browns and you don't have a mess stuck onto the bottom of the pan.
(A few minutes will work if you're in a real hurry,
but if you can make yourself keep browning that flour for 30 minutes, that's when you make a fantabulous gumbo!)

Add:
the chicken and broth
1 pint can of diced tomatoes
small can of shrimp or crabmeat (optional)
garlic (to taste)
1 tsp sugar
2-3 tsp salt
black pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp oregano

When boiling, add 1-2 pounds frozen chopped okra.
Cook about 10 minutes, or until okra is done.

Serve over rice. Add cayenne or Frank's Red Hot for those who desire more heat.

African Peanut-Chicken Soup

Celebrating Gary's birthday, we ate supper at a little coffee shop around the corner from the theatre we attended. My adventurous choice was the African Peanut-Chicken Soup. Upon tasting this heavenly concoction, I melted with the joy of its deliciousness. Then I came home and decided I had to figure out how to make it myself.


Combine:
1 pint of chicken broth or turkey stock
2 Tbsp uncooked rice
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tsp chopped hot pepper (more or less, to taste)
1/4 cup chopped fresh tomato

(or canned petite-diced tomato)

Bring to boil over high heat.
Lower heat and season soup with:
garlic powder
pepper
chili powder
salt if necessary
Then simmer until rice is done. (If using white rice instead of brown, saute onion for 5 minutes before adding broth and rice and tomato.)

Add:
1/3 cup chopped, cooked chicken or turkey
When meat is heated through in the soup,
stir in 3-4 Tablespoons peanut butter.


This easy-breezy recipe makes about 3 cups of delicious soup in about 45 minutes (or less, if you insist on white rice).


(Shhhh... nobody caught on to my near-rabid preference for brown rice here, d'ya think?)

Italian Pot Pie

Wanting to make something that took no effort on a day when I wasn't feeling well, I invented something, in hopes that it would be edible. Reaction from the rest of the family was that I better write a recipe down so that the dish can be replicated.

meatballs
spaghetti sauce
frozen spinach
cream cheese
American cheese
pot-pie topping


Pour ½ pint of marinara sauce into the bottom of an 8x8" baking dish. Add enough meatballs to cover the bottom of the pan; I used twenty-four 1½" diameter meatballs. Pour another pint of spaghetti sauce on top of the meatballs. (If your meatballs are still frozen, begin baking this part of the dish while you assemble the other ingredients.)

If your frozen, chopped spinach is not thawed yet, begin boiling it according to the directions. When thawed or simmered, drain well.

Stir together the spinach and about 3-5 ounces of softened cream cheese. When your meatballs are thawed, put the layer of spinachy cream cheese on top of the tomatoey meatballs.

Add the pot-pie topping.
3/4 cup flour (mostly whole wheat)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
with --
1 egg
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup shredded cheddar

(You can leave the cheese out of the batter, and place a solid layer of American cheese slices between the cream cheese and the top crust.)

Bake about 20 minutes at 350°, until crust is done. Before serving, warm the few ounces of spaghetti sauce left in the jar, and pour over the top of your pot pie.

Crumpetty Pancakes

Five quarts of sour milk? When Maggie was sick and banned from milk, we ended up with a lot that soured before we drank it. (That showed us who's our milk-guzzler!) Raw milk doesn't go rancid when it sours as does pasteurized milk. Still, five quarts will make a LOT of pancakes and muffins.

When I finally was ready to use the last of the milk (five weeks after it had gone sour), I was in a hurry to throw some pancakes onto plates before we left for morning chapel. I didn't want to spend the time to combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl. I took a shortcut. I added the baking soda, sugar, baking powder, and salt directly to the milk/egg/oil mixture. After beating that together well, I began to measure the flour. Oh my goodness -- in that brief amount of time, the chemical reaction between the baking soda and the sour milk caused the whole thing to grow and foam and expand. (It was pretty cool!) I stirred in the flour and began to fry the pancakes, wondering how badly I might have ruined them.

But they weren't ruined. They had this wonderful texture that made us think of crumpets, kind of light and spongy with some crispness on the outside. I might try this again ... on purpose this time!

Beer-Batter Fish

Because I lost my mom's recipe and had to call her today to get it, I am posting this online as well as putting the card in my recipe box. Two places to hunt for missing recipes.


Combine:
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt

Combine:
2 egg yolks
1/2 can beer (about 2/3 cup)
2 Tbsp oil or melted butter

Stir these together, just till blended.
Let stand an hour or more.

Begin heating frying oil.
Then beat two egg whites.
Fold whites into batter.
Dip fish into batter and deep-fry at 375.

Mmmmmmm.