Meatballs Italian Style

July 23, 2015 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

Spaghetti and Meatballs… The all-American Italian favorite. Almost everyone I know loves spaghetti and meatballs. And most everyone has their own recipe and technique when it comes to meatballs. Truthfully mine might never be the same twice. It depends on what I have in the refrigerator and pantry. Tonight’s meatballs were pretty good and I documented my steps so maybe, if I follow my own instructions, they will actually taste the same twice.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground chuck

1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs

1 large egg

1/4 cup grated Asiago cheese

1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped

1 T Worcestershire

1/2 medium onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

Preheat oven to 350. I bake my meatballs but you can fry them if you prefer.

Chop the onion, garlic and parsley.

Combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and, using your hands, mix the ingredients just until they are combined. Don’t over mix.

It looks like there is more “stuff” than meat but when it’s mixed it’s perfect.

This recipe made 9 medium sized meatballs. I lined a baking dish with non-stick foil…one of the best inventions ever…and baked them for 20 minutes. I like to finish the cooking in my tomato sauce.

I let them simmer for about an hour in my tomato sauce and served them over bucatini, a pasta that resembles a thick spaghetti noodle but has a hollow center. It’s a great pasta to serve with a rich thick tomato sauce.

Served with a cold crisp salad and a crusty baguette it’s a meal you’d be proud to serve you guests. My dad is a Finn who loves his spaghetti and he enjoyed dinner tonight.

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato and Egg Sandwich (BLTE)

July 21, 2015 / featherheadlady / 2 Comments

This is by no means original. Nor does it really require a recipe. But it sure is an awesome sandwich! The New York Times food section recently had a peanut butter banana sandwich as one of their feature dishes and I personally think a BLTE trumps a PBB. But that’s just my opinion. A quaint little brewery we stopped at in Indiana last December had the option of adding an over easy egg to any sandwich on their menu. I had their BLT with an over easy egg. It was great!

We spent today on the home end of a road trip and this was an easy thing to make for dinner.

Ingredients:

Bacon

Beef steak tomato

Romaine lettuce

Eggs

Italian sour dough bread

Mayonnaise

These ingredients are my personal favorites. Obviously you can substitute your personal favorites…turkey bacon, miracle whip, wheat or white bread, Roma tomatoes, ice berg lettuce. There are no rules. It’s a sandwich.

Cook your bacon until it’s nice and crispy. Again, that’s my taste. My mother used to like her bacon just barely warm. Floppy. I set my oven on a low temp and keep the bacon warm while I work the rest of the ingredients.

If you’re making multiple sandwiches go ahead and toast your bread and keep that warm in the oven as well. Slice your tomato. I like thin stackable slices. Wash your lettuce and trim the cores back a bit.

Fry your eggs and just flip them briefly. Over easy does it.

Now that everything is cooked and sliced some assembly is required. Give your toasted bread a nice coat of mayonnaise.

Next add the lettuce. This line up keeps the tomato from making your bread all soggy.

Now you can add the tomato. I sprinkle it with a little coarse sea salt.

Bacon comes next. As many slices as you’d like.

The grand finale. That over easy egg.

Isn’t that just a thing of beauty? If you like a good BLT the E is the icing on the cake. Serve with a couple napkins.

I have to be honest. Maybe this isn’t for everyone. I put this sandwich in front of my 87 year old father tonight. He looked at it for a minute like perhaps I had made a mistake with the placement of that egg. Then he proceeded to deconstructed it. He slid the egg off the top of the sandwich and said, “I’ll just eat mine on the side.” He enjoyed his dinner. And really, that’s all that matters.

Mango and Red Bean Salsa

July 15, 2015July 15, 2015 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

This is a quick and easy salsa to make and one that we enjoy with fish. My father loved to fish. To him it was one of life’s greatest pleasures. He can tell you a lot of fish stories. We ate a lot of fresh water fish, never ocean fish, and we enjoyed our fish pan fried or occasionally made into fish soup. Friday nights were fish fry nights. But we would have never considered eating salsa with fish. Especially not one made with mango. I never tasted a mango until I was an adult. My dad would look at this salsa and say, “what is that? I don’t think I’d care for that.” But that’s okay. I think if you try it, you’ll like it.

Ingredients:

2 ripe mangos

1 can small red beans or black beans

1/2 cup diced red onion

bunch of cilantro rough chopped

Juice of one lime (1/4 cup)

3 T olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Peel and dice the mangos. Dice red onion. Drain and rinse the beans.

Rough chop the cilantro.

Put the beans, onion, mango and cilantro into a bowl and toss. Squeeze the lime, add the olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste. Toss again.

Ready to serve.

We had the salsa tonight with grilled walleye and asparagus. It was a perfect dinner.

If you like things a little kicked up add a diced jalapeño pepper. You can also serve this with corn chips. Or with fish tacos.

Enjoy.

Cabbage and Potato Gratin

July 14, 2015July 14, 2015 / featherheadlady / 2 Comments

Interestingly, I know several people who don’t like potatoes. It’s hard for me to imagine that. I love potatoes. I grew up in a meat and potatoes family. I like potatoes prepared every which way. Au gratin, scalloped, mashed, French fries, baked, chips, boiled, pancakes, American fries, hash browns…is there a more versatile carb?? I learned something new about potatoes while perusing Facebook…I had no idea there was a whole site featuring “funeral potatoes.” Dishes traditionally made for funeral dinners (of course) and for pot lucks. Apparently these funeral potato dishes originated with the Mormons. I’ll have to do a little more research to find out about the Mormon connection. During the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City one of the souvenir food pins featured a depiction of funeral potatoes. I bet very few readers knew that!

But we’ve all eaten funeral potatoes. Most of us have made them. They consist of frozen hash browns or tater tots, cream soups, maybe some onion, sour cream, butter, cheese, and corn flakes or crushed potato chips for crunch. Ringing any bells?? They are delicious!! Most of us know them as Cheesy Potatoes.

Tonight I decided to make a cabbage and potato bake. Apparently another name for this potato cabbage combo is Rumbledethumps. It’s a Scottish dish. What I made tonight is a variation of traditional Rumbledethumps.

Ingredients:

1 medium head of green cabbage

2 pounds of potatoes

1/2 cup of buttermilk

4 T butter

chives

1 cup gruyere cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450. Core the cabbage and slice it into thin strips. Add the cabbage to a pot of boiling salted water and cook for about 5 minutes.

Drain the cabbage and set aside.

I used redskin potatoes and did not peel them. Boil the potatoes until they are tender enough to mash.

Once they’re done, mash the potatoes using the buttermilk and butter. If you need more buttermilk to make a nice creamy potato add a little more.

Mix the cabbage, potatoes and chives together. Stir in the shredded cheese.

Put the mixture into a casserole dish and bake for 20 minutes or until the top is browned.

I served this tonight with chicken Marsala and green beans but this would make a great side dish for a beef roast or pork loin. This could also be served as a main dish with a side salad. If there is another cheese you prefer like cheddar or Swiss that would be good as well.

Another new potato dish! Tasted great.

Chocolate Brownies

July 5, 2015 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

Almost everyone loves brownies. We attended a 4th of July party yesterday and almost every year I’m asked to bring chocolate chip cookies and brownies.

This brownie recipe is very rich and fudgy. If you usually make brownies from a mix this recipe will hopefully change your mind. I’ve been making these brownies for years and they are always a hit.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

4 oz bar of semi-sweet chocolate (I use Ghirardelli)

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350.

In a heavy saucepan over low heat melt the butter and chocolate. Watch carefully to ensure that you do not to over heat the chocolate.

As soon as the butter and chocolate are melted remove from the heat. In the same pan stir in all of sugar.

Add the eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition.

Stir in the flour and add the vanilla.

Pour the batter into a greased 9×13 pan. Or one lined with parchment paper. Bake for 25 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack. Cut into squares. To make this batch of brownies even more chocolatey I sprinkled them with 1 cup of milk chocolate chips once they were baked and returned the pan to the oven for a couple more minutes. Once the chips were melted I used a knife to spread them out and put a half pecan on top to dress them up. They are also good with seedless raspberry jam spread over the top while they are still warm and then drizzled with melted white chocolate. Whatever you do to the brownies they are great served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzled with hot fudge sauce. Cube them up, freeze them and use them in your chocolate fondue or with a chocolate fountain.

Enjoy!

Rhubarb, Strawberry, Apple Crisp

June 28, 2015 / featherheadlady / 2 Comments

After making three batches of strawberry jam I had strawberries left and I decided to make a crisp with berries, rhubarb and apples. One of my dad’s and my daughter’s favorite pies is strawberry rhubarb so I know they have both loved this dessert. Easy to make and great served warm with some ice cream or fresh whipping cream.

Ingredients:

3 cups diced rhubarb

2 cups strawberries hulled and halved

1 cup peeled and diced apple

1 cup granulated sugar

3 T flour

zest of one lemon

1 tsp cinnamon

fresh grated nutmeg

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar packed

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 375.

In a large bowl combine fruit, granulated sugar, lemon zest and 3 T flour. Toss to combine and pour into an 8×10 baking dish.

In the same bowl you tossed the fruit around in add the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, and butter for the crisp and mix to combine.

Using your hands crumble the crisp ingredients over the fruit.

Bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes. The fruit should be bubbling and the crisp should be a golden brown.

No pictures of us enjoying this dessert. Shortly after it came out of the oven I covered it with foil, wrapped it in a bath towel and took it to a friend’s house for dessert. It was amazing if I do say so myself. My Dad and daughter would have been in dessert heaven. I whipped up some fresh cream and brought it along to top the crisp.

NOTE: I learned a simple and time saving tip for whipping cream from one of my many food magazines. If you have an immersion blender put the heavy cream and a little granulated sugar into a quart jar and after a few spins of the immersion blender you have perfect whipped cream. No cream splatter on the counter and easy to store in the fridge or transport to serve with dessert.

Strawberry Jam with Balsamic

June 27, 2015 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

One of the best things about this time of year is all the fresh local produce. And it just happens to be strawberry season in Michigan. Last year I made strawberry freezer jam. This year I decided to do cooked jam. I did my first batch with lemon juice and lemon zest and two batches with balsamic vinegar. With all the sugar the balsamic vinegar gives the jam just a little kick. The Ball canning recipe says, “balsamic vinegar accents the strawberry flavor and gives the jam a robust taste.” They are right. It’s a perfect addition.

Ingredients:

5 cups “smashed” strawberries

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice + zest of one lemon

1 T fresh squeezed lemon juice and 3 T balsamic vinegar

1 pkg fruit pectin

7 cups granulated sugar

I used the old fashioned water bath. The first thing you need to do is put your clean canning jars into the water bath along with the lids and rings, crank up the heat and sterilize everything. I leave them in the water bath while I’m cooking the jam. Check your jars carefully before putting then in for any cracks or little chips on the lips of the jars which will prevent a proper seal.

Wash, hull and halve the berries. I use my potato masher to smash them up some.

Once you have 5 cups of smashed berries add the lemon juice and lemon zest OR the lemon juice and balsamic. Stir to combine and put in a heavy kettle. Gradually stir in the pectin.

Cook over high heat stirring constantly until you can no longer stir away the boil.

Add all 7 cups of sugar at once stirring to dissolve.

Return the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for one minute stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. If necessary skim off any foam. Ladle hot jam into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.

I use a canning funnel so I make less of a ladling mess. I still make a mess. But the funnel helps. Wipe the rim of the jar with a clean damp cloth, center the lid on the jar and tighten the band. Repeat until all of the jam is jarred. If, at the end of ladling you don’t have a full jar, put the last of the jam in a container and refrigerate once it cools. Process the jars in boiling water bath for 10 minutes. The water should be about an inch above the tops of the jars. After 10 minutes remove jars and cool. Now you can enjoy your homemade strawberry jam all through the year.

We had some this morning on a slice of awesome Old Country Rye that we bought from the Trenary Bakery in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. A good strong cup of coffee and toast with strawberry jam…a perfect breakfast.

NOTE: One of the things I learned while making three batches of this jam is that a ten pound bag of sugar is almost exactly 21 cups. And 7 quarts of strawberries equals about 15 cups of smashed berries.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

June 15, 2015 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

I almost always prefer green salsas to red ones. Unless the green salsa is very hot and the red is not. In New Mexico they use the term “Christmas” when both red and green chilies are used in a dish…or, if you can’t choose your salsa, just tell them you want Christmas.

I like this mild salsa made with tomatillos. Tomatillos look like green tomatoes with a papery covering. Apparently ripe tomatillos are red or purple but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ripe one. When you choose them in the grocery they should be firm but not hard and the papery husks should be open but intact. They have a hint of citrus flavor and, like tomatoes, they add acid to a dish. This salsa is very easy to make.

Salsa Ingredients:

6-7 tomatillos

2 jalapeños (seeded or not)

2 poblano peppers

3-4 garlic cloves whole

1 fresh lime

1 small onion rough chopped

Salt to taste

Wash the peppers and tomatillos, halve them and spread them out on a baking sheet along with the whole garlic cloves.

Roast then under the broiler until they are nicely charred.

Add the roasted vegetables along with their juices and the chopped onion into your food processor. Pulse until smooth. Juice the lime and stir in along with salt to taste.

This roasted tomatillo salsa is great with warm corn chips.

Or on your fish taco. Spicy baked cod, queso fresco (mild Mexican farmers cheese), slaw and salsa.

Or to spice up breakfast. Potatoes fried with onions and peppers, over easy eggs, crispy bacon and tomatillo salsa.

I love cilantro and, if I had had cilantro on hand, I would have added it to this salsa. Also, I seeded my jalapeños but if you prefer more heat leave the seeds. Whatever modifications you make I hope you enjoy changing up your usual red for a little of the green or opting for Christmas.

Super Laundry Sauce

June 3, 2015 / featherheadlady / 2 Comments

Looks good enough to eat but it’s definitely not edible. It’s sauce for doing your laundry. It’s an excellent stain remover. It’s easy to make. And it’s economical. Very economical! You can do 128 loads of laundry for less than $2.00. I like a bargain as much as the next person but the real reason I keep making this is because it works so well.

Ingredients:

1 bar Fels Naptha

3 cups boiling water

1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax Powder

1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

2 wide mouth quart jars

You’ll find all of these ingredients in the laundry section in the grocery store.

Cut the bar of Fels Naptha in half and then chop each half into little pieces.

Put half the chopped up Fels Naptha in one jar, half in the other. Pour 1 1/2 cups of boiling water in each jar, cover, and let them sit until the next morning.

The next morning you can turn the jar upside down and the Fels Naptha and water will have gelled. Use a butter knife to score the gel.

Add one half cup of the 20 Mule Team Borax to each jar. Add one half cup of the Arm and Hammer Washing Soda to each jar. Put the tea kettle on and add boiling water just up to the shoulder of each jar. Leave about an inch and a half of headspace.

Using an immersion blender blend the mixture until it looks like mayonnaise. Or if your mason jar will fit the base of your blender whip until smooth and creamy. If you don’t own an immersion blender or a regular blender scrape the contents into a deep bowl and whip with a hand mixer. Once it’s whipped use a rubber spatula to work it back into the jar.

One tablespoon is all you need to wash a large load of laundry. Great for front loaders and high efficiency machines because it is low sudsing.

If you have a stain rinse the area with cold water and use some of the laundry sauce to pretreat. Everyone I know that’s made this sauce loves it!

I originally found this recipe on a site called Budget101.com.

Asparagus and Garlic Pasta

May 29, 2015 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

On one of our weekly shopping expeditions my friend and I discovered the most awesome pasta made in Grand Rapids Michigan by the Local Epicurean. The box says it is “hand made pasta by passionate artisans.” I believe them. There are numerous combinations including lemon dill, asiago oregano, portobello Parmesan, red beet, asparagus garlic and several others. I’ve purchased and cooked many different pastas that purport to contain various vegetables but they seem to only be colored pastas. The Local Epicurean pastas actually taste like the ingredients they are infused with. Each package has cooking instructions and a recipe. This is the recipe, slightly modified, for the asparagus garlic pasta.

Ingredients:

4 T olive oil

1 cup asparagus cut into approximately 1″ pieces

1 cup grape tomatoes halved

1 cup of sweet yellow peppers rough chopped

1 cup mini portobellos

4-5 cloves of garlic minced

1/4 cup shallots sliced

1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

1 package asparagus garlic pasta

Put up a large kettle of salted water for the pasta and bring it to a boil. This pasta cooks very quickly, 4-6 minutes.

Prep all of the vegetables.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and add all of the vegetables stirring occasionally. Cook 5-6 minutes until vegetables are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

While the vegetables are cooking grate a generous cup of parmigiana reggiano.

Once the pasta is cooked drain but do not rinse.

Add the pasta, cheese, and about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking liquid to the vegetables.

Toss until well combined and serve. Enjoy every bite.

You can add shrimp, scallops, or thinly sliced chicken breast but I served it as a vegetarian meal. It could also be garnished with some fresh parsley or basil. Serve with a nice salad and some good bread and you have a meal that you’d be proud to serve any guest. And how easy was that! If you cannot find this particular pasta the recipe would still make a very tasty dish.

I was recently at Eataly in Chicago with my daughter and was inspired to make my own pasta. I haven’t made pasta in a very long time. Years and years. I just think it would be great fun especially if I can talk someone into doing it with me. Maybe that will be one of my next blogs. We’ll see.