Tag: recipes

New Menu Monday- Meatloaf Swapped for Swedish Meatballs, HOLY YUM!!

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Screenshot of DamnDelicious.net Click to link to her Swedish Meatball recipe!

The blog Damn Delicious is aptly named. Go there now. Pin, bookmark, share on Facebook, save this recipe however you can, but keep this recipe. Even more importantly, MAKE IT SOON!  http://damndelicious.net/2014/02/21/swedish-meatballs/

Swedish Meatballs swimming in perfect gravy, served with broccoli.
Swedish Meatballs swimming in perfect gravy, served with broccoli.

DamDelicious.net is run by Chung-Ah, who does not profess to be a trained cook. Well, this gal has taught herself well and paid great attention to anyone who and anything that ever taught her to appreciate food and its preparation.

I can’t believe that this came out looking as good IRL as her recipe looks online! And HOLY COW this was good. If a meal has noodles, sauce and meat, it is instantly one of my favorites. Four out of five of us loved it- The Boy (The Dissenter) thought it had too many onions, The Boyfriend loved it despite the onions. The Husband raved, The Girl was still praising these meatballs over two hours later.

I followed the recipe exactly with one change and one mistake- I added a couple of teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, and accidentally added two whole eggs instead of just two egg yolks. I bet my meatballs would have been less tough with just yolks… but that is really nit-picking. This was Damn Delicious!

If you want to fuss with making meatballs (does 20 minutes of scooping and rolling count as a fuss?), make this recipe. Big tip- use a cookie scoop and they will halfway make themselves. Mine is a two tablespoon scoop that I use for cookies, and I found it a perfect helper. The other kitchen tip is use a cast iron skillet- this one is my 12″ pan and I swear by it.

Look at all that lucious GRAVY!!!!!
Look at all that lucious GRAVY!!!!!

Best By, Use By, Science Fair Project By…

Pierogis instead of macaroni and cheese...
Pierogis instead of macaroni and cheese… the pic before I opened the package
Mmmm! Wouldn't it be delicious to brown pierogis in the pan after these kielbasa?
Mmmm! Wouldn’t it be delicious to brown pierogis in the pan after these kielbasa?

Looking to try something different for dinner instead of the family’s usual mac and cheese? Be careful with pierogi, they probably have not only a Use By/Freeze By date, but also a Definitely Destroyed date and a Beware: Do Not Open- Science Fair Project In Process date to boot. Mine were well into the latter. Whoops.

Boo hoo hoo. I was really looking forward to using these in a layered casserole recipe, too, kind of like a pierogi lasagna. Doesn’t that sound good? I’ll try again another time.

Three boxes join the coffee grounds. P.U.
After I opened the package… three boxes of pierogi very quickly join the coffee grounds.  P.U.
Chocolate Chip Cookies from the neighbor kid's fund raiser
The Husband saves the day and bakes Chocolate Chip Cookies from the neighbor kid’s cookie dough fund raiser.

Mac and Cheese it is!

New Menu Monday- Chicken Vegetable Soup, Beer Cheese Dip and Bread

www.aspicyperspective.com
Photo from, and links to http://www.aspicyperspective.com 3 Ingredient Beer Cheese Dip

It’s a New Menu Monday… I didn’t Change my basic Chicken Vegetable Soup, but instead of serving it with rolls or garlic bread, I tried a new recipe. A Beer Cheese Dip, yum!

The original recipe is from ASpicyPerspective.com, calling for three ingredients- pepper jack cheese, cream cheese and a 12 ounce bottle of beer. Not difficult to prepare, this was really nice as-is. The only change I made was to use regular jack cheese. I can see why pepper jack is called for (besides the tip off of the blog title containing the word “spicy”)… it needed a little something more. I added two teaspoons each of Worcestershire sauce and dry mustard, both standard cheese dip ingredients. The Girl loved it, but The Boyfriend and I agreed: too beer-y and needs cheddar. The Husband Approved, went for seconds and I don’t think that The Boy touched it. Chicken.

Chicken Vegetable Soup with Bread and Beer Cheese Dip
Chicken Vegetable Soup with Bread and Beer Cheese Dip

This really is a super easy dip. Cream cheese and jack are known for their meltiness, and really make this recipe. I’ll make it again, with pepper jack. And it is always fun to invent new words to describe food. Today’s are “meltiness” and “beer-y.” There will be a quiz at the semester’s end, study your vocab, students!

The Upshot: Half the Family = Half the Bill

Plans for a nice family dinner at a favorite Japanese restaurant just didn’t materialize in the way I had hoped for.  I haven’t seen the teens much lately, which sometimes is NOT a bad thing- am I right, fellow moms of teens??? However, I do enjoy these people an overwhelming majority of the time. There are subjects to cover, jokes to hear, stories to catch up on that you can’t hear in the fifteen minutes you see them in the morning before they dash out the door, or pry out of them as they are poring over their studies.

We try really hard to sit down together at dinner every day of the week… by “we try,” it’s really “I try.” All this effort results in maybe three family dinners per week. With fencing, guitar, theater, church leadership, Academic Decathlon, and sneaky Netflix binging, (and this is just The Teens) I feel like I have to out-plan everyone in order to bring us together on a regular basis. That should be a college course for parents! “Family Togetherness 101: Stealthy and Inconspicuous Planning and Gathering- Techniques and Practices Explained.”

No le gusta el atún. Pobrecito.
No le gusta el atún. Pobrecito. Part of the the catch of the day last July. It was Poke City here. Click the pic for a recipe similar to ours
Further evidence of how deep his distaste for fish runs..
Further evidence of how deep his distaste for tuna runs…

It is probably a good thing that The Teens stayed home… one doesn’t like sushi or any fish for that matter, the other racks up quite a bill. We had half the usual bill by leaving half the family at home. Look at The Boy. He’s not kidding. This is the poster child for Mac N Cheese. And fillet mignon. His tastes run amok.

Hamachi (Yellowtail) Sashimi, caught that morning- click for a great poke recipe
Hamachi (Yellowtail) Sashimi, caught that morning

My favorite selections for sushi are always salmon and yellowtail nigiri. Tuna used to be a top choice, but we are extremely fortunate to catch our own on a friend’s boat or receive some of his haul and we have a freezer full of ahi. It. Is. HEAVEN!!

Tobiko and Scallop...
Tobiko and Scallop…

So, we lost the teens and instead were able to have a nice dinner date with just the two of us. Not a bad consolation prize, huh?! Where The Girl was going to have carte blanche with the sushi menu and do the choosing for me, in hindsight, maybe it is a good thing that she wasn’t there? Hmmm… hadn’t thought of that. Who knows what she would have tried to get me to eat? (*shudder*)

The Husband got to choose instead, and we ended up splitting orders of scallop nigiri and tobiko. Holy Yum. The scallops, especially, they were so sweet! I thought that shellfish would be on the tough side if prepared raw, since I’ve only had giant clam sushi… I don’t recommend it. Our favorite little neighborhood sushi joint prepares the scallops with a very light dressing, probably mayo based- I loved it, and so did the mayonnaise-hating husband. And I really did like the tobiko, too. Fresh and ocean-y tasting, lots of fun, salty popping going on, and very yummy.

Sharing Cookies and Thoughts on Practice and Past Times…

So, there are these people who work for The Husband… they deserve more than cookies. Lol. I’ve seriously been meaning to get treats to them for a long time. This is quite a group of highly intelligent, dedicated, and really interesting people! I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies and crammed more than three dozen into a bag for The Husband to bring into a meeting today. Hopefully, everyone will get two cookies… maybe I should’ve sent in more.

I can crank out 12 dozen cookies in under two hours, including pans and kitchen cleaned, honestly, because I’ve made this recipe for 30+ years. I’ve made and sold hundreds of dozens of cinnamon rolls and can knock out a couple dozen with minimum effort. And I love cooking! It is a lot like an athlete’s love of practicing to develop muscle memory in a sport- I bet that anyone with a passion for anything would agree. Years of practice means few wasted steps in my kitchen; I know which equipment and ingredients to grab, measure, and use. Practice makes perfect, no matter what you are practicing… so be careful where you spend your time, right?

Pile o' cinnamon rolls for the teachers and school staff.
Pile o’ cinnamon rolls for school.

Nothing makes a baker happier than finding people with whom to share the goodies. In January I bring cinnamon rolls to the teachers and staff for Teacher Appreciation Day- ironically, I’m sure I feel more appreciated when they say they look forward to the rolls each year (Cinnabon knock-offs, I swear they are exactly like the shops in malls). It makes me happy.

I identity with these stickers...
I identify with these stickers…

I run a couple miles most mornings so I can eat that second taco or have a nightly glass of wine.

Amazon.com 0.0 I Don't Run
…links to Amazon.com
0.0
I Don’t Run

If people don’t share these cookies and other treats, I’m going to have to earn one of those 13.1 or 26.2 stickers for the back of my own sweet ride. Bake on, people… and keep running, too.