Meem’s Spaghetti and Meatballs

Hubby grew up in an Italian family. His grandmother was from Sicily and a fantastic cook. He’s got memories of sneaking into the kitchen as a kid to swipe a meatball from the pot, and so I tried to reproduce it a while back. Of course, the recipe was only written down later by his mother, so it left a few questions unanswered, but it turned out well. But then I put the recipe aside and forgot about it.

Fast forward a year. We started going to a family-style Italian restaurant in our neighborhood, and their spaghetti and meatballs is out of this world.

It made me want more. So I made more. I made a few shortcuts, though, since I didn’t go to the store after deciding to make these.

First step: the meatballs. Combine breadcrumbs and grated romano cheese. Or in my case, combine breadcrumbs with grated parmesan cheese.

Add in milk, eggs, salt, pepper, minced onion, minced celery, and minced garlic. Or…. in my case, instead of celery, use celery salt and cut back on the regular salt, since I didn’t have celery.

Finally, add ground beef, shape into balls, and “cook.” The recipe didn’t specify how. I did some googling and learned that frying them in a pan is more authentic, but baking them is healthier and easier. I went with baking, though it did give them each one flat side. I think next time, I’ll fry them on the stove.

They came out looking like this. They seemed to be oozing a bit of cheese and fat, but they sure smelled good.

And now for the sauce!

Start off with a little olive oil, a can of tomato sauce and three cans of tomato paste.

Just sauté it for 20-30 minutes, stirring very frequently because it sticks and scorches if you don’t.

Then add minced onion, celery, and garlic. Again, I didn’t have celery, but I did add onion and garlic.

Cook it for another 10ish minutes, or until the veggies are soft. It’s getting pretty thick by this point.

Measure out the following: oregano, basil, salt, black pepper, sugar, and a bay leaf. The oregano and basil would have been better fresh, but you make due with what you have!

Add it to the tomato sauce, along with 6 cups of water.

Also add the meatballs, and then let it simmer (covered) for an hour, stirring every now and then.

At this point, I realized that what I *thought* was a fully box of spaghetti was really more like a quarter box of spaghetti. So I cooked fettucini instead. I guess it all tastes the same.

It was yummy! I think I may add less water next time, as the sauce seemed thin at the end, but it was good. I think if I had followed the instructions exactly and also fried the meatballs, it would have been especially amazing.

But it was worth the effort. We both ate too much.

Andouille and Chicken Creole Pasta

Sometimes I like to try to find recipes that venture into Cajun flair, since hubby grew up eating Cajun food. I’ve been told it’s impossible to make “real” Cajun food outside of the area, since you can’t get “real” sausage or other essential ingredients, but I thought this recipe would be a good compromise because it has ingredients I can get in Maryland.

I made it once, about a year and a half ago. At the time, I had cut way back on the spice in the recipe, since the reviews all said that 3 tablespoons of creole seasoning is far too much, but even so it was too spicy to enjoy and all the effort was wasted. I had Andouille in the fridge, so I thought I’d try again, cutting back even more.

My ingredients weren’t exactly fresh. Here are some frozen chicken breasts and some frozen green and red bell peppers, which I had cut into strips prior to freezing.

I thawed out the chicken enough to cut it up, and then also sliced up a package of Andouille sausage links. If they look a little funny around the edges, it’s because I’d opened the package a few days earlier for another recipe and didn’t seal it up properly. Oops.

Sautéed the sausage and chicken with a bunch of creole seasoning until they were about halfway cooked. The recipe called for 3 tablespoons of the seasoning. Last time, I used 2 and it was far too much. This time, I think I started with about a 1/2 tablespoon and added more as I went.

Added in the peppers. Should have added fresh mushrooms, but I didn’t have any. And I forgot that I had a can of sliced mushrooms in the cupboard, but those are never as good as fresh anyway.

When the veggies have cooked and become tender, stir in some chicken broth

And milk (I used skim)

I poured them together to give me something to do while I was waiting to dump them in… I don’t think this is necessary!

Also, measure out some garlic powder and lemon pepper seasoning to add to the mixture.

Nom nom nom… it’s starting to look and smell delicious.

However, it’s extremely liquidy. The recipe calls for a 1/4 cup of corn starch dissolved in 1/2 cup cold water. I never use that much when I thicken my sauces, but then again this was a LOT of liquid so I figured I didn’t have a choice.

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And then just simmer for a while, letting the whole thing thicken up.

I thought about serving this with rice, since the linguini it calls for seemed odd, but I asked hubby which he’d prefer and he said linguini. Linguini it is.

It did turn out well. Hubby liked it a lot better this time, since the heat wasn’t overpowering to the point where we couldn’t even taste anything. Personally, I thought it tasted corn-starchy. I think it’d make more sense to add less liquid – maybe half the chicken broth and half the milk – and then you wouldn’t have to work so hard to thicken it up. Of course, you could also use cream in place of milk and then use even less, but that’d be a lot more fattening.

But it was good, even the leftovers. A nice, flavorful change up from the usual red sauce.

Dog Treats

It’s common knowledge that I have two dogs that I love and dote on. Here they are, gnawing on bones under the coffee table.

They’re my babies, but with all the time I spend in the kitchen, I’ve never made them anything more special than a hardboiled egg. I have had a recipe for dog treats for a while but decided to finally give it a try. I could tell from the directions that it would be as time consuming as making sugar cut-out cookies at Christmastime, but I bought smaller cookie cutters and figured it would make a lot of treats, so I was willing to give it a shot.

First, start off with some oats.

Add some butter and boiling water, and let it sit for 10 minutes.

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Meanwhile, prepare the following: shredded cheddar cheese…

A beaten egg…

And milk (I poured it in with the egg)…

The recipe says to include cornmeal, but some reviewers opted for wheat germ instead, since cornmeal isn’t the best thing to be giving dogs. I wasn’t sure how that would change the consistency, so I went with a mixture of both cornmeal and wheat germ, in addition to a touch of sugar and some beef bouillon granules. I figured that I wouldn’t be feeding these treats in large quantities, so a little bit of cornmeal wouldn’t be the end of the world.

Mix all of that (the cheese, egg, milk, and dry ingredients) in with the oatmeal mixture.

Next, start beating in whole wheat flour.

As it gets stickier and more stiff, curse yourself for doing it by hand instead of in your Kitchenaid mixer like a normal person would have done.

Finally, it should be a big, smooth lump.

Roll it out on the counter with a rolling pin and start cutting. The recipe said to leave it a 1/2 inch thick. That seemed pretty thick and I tried to go with it, though my second batch was thinner.

They baked for a lot longer than sugar cookies, about 40 minutes. I did two trays worth, both as packed as the one shown here.

Luckily they didn’t expand. I didn’t think they would, since they didn’t have much butter or oil or anything that would help them spread out, but I was glad nonetheless.

These treats won’t last nearly as long as regular milkbones that you’d buy, since they’re not full of preservatives, so I have mine in a big zip lock bag in the fridge. I suppose I should move some to the freezer.

More importantly, the verdict?

The dogs LOVE them. I do break them into much smaller pieces, but the dogs do really like them. This is significant, as they’re picky. Max has been known to reject most of the treats that the people at the store thought he might like, actually spitting out pieces of beef and venison and looking at the staff like, “Why would you give me that? It tastes like crap!” But he and his little sister, Kaya, both really like these. In fact, when I bring them on walks, both dogs are absolute angels. Wonderful!

P.S. Yes, I tasted them. Not bad. But not good either

Stuffed Shells

A while back, a coworker accepted another job and decided to leave our company. We had a pot-luck luncheon in her honor. I was the idiot that volunteered to bring the main course.

I needed something that could be easily transported and microwaved, since we were doing the lunch at our off-site meeting. I also wanted something that wouldn’t be too expensive or time-consuming to make, as well as something that would appeal to a lot of people, since I was new to the company and had no idea what people’s food preferences/ allergies/ etc. were.

I decided on stuffed shells.

First, boil a box of jumbo shells in lightly salted water until they are tender.

I shattered this glass bowl while cleaning up after this meal, so I hope you enjoy the picture of it.

Next, in a large bowl, combine eggs…

…. ricotta …

… shredded mozzarella and parmesan…

…and salt, pepper, and dried parsley.

Mix well.

One by one, stuff the cooked shells with the cheese mixture. I use a spoon to help out. I also put too much cheese in each, end up with far too many shells and no more filling, and then go back and squeeze them all to get more cheese.

Voila! I have two square dishes because these will fit in a microwave. They are oven-safe and microwave-safe, so they’re perfect.

In a large bowl, combine tomato sauce (I think I used a jar of spaghetti sauce) with mushrooms. The recipe says to add in more mozzarella and parmesan, but I didn’t like the way it turned out when I did this last time, so I’m doing it a little differently.

Spread the sauce on top of the shells.

And THEN sprinkle with mozzarella.

It was late, so I packaged them up to bake the next morning.

The next morning, since I don’t need to be at work until 11, I baked the shells. Mmmm, don’t they look nice?

They were pretty good, in my opinion. I noticed that some people picked out the mushrooms so maybe I shouldn’t have added those, but overall they went over very well. In fact, I intended to have the leftovers for lunch for the next few days, but they disappeared pretty quickly from our shared fridge that I had to go out and buy a sandwich instead. I’ll take it as a compliment.

Comment if you want the recipe, since it’s already printed.