(meat)BALLS.



Appetizer sized all cooked up!

I like meatballs, I haven't made them excessively but I made them by way of (you guessed it) Jamie Oliver and have had great success.  I tried this recipe with ground chicken (don't) and just beef (great but not the greatest) I have found, and as suggested in the recipe, a combination of ground pork and ground beef give a great meatball, and it's true.  It is an excellent flavour profile.   Meatballs are for more than pasta!  Soup, sandwiches, and hors d'ouvres are all excellent ideas for these.

These are great fresh, or make ahead.  I did both!  See notes below.

This is the original and inspiration:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/meatballs-pasta

I made a triple batch.  This is what I did:

INGREDIENTS:

Several sprigs of fresh rosemary (5 or 6 will do)

2 lbs of lean ground beef

1 lb of lean ground pork

2 eggs

2 heaped tablespoons of italian seasoning

2 tablespoons of dijon mustard

salt and pepper

30 saltine crackers, pulverized (smash them up yourself or place in a food proccessor)

Olive oil (if you like)



Get your hands in and mash!

GREEN SALSA!

I had two piles of tomatoes, one was ripe or ripening, the other was still green.  I had to do something with some of them, so I decided to make a relish/sauce!  I was looking up chow chow, but they all had SCADS of sugar in them, I was searching and searching and found this recipe:

Blending away...

http://www.farmgirlfare.com/2005/09/saving-harvest-green-tomato-relish.html

This is so straightforward!

I can say, it is quite delicious.  I'm not planning on canning this stuff so I used the option for less vinegar and it was great, right now it's covered in the fridge and then it will make it's way into freezer bags in 1 C or so portions.  (this makes a good 6-8 cups I'd say).



Some Ingredients...



INGREDIENTS:

2 lb. green tomatoes (I used Roma), cored and chopped

1 lb. white or yellow onions (I used yellow), chopped

3/4 lb. sweet peppers (red, but I also used some green too) cored and chopped

1/2 lb. tart cooking apples cored and chopped (granny smith is good, but I had golden delicious on hand)

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/2 cup 5% acidic organic raw apple cider vinegar (or less, see note below)*

1 Tablespoon kosher or sea salt

4 jalapeno peppers, cored, seeded if desired, and finely chopped (*note, I used thai green chiles, about 5 of them)

2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro (I used more than this)

Mole - eh?



The final product, YUM!



Once in awhile I come across a great cookbook.  Now, all of my cookbooks are great in their own rights.  I have my favourites and my most useful ones.  I think I have found a new book to make it to those ranks, and it only took one recipe, which happened to be an exceptional one.

One way we can help the worlds food supply, our health, and so many other things is to go meatless sometimes.  I don't mean we all have to be vegans and never so much as look at livestock again, but it is wise to consider a reduction in meat consumption.  It's a topic I would encourage people to read up on, and draw their own conclusions and actions.

Regardless, I like (LOVE) vegetarian cooking.  One thing I find though is it's not always easy to make a meal feel complete.  It often feels like there is complexity or texture...just something missing...so you might say "duh! meat!" but that's not always the case, I've had plenty of meat recipes that were bland and missing something.

In any case, This is not that bland meatless meal!



Adam got me a cookbook for my birthday called the New Vegetarian Kitchen.  It's a green colored cookbook out of the UK.  It took me a bit of time to get into it but once I did I had that bugger bookmarked to kingdom come, and the first on my list was this recipe below.  It was worth the effort and I would use this mole sauce for veggie or meat, again and again, it is that good! The chickpea pancakes were a departure for me, I've never used chickpea flour but you know what?  They were delicious.  An excellent accompaniment.



This recipe also has the potential to be gluten free and vegan with a couple of very minor ingredient tweaks (sour cream, chocolate, baking soda, etc).  WOW.  This is an ace for alternative and special diets!

BLACK BEAN MOLE (pron. moh-lay)
(adapted from the New vegetarian Kitchen, an excellent cookbook)

INGREDIENTS:
The mole:
3 1/2 C of diced butternut squash (recipe calls for acorn squash)
1 small onion pulverised (recipe called for 1 large onion diced)
2 large cloves of garlic, minced 2 TBSP of Chipoltle hot sauce (recipe called for 3 T of chipoltle paste)
1 thai green chile, fine dice (recipe called for 1 dried ancho chili)

Borscht!?!? YES!!

I've been browsing borscht recipes for awhile, not sure why.  I had savoy cabbage to eat and I was at home sick.  Nutritious soup was in order for lunch, but the preparation ended up tiring me right out.  At least it tasted great.  Or I think it did.  Not sure if I've even HAD this kind of soup before.  It's Ukranian apprearantly.  I can only assume if I like it it turned out right, traditional or not!  (It's a great way to use beets!)



A messy bowl, served with sour cream, YUM.

My main inspirations are these pages here:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/ukrainian-red-borscht-soup/detail.aspx

http://mostlysoup.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/vegetarian-borscht/

I also did some stuff from here and there but honestly, I don't remember what recipes the ideas came from.

Sarah's Basic Borscht!

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb beets*
1/2 lb carrots (about 3 medium)
1 small onion slivered 2 garlic cloves minced
4 C of savoy cabbage shredded
1c canned chopped tomatoes drained**
3 medium new potatoes, scrubbed, peeled, and cubed into approx 1.5cm pieces
1t dried dill
1/4t caraway seeds
2t balsamic vinegar

1T of vegetable oil

900ml carton of beef broth (or equivalent homemade stock)
2+C of water (I say + because you may need a bit more than 2, depending on consistency)


salt and pepper to taste

Sour cream for serving

Special Tools:Food Processor

Pantry Pumpkin Pie!

Okay, so happy belated thanksgiving.  This will be handy next year :)

With a bit of whip cream, perfect
(actually, after I took the photo i covered
it in the stuff...)



I'm sick, I've had a terrible cold but also a terribly busy weekend, which may have exacerbated my symptoms...but dammit I was on dessert duty, and what is tradition without a little pumpkin pie?  I was going to buy the pie but doing an audit of my pantry, I had all of the ingredients here already, so why not?

So, I'll confess, this is about as shortcut-homemade as you can do it.  It's not from scratch (really).  I've done it before.  I've roasted, peeled, pitted, pureed, strained the pumpkin, ground my spices, got the homemade pastry going (which I kind of suck at btw) and whipped some heavy cream (no cans here!) but you know what?  It's great, but I would be inclined to argue not really worth the work.

PANTRY PUMPKIN PIE (makes 2 pies)



Inspired by the recipe from the ED Smith pumpkin can with a few tips from the joyofbaking.com website.  I call it that because most of the stuff came from my pantry. :)

RIBS! (again)!!!

SLOW COOKER RIBS. 
AKA the best ribs ever (photos coming soon)

So it was the end of summer, actually, autumn had already started when I made this...but it *was* an unusually warm week.  What better meal than ribs? Especially the ones that were on a super sale :)  I googled several places, but I think this recipe came mostly from Kraft Canada, I'll try and find a better reference shortly.

Meat:2 racks (3 lb) of pork back ribs, cut into 2-3 rib portions (back layer of connective tissue removed)
salt and pepper

Sauce:1 small carrot diced
1 small onion blitzed (in minichop or food processor, to a pasty consistency)
Dash of worcestershire sauce
2 cloves of garlic pressed
2/3 C ketchup
2/3 C chili sauce
1/3 C BBQ sauce
1/4 C of golden sugar

Method:Turn on your broiler
Remove layer of connective tissue from back of ribs and cut into portions as required.
Season ribs with salt and pepper
Place under a broiler about 5 minutes a side until golden

Meanwhile....
Combine all ingredients for sauce and stir well
Transfer ribs to large slow cooker, coat with sauce.
and cook on low for 7-8 hours or until tender.
Remove ribs from sauce, skim fat from sauce
Now you have a couple of options, either place the stoneware on high and reduce sauce for several minutes until thicker, pulverise any remaining carrots with immersion blender
-or-
Pour sauce into a medium pot, bring to boil and then simmer for a few minutes until sauce thickens, pulversise any remaining carrots with an immersion blender.
Serve the ribs with some extra sauce brushed on.

Cooks notes:  You only need about half the sauce, so take what I said there and reduce it.  Otherwise, best ribs I've ever made.

Peanut Butter. Chocolate. Ice cream. Do I have your attention yet?



Scooping it up! YUM!

The other day I set out to make a favourite of mine: Peanut butter chocolate ice cream.  Dave Lebovitz is full of wonderful ice cream recipes, but when I did a quick google search for what I thought was the easiest ice cream recipe ever, I found another recipe, that's even easier, and I dare say better.

Inspired by and mostly copied this recipe right here:  http://dinneranddessert.wordpress.com/2009/05/31/peanut-butter-ice-cream/

PEANUT BUTTER ICE CREAM
with chocolate sauce and chocolate covered peanuts



INGREDIENTS:

Base:
3/4 C whipping cream
1 3/4C 1% milk

2/3 C granulated sugar

2/3 C smooth peanut butter
pinch of salt


1/4 t vanilla

1 capfull of vanilla vodka