Comme si dice...

I took Italian in college for 2 years.  Not much stuck, but I blame that on the fact that I took French for years in grade school and high school.  I believe I actually invented a new language: Fritalican (French, Italian, American).  But I do remember one of the most important Italian phrases... "comme si dice ...." which means "how do you say" (insert word in English).  You can get around with that.
So why the Italian lesson???  It's Thursday!  aka Italian day!  And of course Jersey Shore night.

I'm repeating my spaghetti and meatballs from last week because it's such an easy meal to make.  And I'm watching my nephews this afternoon so there won't be a lot of prep time for a gourmet Italian dinner.
Here is my mom's meatball recipe.  It's so so easy and there are a few ways to cook the meatballs and all taste great!

Meatball Recipe

(1-easy, 2-time, 5-taste)

1 pound lean ground beef (the leanest you can buy)

1/3 cup Italian bread crumbs

2 eggs

1/4 grated Parmesan Cheese

2 tablespoons parsley flakes

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1.  In a large bowl, add eggs and beat.

2.  Add all other ingredients.

3.  Mix ingredients together with hands (that have recently been washed)

4.  Roll into meatballs 

Now here are the options on how to cook them:

a.)  Brown meatballs in a skillet on medium heat.

Once browned , add meatballs to sauce and cook for 1 hour.

b.)  Place meatballs on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Cook in oven on 300 for about 15 minutes or until cooked through.

c.)  Place meatballs in skillet on oven over medium heat.

Add about 1 tablespoon of water to skillet and cover.

Let meatballs cook in steam, occasionally turning meatballs so

they are evenly brown.  (takes about 10 minutes total)

Combine this meatballs recipe with the sauce recipe from last week and you'll have an instant classic.  Oh, BTW, you can freeze your extra sauce!  If you know you want spaghetti on Thursday, take the sauce out of the freezer Wednesday and put it in your frig.  Finish thawing in a pan on the stove over medium heat.  It's just as good the second time around and it saves you a lot of time.  Also, you can freeze the uncooked meatballs!  You basically have two meals for the time of one!  Isn't that molto benne?

Scarves, leftovers, and soup (RECIPE!!!)

There are a few reasons to looove cold weather.  
1.  Scarves!!!  I don't know why, but I love them
2.  Leftovers.  If you go out to dinner before a movie, your leftovers will be safe in your car (and won't smell up the whole car)
3.  Soups, stews, chillis.  It's the best time to make/enjoy these!
Here is a soup that will warm your insides and make your house smell amazing!!!  It is from a cookbook called "More Nutritious Still Delicious" and was written by a group of amazing women at The Nutrition Council of Cincinnati.  This is a great cookbook full of HEALTHY and DELICIOUS recipes... trust me, I should know, since my mom is one of the main authors and I grew up eating a lot of these!  If you like what you see/taste, you can go here and look into buying yourself a cookbook.  

Wild Rice Soup with Sherry 

(2-time, 2-easiness, 5-taste)

1 tablespoon butter

1 medium onion, chopped

1 package (8oz) sliced mushrooms 

1/2 cup thinly sliced celery

1/2 cup all purpose flour

6 cups (1.5 boxes) reduced sodium chicken broth  

2 cups cooked wild rice (using Uncle Ben's 90 sec. rice is so so easy!)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon curry powder

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

2 cups evaporated skim milk 

1/2 cup sherry

1.  In large saucepan, melt butter .  Add onion, cook for about 5 minutes.

2.  Add mushrooms, celery  and flour.  Cook for about 2 minutes.

3.  Gradually add chicken broth, stirring constantly until slightly thickened, about 5-8 minutes.

4.  Stir in wild rice, salt, curry, mustard, parsley, and pepper.  Reduce heat.

5.  Gradually add evaporated milk, stirring constantly.  Add sherry, continue stirring until soup is simmering.

6.  Simmer soup 30 - 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Another great thing about this cookbook is that every recipe has the nutrition information at the bottom (ie. calories, protein, etc).  I give this recipe a 2 for easiness (just some chopping and cooking rice), a 2 for time (depending on you're knife skills), and a 5 for taste!  I hope you enjoy this recipe!


P.S.  Do you like my new blog design?

Fist-Pumpin Thursdays

It's finally here.  Season 3 of Jersey Shore... in Seaside Heights, Jersey!  I'm a huge juicehead for this show and I'm so happy it showed people in the south that fist pumping is cool. (Before, I got a lot of awkward stares).  While I am no guidette, I can definitely relate to having an Italian background.  In fact, I'm only a third generation American, thanks to my great-grand parents.  So in honor of the biggest resurgence in interest of Italians since Sopranos, tonight will be Italian night!
The fiance and I will be mange-ing some spaghetti with red gravy and meatballs while we watch the season premiere of Jersey Shore.  In fact, every Thursday will be Italian night with recipes included!  Now, this isn't a new recipe, but it's a classic.  It's a lot easier to make marinara sauce than you might expect.  I don't go as far as starting with fresh whole tomatoes, but I think you'll be pleased with the results.  I give this marinara recipe a 1 for easy, a 5 for delicious, and a 5 for time (only because it has to simmer on the stove for at least 2 hours, prep time is 15 minutes).

Marinara Sauce

3 cans of 16oz tomato sauce (I use Contidina brand)

2 cans 6oz tomato paste

Olive Oil (enough to drizzle in pan)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 tablespoon dried basil

1.  In a large sauce pan, drizzle olive oil on bottom and warm.

2.  Add tomato paste and let warm up (about 5 minutes).

3.  Add tomato sauce.

4.  Fill 1 tomato paste can and 2 sauce cans with water and add.

5.  Add garlic, onion, basil, and cheese and stir.

6.  Bring sauce to boil over medium heat.

7.  Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 2 hours on low heat.

8.  Occasionally stir sauce and add spices as needed (to taste).

That's it!  That's all I do, that's all my mom does, and that's all my grandma does to make some of the best sauce I've ever had.  Ok, maybe I'm biased.  There are a few variations and additions if you want:

1.  Red pepper flakes - makes the sauce a little spicy

2.  Ground meat for meat sauce (brown in olive oil before adding tomato paste)

3.  Less water will make sauce thicker (vice-versa) depending on your preference

Well, boil yourself some water and cook some pasta for your red gravy cuz it's almost

Teeeeeee-shiiiiiiiirt Time! (Jersey Shore)

Lotta Frittata

Well, it's 5 days into the new year.  Keeping with my resolution to make one new recipe a week, I am going to tackle a frittata with potato and prosciutto.  This recipe comes from Giada De Laurentiis's book "Everyday Italian".  I love Giada on the food network!  She's so cute and sweet and smart and I'm positive I could never cook like her.  Now, thanks to her book, I can try!  So here is my attempt at her frittata recipe.

Frittata with Potato and Proscuitto- Giada De Laurentiis

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1 potato, peeled and cut into small cubes

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

6 large eggs

1/4 cup whipping cream*

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 ounces (1/4 lb.) thinly sliced proscuitto, coarsley chopped

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

*I subsituted fat free half and half to cut calories a bit

1.  In 9 1/2 inch diameter non-stick ovenproof skillet, heat oil over medium heat.

2.  Add onion and sautee until translucent

3.  Add potato, garlic, salt, and pepper and sautee over medium-low heat

until potato is tender and golden (about 15 minutes)

4.  Preheat the broiler.

5.  In medium bowl, whisk eggs, cream, cheese, prosciutto, and basil to blend.

6.  Stir egg mixture into potato mixture in skillet

7.  Cover and cook over medium-low heat until egg mixture is almost set

but top is still runny (about 2 minutes)

8.  Place skillet under broiler until top is set and golden brown (about 4 mins)

9.  Using rubber spatula, loosen frittata from skillet and slide onto plate

10.  Cut into wedges and enjoy!

I really love scales and assigning concrete numbers to abstract ideas.  I decided to use this scale system on my recipes (the recipe rating system).  They will be rank on a 1-5 scale in 3 areas: preparation, taste, and time.  For example:

On a scale of 1-5, where 1 is easy and 5 is difficult, this recipe is a ... 2

On a scale of 1-5, where 1 is gross and 5 is delicious, this recipe is a ... 4

On a scale of 1-5, where 1 is 15 minutes and 5 is an hour, this recipe is a ... 4

I will use this scale/rating system for all my recipes from here on out.  You're welcome.  

Weekend Adventures!

Sorry for the delay... I had a post all ready when I deleted it by accident.  Then I went out of town and didn't have a chance to post my weekend fun until now!  

My friend brought me these beautiful Tulips!!!

On Friday, some very dear friends came to visit me in Waco!  It was so much fun to catch up over some wine and food.  I made my mom's hearty beef stew with homemade biscuits for them, as well as a cheese and apple tray, veggies, and cookies.  In case you are interested in the stew and biscuit recipes, here they are!  And trust me, they are very easy.

Hearty Beef Stew

Ingredients

2 lbs Lean trim stew beef (yes, the package will actually say something like 'great for stew')

6 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces

4 stalks celery, cut into 1 inch pieces

6 medium baking potatoes, peeled and cubed*

1 bag of small red potatoes, cubed*

*use either kind of potato (I used red potatoes)

1/2 - 1 large onion, cut into medium sized pieces

Spices

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Dash of nutmeg

8 cups (2 boxes) beef broth (I bought Kitchen Basics, unsalted)

Place all ingredients in large pot that has a lid.

Cover ingredients with beef broth and add spices.

Cover pot with lid and bring to a boil over medium heat.

Reduce heat and uncover for about an hour.

Recover and simmer for about 3 hours.

Once in a while, taste broth and add spices as needed.

After 3 hours....

In a seperate bowl, mix 1/4 cup cornstartch or Wondra flour to 1/2 cup water.

Mix together with wire whisk.

Gradually add mixture to stew while stirring constantly until thickened.

I had to do this last part twice to get the stew thick enough.

Add more pepper before serving.

Mmmmmmm!!! So Meaty!

This stew is so easy to make.  It's virtually impossible to over cook because the longer it cooks, the more tender the ingredients.  Serve the stew with these biscuits...

Biscuits

Perfect for soaking up stew.

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons baking powder

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter or margarine

3/4 cups of milk ( I use skim)

Add dry ingredients to bowl.

Use a pastry mixer to grind in butter.

Pastry Mixer.

Once the mixutre is a grainy texture, add milk.

Mix dough together with hands.

Sprinkle additional flour on dough if too sticky.

Shape dough into biscuits and place on greased pie pan.

Bake at 450 degrees for 8 minutes.

Biscuit before baking.

Along with the stew and biscuits, I had my cheese/apple tray (you know I used honeycrisp apples lol), my veggies and my cookies.  Oh, and of course, wine, wine, wine!  Here's a quick tip for the cookies... I used pre-packaged dough to make a few different kinds.  Instead of cooking the dough on a cookie sheet, I used a cupcake pan that had mini cupcake holes.  The cookies turned out amazing!

I hope you enjoy these recipes.  As my boyfriend likes to say, they will be added to our "dinner rotation".   And good news, it's already Tuesday!!!