cloudy with a chance of meatballs

Seeing this always makes me want to eat meatballs and share a forkless bowl of spaghetti with a loved one.  Sometimes I trick people into this situation by serving them a bowl of spaghetti with no fork. mwahahaha. it rarely works.

Moving on...I've always had the perception that meatballs were complicated and that you only made them if you were fortunate enough to have inherited a secret, family recipe.  Since I have no Italian family members from which to acquire such a prized item, I figured trial and error would be quicker than waiting around to come into Italian family members and, subsequently, their secret recipes.  Turns out I was right, the recipe I used was a regular, old find-it-in-a-book style recipe, and it took only about 15 minutes to mix up all the ingredients and then another 25 minutes to bake.  Bringing new people into your family and trying to steal their recipes can sometimes take weeks. The meatballs were good, the right amount of garlicy and just a little spicy, just like Grandma used to make in the Old Country.  

ITALIAN MEATBALLS

1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used chopped up "everything" crackers from Trader Joe's, because bread crumbs were $3.99 - YOWZA!)
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan
1/4 cup grated italian cheese mix
2 tablespoons chopped fresh or dried basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup dry red wine
1 egg

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients by hand, using a light touch. Take a portion of meat in hand, and roll between palms to form a ball that is firmly packed but not compressed. Repeat, making each meatball about 2 inches in diameter. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Fill a baking dish with one layer of meatballs. Try not to crowd. Bake for 15 minutes until browned well on the bottoms and turn them over. Continue cooking until browned all over and cooked through. Remove meatballs to a plate as each batch is finished. Let meatballs cool slightly; cover and refrigerate until needed.

Yield: About 30 meatballs.

Serve with spaghetti and your favorite marinara or meat sauce.

savory is the new sweet

Because I have a pretty serious aversion to sugar in the morning, and it's rough trying to find a baked good around town that isn't frosted, fruity or sweet, the savory dill scones from Macrina have been a long-standing favorite of mine. 

This version is snack-sized, seasoned with dill, green onions and quattro formaggio. They are great plain or with butter for breakfast, lunch or dinner. 

SAVORY DILL SCONES

(Reminiscent of a favorite item of mine from Macrina Bakery)

½ c milk
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat, 1 cup white flour)
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ stick (2 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
1 tbsp dried dill
1/3 cup grated cheese (grated parmesan or quattro formaggio work well)
¼ cup finely sliced green onions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Beat together the milk and the egg and then set aside. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Rub the butter into the flour mixture, working until you have no butter lumps bigger than a pea. Add the dill, green onions and cheese and toss to mix. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, reserving just a little bit of the milk-egg mixture to use as a glaze. Bring dough together gently with a wooden spoon.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead it a few times. Pat dough into a round, approximately ½-inch thick, and cut into 12 or so small wedges. Place on an parchment-lined baking sheet. Using a pastry brush, glaze wedges.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on a rack.

they sing whale.

these people make beautiful music, and were the first band featured in the black cab sessions. their new album is being released this week. should be a recipe for excitement.

MANWICH

Dan is big. He eats big sandwiches. Big sandwiches cost a lot of dollars. Especially big reuben sandwiches. This is why, last year, Dan devoted many an evening to perfecting the art of the reuben. Now, he no longer has to buy the $10 version from the Other Coast at lunchtime, and neither do you my friends. Neither do you.

To preface, he errs on the side of extra meat...close to 1/4 lb. per 'wich. You don't have to do that if you don't want. But it's a pretty good choice to make, if you can handle it.

THE ULTIMATE REUBEN
 (Yields 4 sandwiches)

8 slices marble, dill or dark rye, sliced and toasted
1/2 lb. pastrami (pastrami and corned beef can be found year round at Market House Meats in Seattle)
1/2 lb. corned beef
4 slices swiss
4 slices gruyère
stone ground mustard
sauerkraut
Thousand Island (see recipe below)

THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp. horseradish
1+ tbsp. ketchup
2 tbsp. dill or sweet relish (it's a matter of personal preference)

Toast bread. While bread is toasting, heat meat in a baking dish in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until meat is warm.  Cover one slice for each sandwich with thousand island and one slice with stone ground mustard.  Pile a combination of meats on one slice of bread, cover with sauerkraut and a slice of gruyère and swiss cheese. Place below the broiler until cheese is thoroughly melted.  Top with second slice of bread, slice sandwich in half and serve.

plum crumble

PLUM CRUMBLE

Adapted from the lovely lady of Orangette, Molly Wizenberg

For the plums:

2 Tbsp. lightly packed brown sugar
1 ½ Tbsp. all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
12 to 14 Italian prune plums, halved and pitted

For the topping:

Scant ¾ cup granulated sugar (about 4 to 4 ½ ounces)
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. kosher salt
1 egg, beaten well
7 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Position a rack in the center of your oven, and preheat the oven to 375°F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the seasoning for the plums: the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Add the plums, and gently stir to coat. Arrange the plums skin side up in an ungreased baking dish.

In another medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients for the topping: the granulated sugar, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to blend well. Add the egg. Using your hands, mix thoroughly. Sprinkle evenly over the plums.

Spoon the butter evenly over the topping, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is browned and the plums yield easily when pricked with toothpick. Cool.

Serve crumble warm or at room temperature, with ice cream.

Yield: about 12 servings

Note: To reheat leftovers, it’s best to do it slowly, in an oven set to 300 degrees.

this old thang?? kristin's strawberry cheesequake mini masterpieces

kristin made these little guys, a strawberry version of the mini cheesequakes, for her coworker's b-day.  by the looks of them, they could be straight out of a cooking mag, because they are just so pretty.  Pretty tasting as well, I'm sure.  Photography courtesy of Elof Meat-Cheese-Meat-Cheese Peitso.

Oh yes we can, I know we can can

If you can't make it to the Bordeaux region of France, but CAN make it to Honoré Artisan Bakery for a Saturday morning coffee and a canelé treat, I highly recommend it. If you want a little baking project, these are sweet and taste like a mixture between cake and baked pudding. Or baked cake soaked in pudding.

Canelés with Cardamom Crème Anglaise


2 cups milk
3 tbsp. salted butter, diced
1 vanilla bean, split
¾ cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 cup minus 2 tablespoons sugar
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup rum


Yields about 20 canelés.


Cardamom Crème Anglaise


1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
7 cardamom pods
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup white sugar


To prepare the cardamom cream…Start by boiling the milk with the cardamom pods. Filter it. Mix together the egg yolks and sugar until very white. Add to the milk, stirring constantly. Place on heat again and slowing thicken the preparation without making it boil. It thickens slowly. Make sure mixture doesn't boil. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon.


To prepare the canelés…Combine the milk, butter and vanilla in a medium saucepan, and bring to a simmer. In the meantime, combine the flour and sugar in a medium mixing-bowl. Separate the eggs in another, smaller bowl, and beat yolks gently. When the milk mixture starts to simmer, remove from heat, take out the vanilla pod if using, and set it aside.


Pour the yolks all at once into the flour mixture (don't stir yet), pour in the milk mixture, and whisk until well combined and a little frothy. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod, and return the seeds and pod to the mixture. Add the rum and whisk well. Let cool to room temperature on the counter, then cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours and up to 3 days.


The next day, preheat the oven to 480° F. Remove the batter from the fridge: and whisk until blended. Pour into silicon molds, filling them almost to the top. Put into the oven to bake for 20 minutes, then (without opening the oven door) lower the heat to 400° F and bake for another 40 to 60 minutes. The canelés are ready when the bottoms are a very dark brown, but not burnt. If you feel they are darkening too fast, cover the molds with a piece of parchment paper.


Unmold onto a cooling rack (wait for about ten minutes first if you're using silicon molds or they will collapse a little) and let cool completely before eating.