HOMEMADE MEATBALLS

These meatballs are really good for spaghetti and meatballs, meatball sandwiches, Swedish meatballs... or just eating plain. When I am making them, with plans to freeze some, I have to be careful about who might be sneaking around when they come out of the oven--they disappear almost as quickly as I make them.

This recipe comes from "The Stocked Kitchen" cookbook


1 lb. ground beef
1/2 c. bread crumbs (I use Panko -- Japanese-style breadcrumbs)
1 T Italian seasons (I use Penzey's Italian Herb Mix)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 T dried minced onion
1 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper

1. Mix all ingredients together. Using your hands to mix works best. I like to put my hand inside a plastic sandwich bag (makeshift glove) for easier clean up.

2. Roll into 2 inch balls.

3. Either cook in boiling sauce (marinara, barbeque, sweet & sour) for 30 minutes or bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes on a foil lined jelly roll pan topped with a cooling rack. If you use cooling rack, spray with nonstick spray.

4. Serve as desired or store in tightly sealed container in fridge. I have frozen them too. They warmed up great!

Note: recipe states that you can substitute ground chicken or ground turkey--I haven't tried either yet, but a nice way to cut some fat and calories!

DANISH HAVARTI CHEESE SOUP

I love cheese. I love soup. I love cheese soup. This is a naughty-but-nice recipe. Naughty on the calories, nice on the palate. Too bad. You could lighten it up easily by using all milk instead of cream and milk, or half-n-half instead of heavy cream. But here’s the deal: if you’re going to do that, you better do it on your first shot. Once you’ve had it tasting its best, you won’t really want to go back, now will you?

Ingredients:

2 medium size potatoes, diced into bite-sized chunks

1 to 1 ½ tablespoons chicken boullion (I use Penzey’s Chicken Soup Base)

3 cups milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup water

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup finely chopped celery

½ cup finely chopped onions

3 tablespoons flour

1 lb. (16 oz) Havarti cheese (grated)

Salt & pepper to taste

Croutons (for garnish)

1. Boil diced potatoes until tender; drain and set aside

2. Combine milk, cream, water, and chicken base in a pot. Heat to dissolve soup base, but do not allow to boil. Alternative: you could use 1 cup of prepared chicken broth (like Swanson’s) and omit the water and soup base. ALSO, you could omit the water all together and just dissolve the base in the milk and cream. Just depends on how thick and rich you like your soup!

3. In a large stock pot or Dutch oven, melt butter and sauté onion and celery until very soft and tender (approximately 5 – 7 minutes). Stir constantly and keep the heat medium or less, as you do not want to brown the veggies. When the veggies are soft, add the flour, stirring together to form a thick paste. Cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes (you’re cooking the raw flour taste out and making the roux that will thicken your soup). Watch the heat so that you don’t brown the flour.

4. Begin adding the milk mixture to the roux, stirring constantly (a whisk works nicely here). I add it in thirds.

5. Add the grated cheese and stir until completely melted.

6. Add the cooked potatoes.

7. Season to taste with salt & pepper.

8. Serve topped with croutons.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH BISQUE

The first day of fall arrived officially this past week. You know what that means—it’s the start of Soup-er Sundays at the Ramm household. One of my favorite restaurants, Reds on the River, served a Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque recently. Oh my. It was like eating autumn-flavored silk. It wasn’t too sweet, or too overpowered by nutmeg. It was juuuuuuuust right.

There are many recipes for butternut squash soup at your Googling fingertips. However, when I recently attended a cooking class taught by Red’s executive chef, Glen Forgie, I had the opportunity to ask about what made his version so tasty. First Chef Glen described his roasting technique (see below). In addition to oven-roasting the butternut squash, one thing that he mentioned, that I haven’t found in any of the recipes online is that he caramelizes the onion for this particular soup. So that’s what I did, too.
I am SOUP-ER pleased with the results of this, the very first soup of SOUP-ER Sundays 2011.

First:
HOW TO ROAST A BUTTERNUT SQUASH
1. Slice unpeeled squash in half, scrape out seeds & discard.
2. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
3. Turn cut side (flat side) down on a baking sheet lined with foil.
4. Roast at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.
5. To check doneness, use a wooden spoon to press on the backs of the squash. When they are soft and “give” to the pressure of the spoon, they are done.

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH BISQUE
3 - 4 cups roasted butternut squash, peeled & roughly chopped (I roasted two squash, but had extra left over)
1 onion, sliced thin
Olive oil & butter
¼ to ½ cup chopped carrot
¼ to ½ cup chopped celery
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups milk (I used 1 cup milk and 1 cup half-n-half)
Salt and pepper
Pinch of nutmeg


1. Roast squash as directed above. When cool enough, peel.

2. Caramelize onion. In the vessel that you plan to make the soup in (your stockpot), heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and a couple of tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Add onion. Onion will turn soft and begin to brown. When onion is a caramel color (and tastes so delicious you think you could eat the whole pan), your onion is done. This can take several minutes, depending on your pan, how much heat, the amount of onion, etc. Be patient! Also--make sure not to stir so frequently that you don’t allow caramelization to take place, but also not so INfrequently that you burn your onions!

3. Add the chopped squash to the onions. Lower the heat to low and stir around a little.

4. At this point, you could also add the chopped carrot and celery without sautéing, but I wanted to cook some of the rawness out of them, so I tossed them in a little olive oil and sautéed them for just a few minutes. Anyway, fresh or sautéed, add carrots and celery to your squash and onions.

5. Add the 2 cups of chicken (or vegetable) stock. Allow ingredients to mingle and get to know each other. Kick the heat up a little.

6. Add the milk. Or if you’re like me, the milk and half-n-half.

7. Bring just to simmer to heat everything through—and give the flavors a chance to come together.

8. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

9. MAYBE add a pinch of nutmeg, if but just remember—with adding anything…add in tiny increments and taste, taste, taste. You can always add, but you can never take it back.

10. To make a really lovely bisque, puree in a blender and serve.

RASPBERRY CREAM CHEESE BROWNIES

There is something really satisfying about making baked goods from scratch—especially those that come from prepackaged mixes at the grocery store, like brownies. It reminds me of the scene in the movie “Castaway” where Tom Hanks’ character finally succeeds in building himself a fire, and he shouts out majestically, “LOOK WHAT I HAVE CREATED!!!”
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I had never made from-scratch brownies before. When I saw this recipe, with the cream cheese filling sandwiched in the middle of two layers of brownie, I was intrigued. And the fact that there are no added chemicals (with the exception of what might be in the store-bought jam) made me happy, too. Not even bleach, because the recipe calls for unbleached AP flour.
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I thought it was a good sign when the brownie batter tasted delicious. I am writing this blog post before I have even tasted the end product…the brownies are baking as I type. But they smell delicious. I suppose I’ll delete the post if they don’t turn out :)
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RASPBERRY CREAM CHEESE BROWNIES
from the Summer 2011 Cook’s Illustrated “Entertaining” magazine:
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Makes 25 (small) brownies
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FILLING:
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
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BROWNIES:
2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped (I used Ghiradelli baking squares)
½ cup raspberry jam, divided (I used Smucker’s Red Raspberry Preserves)
1 ¼ cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
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1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 8-inch square baking pan with foil, allowing excess to hang over edges. Grease foil.
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2. Process cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla in food processor until smooth. Note: I used a handmixer…didn’t feel like dirtying up the food processor.
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3. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Microwave butter and chocolate in a large bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, about 1 minute. Whisk in ¼ cup jam and let cool slightly.
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4. Add sugar, eggs, and vanilla to chocolate mixture, stirring until combined. Whisk in flour mixture until incorporated.
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5. Microwave remaining ¼ cup jam until warm—15 to 30 seconds.
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6. Scrape half of brownie batter into prepared pan. Spread into even layer. Dollop cream cheese filling over brownie batter and spread into even layer. Dollop jam over filling and using tip of knife, gently swirl jam through filling. Spread remaining brownie batter evenly over filling.
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7. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out with a few dry crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hours. Using foil overhang, lift brownies from pan and cut into 1 ½ inch squares. Serve.

Italian Vinaigrette

I bought some baby lettuce at the farmers market this weekend. What better occasion to make a homemade vinaigrette? At Christmas time, Santa placed a new vinaigrette holder from Williams-Sonoma in my stocking. It has a little whirly-gig that supposedly emulsifies the settled dressing. I still shook it. I'm less impressed with the fact that it has the whirly-gig and more impressed that the bottle has four different recipes printed right on it. Haaaaaaaaaaandy. This was my new bottle's debut.

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Now, the key to a good vinaigrette is really just one thing, in my opinion: good quality extra-virgin olive oil. Lucky for me I now have a subscription to "Cooks Illustrated." Lucky for me there are literally hundreds of products taste-and-quality tested by the people who run Cooks Illustrated. Lucky for you that I will share my learning with you for free. So, at Meijer, I purchased a big bottle of one of their "recommended" brands of olive oils: Colavita. Had I remembered the "highly recommended" winner-of-the-taste-test brand: Columela, I would have looked to see if they carry it.

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ANYWAY, back to the vinaigrette. It turned out LOVELY. And all the salad consisted of was baby lettuce & vinaigrette. In addition to flavor, this is what is so great about this recipe: I know exactly what is in it (as in NO preservatives or gloopy, gloppy, "stuff"); the recipe does not make an enormous amount that will eventually end up in the garbage; the ingredients are all items I typically have on hand. I thought the vinaigrette was excellent last night, and I thought it was even better this evening after the minced garlic had the chance to swim around in the oil for awhile.

Italian Vinaigrette
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1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/8 cup red wine vinegar

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 to 1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon dry italian herb blend (I used Penzey's of course)

1 teaspoon dijon mustard (optional...but I love this addition)

salt & pepper to taste

12 Treats of Christmas: #12 Santa's Cut-Out Cookies

The twelth and final treat to share is the recipe for the cookies we leave for Santa. The only sugar cookie recipe I have ever known, it has been made over and over for as long as I can remember. Before I owned a KitchenAid mixer, I used to dread the mixing that had to take place by hand...you can only go so far in this recipe with a hand-mixer. Now, making the dough is a snap! Since I already blogged the recipe here, I will share the recipe I use for the frosting. I learned to make it simply by watching my mom. The "recipe" consists of only three ingredients: powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk...although, I swear my mom used to add in some butter, too. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I'm sure she'll comment here to tell me her thoughts on that.

FROSTING FOR SUGAR COOKIES

2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
Food coloring

Begin by putting powdered sugar into a mixing bowl. Add vanilla. Add milk ONE TABLESPOON AT A TIME, until you make a nice, spreadable consistency. Frost the cookies, add some sprinkles, and allow to "dry."

DID YOU KNOW: If your cookies (these cookies or ANY type of cookie) become hard...or if you cooked them too long and didn't burn them, but they cool more crispy than you would like, put them in a container or ziplock with a slice of bread. The cookies will soften!

12 Treats of Christmas: #11 Mini Mint Kiss Pies

Oh my goodness. I’ve found a new blog to love. Just like my love of collecting cookbooks, I’ve started “collecting” cooking blogs. Who are these people who are not only talented in the kitchen, but talented behind a camera lense, too? Right now I religiously follow Pioneer Woman, Smitten Kitchen, How Sweet It Is, and Tasty Kitchen (sister blog to PW). There are many others that I know are out there and waiting, but there is just not enough time in the day. Of course, once you see them, you’ll understand what a complete amateur I am, but at least I can be your resource, right? Anyway, I was feverishly entering a blog giveaway ($250 Best Buy gift card…I’ll let you know if I win LOL) and I fell on Picky Palate and this recipe. Read the recipe below then jump on over here to see the step-by-step pictures that accompany this recipe and made me want to make Kiss Pies immediately.

MINI MINT KISS PIES

1 refrigerated pie crust, thawed

14 Mint Truffle Hershey Kisses

1 egg white whisked with 1 tablespoon water

Powdered sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Roll out pie dough onto a lightly floured counter top.

3. Place a kiss on the pie dough and cut a 2 ½ to 3 inch circle around it with a knife (or find an appropriately sized glass and use the mouth to “cut” around the kiss. *Be strategic about where you place the kisses so that you can maximize use of your dough!

4. For first fold, bring opposite sides of circle up together (as if you’re creating a taco). Pinch the two edges around top of kiss.

5. Now, fold up the other two sides of remaining dough up to the tip of the kiss pinching edge. Now press together all touching edges (will look like a square envelope with a kiss inside.

6. Continue cutting dough around kisses until all dough is used up & repeating steps 4 & 5; you can get between 10-14 rounds cut, especially if you re-roll your scraps.

7. Brush all little “pies” with egg white wash, then sprinkle with granulated sugar.

8. Bake for 20-28 minutes or until little pies are golden. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

9. Dust each with powdered sugar and serve.