Pioneer Meatballs

Well, yesterday was my birthday.  Never mind which one.  I am one of those people who DOES NOT obsess about her birthday. Many years, it's actually snuck up on me.  I'll be going through all my usual shenanigans and then, DOH!, tomorrow is my birthday.  Really? And, of course, as we get to a certain age, the birthday festivities become even less important.  When someone asks me what I want for my birthday, I have no idea.  No well-thought out list.  Just crickets and tumbleweeds.  

But, the two people who know me best hit the nail on the head yesterday.  They presented me with not one, but THREE, Pioneer Woman cookbooks.  

 I can't even remember the last time I bought a cookbook.  This tells you what incredible self-restraint I have achieved!  Consequently, my birthday turned out to be pretty darn awesome.  Neil took Viv to the movies so I went to the nail shop and got my nails done, pedicure and had 2 mimosas while they worked their magic on me.  Then, I returned home and read my new cookbooks all afternoon.  


One thing I love about Ree Drummond is her talent for creating "freezer meals."  This is particularly of interest to me these days because I like to make dishes for my parents that can just be taken out of the freezer and popped in the oven or crockpot, so they don't have to stress about what to have for dinner. I also serve on the "Gracious Goodness" committee (that's really not the right word) at church. We make meals and freeze them to distribute to church members and spouses when someone is hospitalized, just home from the hospital, not able to get out much, etc.  I really love cooking for other people, so this is right up my alley.

ANYWAY...I had 2 1/2 lbs of hamburger sitting my fridge waiting for me to come up with something brilliant to do with it and along came the Pioneer Woman.  I turned it into her "ready to go freezer meatballs."  

I cut her recipe in half because of the amount of meat I had on hand, yet, I ended up with 3 batches of approximately 25 meatballs each.  We used one tonight for dinner and the other 2 are in the freezer. The cookbook gives 3 ideas for preparation of the meatballs. I had all the ingredients for the BBQ recipe on hand, so that's what we had tonight.  

Very simple ingredients: bread crumbs, eggs, salt, pepper, mustard

You go ahead and cook 'em then freeze for later

 Ree's recipe takes store-bought barbeque sauce and jacks it up.  You put it on the stove just to a gentle boil, add some vinegar, brown sugar, Tabasco and Worchestershire.  Add your meatballs back in, cover and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes and then, it's dinnertime.  

I can't even begin to tell you how insanely easy this was and how fast you can have it on the table. Thank you Pioneer Woman.  I want to come hang out on your ranch sometime.  Whaddya say?

Quality Kitchen Time

Sharing the kitchen with my daughter has been a long-time dream.  She's actually been interested for quite some time, but ever since that hot soup incident when she was 18 months old, I've been very, very careful about allowing her to venture into cooking.  But she's old enough now that I don't have to be a complete paranoid, over-protective micro-manager when we're in the kitchen together.

Baby Shower Menu

My sister is having a baby girl in April!  Baby Clara Lillian.  I'm co-hosting a shower and am trying to get the finishing touches on what we're going to serve.  Since I'm always paranoid that I'm leaving out something major or that I'm leaving a hole (you know, too much starch, not enough veg or fruit).  So, I thought I'd throw it out to you folks and get your opinions.

Here's what I have planned:

• Tiropetas (these are little feta cheese/phyllo pastries.  We grew up with Greeks, so we've been eating these all our lives.)
• Mini spinach & swiss quiches (homemade of course)
• Swedish meatballs
• fruit with amaretto dip (Thanks to my friend Ellen's awesome recipe)
• Chicken salad finger sandwiches (these will come from Mathias Sandwich Shop)
• Homemade petit fours
• White wine
• Ice tea

Thoughts?  Opinions?  Katherine and I are both non-traditional shower throwers and goers.  We loathe shower games, so you can forget that.  We're not really big on crepe paper streamers, bells or balls so decorations will be something simple like fresh flowers.  And, my friend who's hosting it at her house and my mom cannot deal with paper plates and plastic ware, so Kay bought new wine glasses and glass plates for the occasion.

I mentioned my friend Ellen.  A few years ago, she threw a shower for a friend.  This is when I first tasted this amaretto fruit dip.  It is light, flavorful and super easy.  She was nice enough to tell me how to make it, so now I will share with you.  Don't let the simplicity fool you...it tastes fantastic and everyone will rave about it.

ELLEN'S AMARETTO DIP

• 16 oz Cool Whip
• 2 instant vanilla puddings
• 1-2 cups milk (just add until it looks right)
• 4 Tbs Amaretto

Blend together until you have a nice fluffy dip.  Keep it cool until time to serve, of course.  I'm serving with mixed fruit...probably will cheat and have Publix do that for me. Publix for President!





So, if any of you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.  Happy dining this weekend!

Asian Meatballs

I have served on the Zoning Board of the City of Columbia for way too long.  Really, it's like 8 years or something now and I'm pretty much tired of it.  I really loathe this 3 hours of mandatory annual "training" that the legislature created a few years ago.  Each year, we get to sacrifice 3 hours of our time to sit and listen, yes, listen to a conference call from who-knows-when by a bunch of professional urban planners (which we are not) talking about Supreme Court cases involving sidewalk malfunction lawsuits in Fargo, North Dakota or how to design a good looking Wal-Mart in Boulder, Colorado.  Mind you, NONE OF THIS has anything to do with the Board of Zoning Appeals in Columbia, South Carolina and therefore, "trains" me to do, say or think nothing new and different.

So what, you ask?  Well, I had my 3 hour time-suckage appointment for 5-8pm Tuesday.  So, that afternoon, I put this dish in the crockpot.  I'd seen the recipe in All*You magazine and the photo caught my eye immediately.  I've been waiting for the chance to make it.  So, I had time on Tuesday.  The thing is, by the time I had to leave home to go to the Time-Suckage Vortex, my house smelled absolutely wonderful.  It was very, very hard to leave. So, the whole time, I was wondering how they were going to turn out?  Would Vivian like the meatballs?  Would they be as good as I had built them up in my mind?

Well, the answers are yes, no, and yes.  Disappointing that the Vivver rejected them, but she's been pretty fickle in her evening dining lately.  We'll try them on her again some other time.  I think this recipe is so good, that it will be one of the few dishes that my family does get to have twice, maybe even three times.  The flavors are my favorites: ginger, soy, hoisin.  The aroma is divine and the ease of this recipe just makes it a no-brainer.  Plus, it presents itself well enough to make for company and they'd never believe how effortless it was to prepare.  I'm calling it a winner. Hope you agree!