Easy Meatballs

It's always an insult when a recipe calls itself Easy Something-or-other and it really isn't easy.

Thankfully, this isn't one of those recipes. It's just easy. And yummy.

Easy Meatballs

printable version

1 lb. ground beef (ground turkey makes really nice meatballs, too--almost like Swedish meatballs!)

1 egg

2 TBS water

1/2 cup bread crumbs (about 1 slice--I liked it with my dense homemade wheat bread, too)

1/4 cup minced onion (or in a pinch, 1/4 tsp onion powder)

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

I like to add a generous sprinkling of Pizza Seasoning or Italian Seasoning...or any other favorite spice, depending on the mood and meal.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl combine egg, water, bread crumbs, onion, salt and pepper. Add ground beef, broken into chunks, and mush with your hands to combine. Call me preppy, but EW. I just use the hand mixer, it doesn't matter. Form into meatballs about 1" in diameter and place on a broiler pan (spray with PAM first).

I used a TBS measurer to scoop out uniform meatballs. They can be little or big, this recipe works either way.

Bake for 25-30 minutes (I prefer 30) until meatballs are no longer pink in center.

Serve fresh and hot -or- cool the meatballs and freeze them for later use.

This is a broiler pan:

Just in case you were wondering...because sometimes I don't know as much as my recipes presume! ;) I have often found this kind of pan abandoned in the drawer under the oven whenever we've moved. I would suppose the previous tenants didn't know what to do with it?

The only downside of these meatballs: if you use too much onion, you could maybe get yucky onion burps...at least, I do...the onion powder is a little gentler. On me. Just saying.

Cornbread

I have always loved cornbread. That's all.

HAH! It would be all, but I have to say--because I'm quite proud actually--that now Michael loves cornbread, too. He raved over it the last time I baked it. :) Aw, it made my little chef heart blossom with pleasure.

Cornbread

printable version

1 cup flour

3/4 cup cornmeal

2 to 3 TBS sugar (I had used 3 the night Michael was so enamored with it--it just makes it a tad sweeter)

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1 TBS butter

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup milk

1/4 cup cooking oil or melted butter (I generally use oil)

Preheat oven to 400*. In a medium bowl stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Add the 1 TBS butter to a 9x1 1/2-inch round baking pan (all my life my mom used a 9x13 casserole dish for cornbread; it's handy for feeding a crowd, but I like the cakelike result of using a round pan). Place in oven about 3 minutes or until butter melts. Remove pan from oven; swirl butter in pan to coat bottom and sides of pan.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine eggs, milk and oil. Add mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened. Pour batter into hot pan.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean (that same night that Michael fell in love with this cornbread, I actually baked it 20-25 minutes till it was golden and crusty on the edges). Cut into wedges and serve warm.

We love buttering ours and drizzling honey over it. Mmmmm.

Variation:

Corn Muffins - Prepare as above, except omit the TBS butter. Spoon batter into 12 greased 2 1/2-inch muffin cups, filling cups two-thirds full. Bake in a 400* oven about 15 minutes or until light brown (and pass toothpick test).

10 Grain Muffins

This is maybe really silly of me to post this recipe...because it comes on the package of 10 Grain cereal.

But I have to! What if you get a generic brand of 10 grain? Or what if...I don't know, what if you've never heard of it before?

Because basically, these were so very satisfying and tasty and perfect that I just have to share!

These muffins are almost the consistency of cornbread, and they're also packed with a really intensely nutritious flavor! Really, with these, nutrition DOES have a flavor. ("Yum, I'm getting healthy!")

10 Grain Muffins

printable version

1 large egg

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter

1 cup white flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup 10 Grain Cereal

1 1/4 cup sour milk -or- buttermilk (I used sour*)

Mix 10 Grain Cereal and milk; allow to stand for 10 minutes while preheating oven (400) and assembling other ingredients. Cream sugar, butter and egg together.

Add dry ingredients and milk mixture. Stir only until mixed.

Spoon into greased muffin pan.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

*TIP: if you don't have any sour milk, pour about 1 TBS lemon juice into your empty measuring cup and then fill with milk. Let it sit a couple minutes, stirring gently if necessary.

Milk is actually still okay to drink a week after the date on the jug, it just can't be sold that late. And this may be myth, but I think milks with more fat content go sour a little faster than skim milk.

PS: this is something my mom has always done: when the muffins come out of the oven, I use a knife (or tongs or whatever, who really cares) and turn the muffins sideways. This helps them cool a little faster and keeps them from over-baking in their still-hot pan. That's why the muffins are sideways in the picture. :)

French Toast

This is a dreamy breakfast for me...one of my favorites.

(Michael has never cared for French Toast, and I'm not going to say this recipe converted him, but he didn't mind it quite so much when I left out the spices for his slices--we figured out that's the main part that bothers him).

I, on the other hand, practically drool over French Toast.

French Toast

printable version

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup milk

1 TBS sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg (optional)

about 4 slices of bread --try this with my french bread recipe, it's heavenly!

butter

In a shallow mixing bowl (I know this is very dorky and ghetto, but I use a bread pan because it is the perfect shape for my french bread slices), beat together eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and if desired, cinnamon and nutmeg. Dip bread into egg mixture, letting it soak about 10 seconds on each side (this is important!). If using regular white bread, a little dip for each side will suffice.

In a skillet or on a griddle melt about 1 TBS butter over medium heat. Add bread slices and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

Serve warm with syrup or powdered sugar...or fruit...or jam...etc. :)

I keep a little whisk handy to remix everything between bread dippings because the ingredients tend to part a little bit.

This made something like 6 to 8 slices for us. The recipe is easily doubled.

Easy French Bread

This is from Michael's Aunt Lisa, and I've made it at least three times already. The title is honest! It really is easy! And delicious. Mmmm, my favorite french bread ever (and I've tried the genuine stuff, too).

Easy French Bread

printable version

2 1/2 cups warm water

2 TBS yeast

Put yeast in warm water in a LARGE bowl and let proof for about 5-10 minutes (it will probably only take 10 minutes if the yeast came straight from the freezer). The original recipe requests that you avoid stirring the yeast...but I can't resist! I always end up stirring it at the end of the ten minutes.

2 TBS sugar

1 TBS salt

2 TBS oil

6 cups flour

Add the sugar, salt and oil to the yeast water and mix. Add the flour cup by cup, mixing thoroughly. After 10 minutes, punch down the dough. Punch it down every ten minutes for an hour.

I like to make tally marks on a paper nearby and keep a kitchen timer handy. I don't have a kitchenaid or really anything comparable, so I do this perhaps a bit primitively... all I really need after mixing in the flour is a spatula, which I use both to scrape the sides of the bowl and punch down the dough throughout the hour.

Around the 4th or 5th punching, preheat the oven for 400* and grease a cookie sheet. I like using a stick of butter to grease it.

When the hour is up, spread just a little bit of oil on the countertop.

TIP: The reason I use oil instead of more flour is it keep the bread from becoming too dry. I also prefer its efficiency for keeping my hands from getting sticky.

Split the dough in two and shape into loaves.

NOTE: this recipe doesn't require any kneading. The punching took care of that. The punching also makes this a really dense bread, so it's very moist (dense is good).

Place on cookie sheet and brush with either milk or melted butter (I prefer butter). Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired. Slit tops.

TIP: Because of the oil and the stretchiness of this bread, slitting the tops is hard even with a very sharp knife. I use my kitchen scissors-- hold them vertical. It's very fast and works so much better.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Also makes amazing french toast for breakfast the next morning, delicious garlic bread as a side for spaghetti, and even pretty decent grilled cheese sandwiches.

For cheat garlic bread, butter slices and sprinkle with Garlic Salt. If the bread isn't fresh from the oven, place the prepared slices on a cookie sheet in an oven either set on Broil or about 350* for only a minute or two. Sometimes I even leave the oven door open so I can better monitor the bread--it doesn't take long to toast it!

*when doing sticky/messy recipes, I tie my wedding ring to my apron strings. I've even written notes on those recipes to remind myself to do this--and especially to put it back on once I'm finished!*

This dough doesn't have to rise the full hour to be successful.

Breakfast Fiasco

While I made breakfast, I saw a birdie through a slit in the blinds. It was hopping around in white stuff. I said to Ender "There's a birdie outside playing in the dew!"

Nope. After we opened the blinds, we discovered SNOW outside. We feel very much at home now. This place isn't so different from Rexburg after all!

So I mentioned breakfast...something bad happened to it. When I turned the knob up to medium to heat the unit, the "surface on" light suddenly winked off! Weird. So I jiggled the knob and turned it back and forth once, and the light went back on.

I probably should have been smart and just realized how fast the butter melted and started browning. But my time-figuring was warped because I was flitting around the kitchen doing other things, too. I threw an omelet together, complete with diced tomatoes, cheese and cubed meat and went on to mix orange juice (in the blender, the "special" way--ps: mix the concentrate by itself before adding water so it's all creamy and unchunked).

The omelet burned.

Practically black.

The knob had slipped, so I'd unknowingly turned the heat up to "high." Arg! My last two eggs! And they were borrowed eggs, no less! (Oh, well, as "borrowed" as ingredients get since there's obviously no returning...)

So I thought, well, we can have toast. No! Darn. Only if we want toast made out of the last slices of french bread--ooh, recipe coming soon, by the way (this soon, tada: RECIPE). And, yeah, that bread is good, but for toast?

So then I figured we could have cereal. No! Garg, Michael doesn't like powdered milk, and that's all we've got in the fridge right now!

And for some reason, pancakes and waffles didn't sound appetizing. Even if we had time to make them...which, since this was a breakfast fiasco, of course we didn't.

Geesh, if I were pregnant, I would have happily eaten the snow! It would have been my lucky day to have snow in May! Yay, cravings with special delivery! Hah, delivery. What a pregnant joke. I'll have to remember that one, I guess.

Michael humbly ate the black, rubbery omelet (he loves me), and I had cereal with powdered milk--which wasn't too bad, just sort of depressing. At least Ender likes it.

So now my kitchen smells like burned eggs, and that's gross.

Don't Try This in Your Kitchen

I did something dumb.

No--I did TWO somethings dumb.

ONE:

When you leave dough to rise on a warm stovetop (heated by a warm oven, obviously), do not test how hot the stovetop is by touching the units. I mean, duh, only a true blonde would do that.

My burn was hurting for a very long time. Stupid heat-leaky unit. Stupid idea. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

TWO:

I made a cake. I knew I had no frosting, but so what? I could make some. But I didn't want to use all my precious butter and powdered sugar...so I got an idea (oh dear, ideas in the kitchen!). I figured, hey, I have TONS of pudding...surely there's a recipe for pudding frosting out there!

Well yes, there is. But it's disgusting. Eugh...trust me. I'd have taken pictures if I could stand to see it a minute longer.

It looked like blended barf. Sloppy, soupy, chunkish, blended barf.

I made normal frosting after all (and the cake was supremely delicious).

(Oh, so was the frosting).