Foodmomiac

Buddy's Meatballs

So... my daughter is obsessed with Buddy Valastro from Cake Boss, the baking show on TLC. Lest you think I'm overstating things, she actually thinks that New Jersey is the greatest state in the country because it is home to Hoboken, and Hoboken is home to Buddy.

Now, I also enjoy the show, but not to her level of obsession (she even follows Buddy on Twitter, reading his tweets with the same enthusiasm as those from her beloved Justin Bieber). Anyway, we were both pretty psyched when we learned that Buddy had a new show, Kitchen Boss. And last night we tried his meatballs. They were AMAZING. Super easy, super delicious. The recipe is here.

We didn't do the full on Sunday gravy thing that he does. I just sauteed them and then put them in a pan with a jar of crushed tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce, some water, and a finely minced onion that I sauteed in the meatball grease. This is a new family favorite for sure.

 

Yes, we really DID eat a dish called Yummy Balls

I can always count on Stefania (aka City Mama) for great recipes. She has many of the same foodie values that I do, and our families seem to have similar tastes. We love comfort food, ethnic food, things with a ton of flavor and richness. Stefania is now pregnant with her third child, and I have to say that I am LOVING the cravings that this little dude has been imposing on her and her family. I am all for using the very finest ingredients, but sometimes it's nice to go mega comfort and eat a little bit of processed food. Just the other night, we made Stefania's nachos, complete with Tostito brand Queso poured over the top (they were a HUGE hit). And last night, we made Yummy Balls. I kept giggling as I prepared them, because I couldn't get the old SNL "Schweddy Balls" skit out of my head.

I think that might have been part of the charm. I'll let you grab the recipe from Stefania, but I did make one change. We didn't have any tomato soup on hand, so I used a can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken. I also decided to take this recipe fully 70s, and I used dehydrated minced onion and garlic powder instead of their fresh counterparts. The results were ridiculously delicious. I served "the balls" alongside some leftover mashed potatoes and halved zucchinis that were stuffed with herbed feta and heated in the oven.

The rest of the corned beef recipe

For those of you making corned beef with me, here is the rest of the recipe:
(First part of the recipe is here.)

Remove the meat from the ziploc and soak it in cold water for a couple of hours, changing the water a few times to remove as much salt from the outside as possible. The meat has already absorbed a lot of salt, so the stuff on the outside is no longer necessary. Once the meat is done soaking, remove it from the water and pat it dry.

Put the meat in a large pot (I use my big Le Creuset) and cover it by 1/2 to 1 inch of water. If any scum comes up to the top of the water, just remove it with a spoon. Turn the heat on medium high and bring the water up to a boil. Once it boils, lower the heat as low as possible, cover the pot, and let the meat simmer for about two to three hours. You want a skewer or sharp knife to be able to pierce the meat with no resistance whatsoever.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Remove the meat from the water, and place it on a large heat-proof platter (I usually just use a roasting pan). Pour about a cup of the water/broth over the meat, cover the pan with foil and place it in the oven.

OK, Now you are going to need seven to eight pounds of vegetables. You can choose any combination of the below (I have italicized the ones I am using tonight): 

Category One
Carrots
Rutabagas (small)
White turnips
New potatoes
Boiling onions

Category Two
Green cabbage, uncored
Parsnips
Brussels sprouts

Add the vegetables from category one to the pot and bring the broth back up to a boil. Then, turn the heat as low as possible, cover the pot, and cook the vegetables for about 10 minutes. They should have begun to soften at this point.

Then, add the vegetables from category two and bring the broth to a boil again. Then, turn the heat down once again, cover the pot, and cook for an additional 10 - 15 minutes. At this point, all of the vegetables should be tender.

While the vegetables cook, remove the meat from the oven and cut it across the grain (so if the stripes in the meat are going vertically, you want to cut it horizontally - this is VERY important and will insure tender meat) into 1/4 inch slices. 

Arrange the vegetables and meat on a beautiful platter, moisten as needed with any of the broth, and serve! This tastes great with a variety of accompaniments. We use horseradish mixed with sour cream and mustard. 

Some Updates and Some Corned Beef

Wow, sorry to leave you all hanging.

• Short Ribs - As I suspected, the 1.5 hours of cooking that Bittman suggested were NOT enough for the short ribs. They were still tough. However, we ate them two days later after an additional 3-4 hours of cooking, and they were tender enough to eat with a spoon. The recipe is posted on this blog. A few notes: I used soy sauce, not fish sauce. Though my fish allergy is lessened GREATLY thanks to Yaelle (acumomma), I am still afraid to cook with fish. Also, do NOT ignore the instruction to drain off most of the fat. I did ignore that, and they were greasy (duh).
• On Sunday morning, I left for NY to attend a big event for my client, Quaker. I was able to sneak a quick brunch with my dad, step-mom and aunt, but then I headed up to Times Square to prepare for Monday morning's activities. After preparation, I again sneaked in some fun. Abby, one of my favorite people and an old friend from Vassar, met me at my hotel for dinner and a sleepover. I think she probably regretted the sleepover decision when my alarm went off at 5:45 am, but it was so good to see her! We even got to pose with the Quaker Man together!



• Following the Times Square event, I rode up to the Food Bank for New York City in the Bronx with Isabel from Alpha Mom, Anna from Mommy Poppins, Joanna from My Mom Shops, Emily from The Motherhood, Brian from Looky, Daddy! and Magda from Ask Moxie. We spent just over an hour sorting food and packing it for food pantries around the city. In that small period of time, we packed over 1,100 pounds of food which translates to 888 meals. I will for sure be doing this again in the future, and would encourage others to do the same. It's really simple to coordinate a food bank volunteer "party." Call your local food bank and ask them about group volunteer opportunities. Consider what a difference you can make if even one time per year you volunteer instead of going to book club or bunco. We are doing more blogger food bank volunteer efforts throughout the country on behalf of Quaker, so if you'd like to get involved, please email me. I can't promise that we'll have one in your city, but if we do, you are certainly welcome to join us.
• Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I started my corned beef yesterday. This will be the third time I do this. Using a recipe from Cooks Illustrated, I buy a plain brisket and then "corn" it for five to seven days in my refrigerator. At the end of that time period, I end up with the same corned beef you can buy at the store. The difference is that I made it myself, it doesn't contain salt peter, so it's not reddish in color, and it tastes AMAZING. Seriously, when you taste this corned beef, you'll have an a ha moment. Kind of like, "Wow, so THIS is what corned beef tastes like!??!" It's not too late for you to join me.
• • Go to a meat market (or Costco like I did), and buy a beef brisket that is between four and six pounds. It will look like this:

  

  • You'll also need kosher salt, black peppercorns, paprika, dried thyme, allspice and bay leaves. When you get home, trim the beef of all excess fat. Then, combine 1/2 cup of kosher salt, 1 Tb. cracked black peppercorns, 2-1/4 tsp. ground allspice, 1 Tb. dried thyme, 1.5 tsp. paprika and two crumbled bay leaves. Mix this together and set it aside. Stab the meat with a sharp fork 30 times on each side. Rub on the spice mix, put the meat in a large plastic ziploc bag and remove as much air as possible. It will look like this:

  

  • Then, you need to weight it down and put it in your refrigerator. Two years ago, I weighted it down like this:

  

  • This year, I have it weighted down with my heaviest cookbooks. You can even use bricks. Just make sure that there is significant weight on top of the meat.
  • The next few days are very easy. Flip the meat once a day. On March 17th, we'll finish this baby up, but if you are joining me, please be sure to email or comment, so I can link to all the finished products.

Trying to be creative with our weeknight meals

I've written before about my issues finding good quality meat while out shopping. The meats at our usual supermarket (Jewel-Osco) just don't look great a lot of the time, and their selection of organic meats is incredibly minimal. The meats at Costco are terrific, but I don't always want to get so MUCH meat all at once. PLUS, I need to get some meat every week, and I can't deal with a Costco trip every week. Trader Joe's has lots of organic meats at a great price, but I've had too many instances of TJ meats that have turned. We love, love, love the Paulina Meat Market, but they aren't open on Sundays, and that's when we shop.

So, Michael started doing some research, and he found a lot of people talking about a market called Treasure Island. This is a European-style market with a few locations in Chicago, but we had never been there. I'm not sure why. It has certainly been recommended to me. 

We finally made it to Treasure Island on Sunday and it was terrific. They had Boars' Head meats (which we love), lots of great ethnic foods and a fabulous meat department. I was most excited by the short ribs I bought, so when we got home, I sat with my cookbooks and tried to find a good recipe. 

I realized as I looked through the recipes that most of them required multiple hours of cooking. However, I already had a Sunday dinner planned (with not enough time or energy to make two at once). This meant that the short ribs had to become a weeknight meal, but I didn't want to use the crockpot. So... I got creative.

I found a Mark Bittman recipe for Anise-Scented Short Ribs that required multiple hours of cooking. Last night, after Michael and Dylie headed up to bed, I did the first part of the recipe. I browned the meat, removed it from the pot, and then sauteed onions and ginger in the fat. The rest of the ingredients were added (soy sauce, water, sugar, rice vinegar) and then I brought it all to a boil. According to the original recipe, I was then supposed to turn the heat to low, cover the pot, and cook it all for an hour. This was not happening at 10:30 pm. So, I covered the pot, threw it in the fridge and then pot it back on the stove after work today. Right now it's cooking away, but I'm feeling a little nervous. The meat doesn't seem to be falling off the bone yet. We still have half an hour, but not sure we'll get what we want. Stay tuned...

Foodmomiac's Meatloaf

A friend of ours had surgery last week, so a bunch of us got together to make them some dinners. My friend Joni did an awesome job of insuring that the family was covered for dinner by a different person each night, and our night was Sunday.

I volunteered to make meatloaf, mashed potatoes (I did the cheesy kind) and a veggie (just some simple sauteed zucchini with minced onion and dill). I figured comfort food is always welcomed. It was really very easy to pull everything together, and I made two of everything, so we had our dinner ready to go as well.

I don't know why we don't eat meatloaf more often. It's easy. It freezes GREAT. The kids love it. I have some twists to my meatloaf, as you see below. Typically, I use white bread as the binding agent, but Michael asked me to use oatmeal yesterday instead, and I have to say I LOVED it. I'll never use white bread again.

Foodmomiac's Meatloaf

1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
2 eggs
2 Tb. ketchup
1 Tb. yellow mustard
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 Tb. dehydrated minced onion
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tb. prepared horseradish

Combine everything together in a large bowl using your hands (This is the most important part. I honestly believe that it is impossible to make good meatloaf using a spoon.)

Place in a 9 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes.

Corned Beef Day One

  Brisket 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac.

I made my own corned beef once before. It was years ago, before we even had Dylan, if I recall correctly. It was amazing. I used the recipe from Cook's Illustrated. Every year, I intend to make the same recipe, but I always forget to buy the brisket in time. You see, in order for the beef to "corn," it needs to sit in a spice rub for 5-7 days in the refrigerator. This year, I remembered!!

Michael went over to the Paulina Meat Market yesterday and bought a six pound brisket. This morning, I got it prepped. I trimmed it, stabbed it 30 times on each side, and rubbed it with the spice rub (kosher salt, black pepper, paprika, thyme, bay leaf and allspice). I then put it in a ziploc bag, removed all of the air, and weighted it down (click through on the above picture to see more of the process). It will sit in the refrigerator until Sunday. We are making our St. Patrick's Dinner one day late. Sunday just works better for us.