Partying with Baby

Guess who paid Grammy and Big Daddy a surprise visit this weekend?

Yes, the delightful Miss T came to wish Big Daddy a happy birthday.

And watch the BIG GAME.

Yay!

Grammy served up her famous meatballs (recipe here).

Along with Big Daddy's all-time favorite, grape salsa (recipe here).

And then to finish things off on just the right note, lemon bars (recipe here).

Some of the commercials had Miss T trying to smile.

While others put her to sleep.

But, oh, the fun we had.

So what did you do this weekend? Did you watch the BIG GAME? It was a pretty good match, even if I had no interest in who won.  

And then there were the commercials. Have you seen any of them? I got a kick out of the Jack in the Box/Martha Stewart one and couple of others. Which one(s) did you like best?

Mindy Obenhaus lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, the youngest of her five children and two dogs. She's passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. When she’s not writing, she enjoys cooking and spending time with her grandchildren. Learn more at www.MindyObenhaus.com  

Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs and Ice Festivals

Hello, everybody!! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have a fun recipe for you, but first, I just have to reminisce a little. I used to think I loved all seasons, but I'm beginning to realize that I have a strong preference for summer. Not because I like to stay warm (which I DO), but because we're so spoiled with delicious fruit, grown right here in our backyard garden and the local farms.

 Our seedless champagne grapes. We share them with everyone who wants any because they turn ripe all at once and we get close to 100 lbs a year. They make great raisins, too!

 I get a little teary-eyed looking at this. But July is coming soon and, God willing, the weather will cooperate for a wonderful blueberry harvest!

 Mulberries from our tree turned into amazing home made yoghurt with local honey. *sobs quietly*
                                                    

(All photos from the official Leavenworth.org page.)

But even though I miss summer oh-so-much, there are wonderful things to enjoy during winter, too. I'm having a little trouble uploading our photos so I can't share our most recent travels, but I can show you what we're up to this weekend.
                                    
Leavenworth, Washington is about four hours from us. A younger me scoffed at the idea of traipsing around such a touristy spot. I mean, really... a whole town built to look like Bavaria? UGH!
But the older me is suddenly appreciative of skipping another flight and just plunking the kids in the car and driving over for the weekend.
                     
Yes, it's a bit overdone and of course nobody really runs around in those costumes 24/7 in Germany, but it hits the spot! (Oh, here's there official link if you want to peek at the town. It's a very fun concept. http://www.leavenworth.org/)

The busiest time is right near Christmas, with the Kinder market filled with toys. The ice festival is more for the sporty types and there are all sorts of activities the tourists can sign up for, including sledding contests and cross country skiing sprints. My boys have their eyes set on a prize but I'm reminding them that there are professionals competing and we get a few inches of snow a year. LOL

So, on to the recipes that will keep us warm and fuel our ice and snow sprinting! You'll need several lbs of hamburger, garlic, oregano, salt, and mozzarella.

Flatten a small disk of the hamburger after seasoning it.

Wrap a small (1 inch) cube of cheese inside the meat.

Fry in a pan until completely browned and cooked through.

This was the tricky part, as the cheese wanted to ooze out.

I tried to roll them around as little as possible. Still, we had leakage.

The final product! The kids all agree they liked this kind of meatball best, but hubby and I are too traditional, I guess. We preferred the cheese-less batch.

One more shot of the ooey, gooey, cheesey goodness! Keep warm everybody!
Feel free to stop by my author page at Mary Jane Hathaway, my blog at The Things That Last, and my blog at HuffingtonPost Books page. Until next time!

Swedish Meatballs--er Gravy

Missy, here. Sharing a recipe that started out to be based on Alton Brown's Swedish Meatballs (click here). But by the time I patted out 3 meatballs, I realized I didn't have enough time to make them! My husband was about to arrive home and needed to eat quickly to get back to the church for a meeting.

So…This is a recipe for Swedish Gravy! :)

The original calls for beef and pork. I only had 1 pound of ground pork to use. While I thawed it in the microwave, I tore the crust off two slices of bread, then tore the bread into pieces and poured ¼ cup milk over it. I added some dried scallions and let the milk soak in.

Once I had the pork thawed, I broke up the ground meat and mixed in the milk-soaked bread. I was going to use the stand mixer but didn't bother. I just mixed it up by hand.

Then I added 2 egg yolks and some salt and pepper and mixed well.

This is where you're supposed to make meat balls. Instead, I dumped the mixture in a hot skilled with 2 TBS melted butter. Stir as the meat browns to break it up.

Once the meat was browned, I added a little more butter--maybe 1-2 TBS.

Then I sprinkled with ¼ cup flour and stirred, letting it cook for a couple of minutes.

Next I added 3 cups beef broth.

Stirred until it thickened and added ¼ cup heavy cream (I used light half-and-half).

Season to your taste! (Alton's original recipe calls for allspice and nutmeg while you're mixing the meat, but I forgot to add it.) I tried sprinkling with a couple of different Penzey's spice mixes trying to add a little color (wished I'd had some fresh parsley). Then I served it over noodles.

And here's where I should probably just tell you I forgot to take a photo. But I didn't. And this looks terrible! LOL But it really did taste good. I promise. :) Imagine how much better it would look with meatballs. Enjoy!

A Celtic Girl's Guide to Red Sauce and Meatballs!

There are two schools of thought in the Blodgett House (aka: Ruthy's Place, that's my married name) concerning my sauce:

1. It's the worst sauce ever and I should stop making it.
2. It's the best sauce ever and I should make it weekly and keep some in the freezer for points of emergency.

THERE IS NO PLEASING EVERYONE.

Kind of like writing, isn't it? I don't have one book out of more than twenty published to date that pleases everyone! Recipes are like that, but good red sauce is such an integral part of family meals that it's important to attack in full frontal mode!

First the meatballs. My old meatballs were horrible. So then I approached my brother Sean (he's to-die-for cute and Irish-looking and I love him to pieces) because Sean is married to Linda and she's half-Italian and she and Sean make meatballs for family occasions and they ROCK IT. When we did a benefit for little Roman last year, they made over 300 meatballs and donated them. BIG, DELICIOUS MEATBALLS.... I love those guys.

Now I don't measure for this, but you'll get the gist:

3 lbs. Ground Round
2 eggs
1/2 cup ketchup/catsup
A big sprinkling of granulated garlic, like two tablespoons full
A big sprinkling of dried, chopped onion (kids don't like chunks of onion, this works well for kid/family-friendly meatballs) equal to the garlic and then shake a little more for good luck.
Salt - liberally sprinkled over meat in bowl
Pepper - Same, but not quite as liberal
1 cup Parmesan Cheese

I really don't measure the cheese. I can sew by eye, I can run a 1/4" seam or a 5/8" seam without using the guide because when you do something repeatedly, you just know...
So I dump the cheese in from the big canister but I can say with confidence that it's about a cup...

Take off your wedding ring and mix with hands. If mixture seems moist and firm, PERFECT! This is ground round, not a lot of fat, so this is perfect!!!

Baking meatballs has become a new thing. I find this dries them out and I don't want to spend nearly $17.00 on ground beef to dry it out.

I'm old-fashioned, simmer them in extra virgin olive oil girl.

Heat the olive oil to medium.... roll enough meatballs to fill the pan (mine is the extra-large Revere Chicken Fryer frying pan, I have two and I love them. My friend Susan gave me the second one because it didn't fit in her cupboards!!!! WIN FOR RUTHY!!!! :)

Simmer on low/medium heat, with cover on, turning once until done. And then pour the meatballs and half of the rendering/oil into the pot of sauce simmering on another burner.... and then repeat until all the meatballs are cooked. If you have too many, freeze some! You can pop them into freezer bags and toss them into the freezer to dress up a quick meal, any time! Another win!

This is an intoxicating smell, it's all amazing and wonderful and everyone who walks into the house wants a meatball, so make extra. And invite people over. Meatballs are great conversation starters!  For example:

"Ruthy, I thought I heard a chicken in trouble. Oh, are those meatballs? May I have one?"

OR:

"Ruthy, I'm pretty sure your chickens are all frozen solid, but I thought I'd stop by and borrow an egg. Are those meatballs I smell? Why don't we have coffee and meatballs and catch up on old times?"

See what I mean. There is an international language of good meatballs. I'm firmly convinced that the world would be a more loving place with more meatballs and Gloria Jean's Cookie Chillers. No one can be angry after they drink a Gloria Jean's Cookie Chiller.

But I digress...

THE SAUCE!!!!  Okay, youse know that I waitressed for eleven years at a great Greek restaurant/family diner style, with a Brazilian and Vietnamese cook. (Two cooks, one Brazilian, one Vietnamese, great guys)

Anyway, this sauce will make true Italians rent their clothes (old-style rent, like tearing them off in anguish) but it works and it's the one they used at Basel's and it comes out great, every time.

3 12 oz. cans Hunt's Tomato Paste
1 pint Ketchup

Put tomato paste and ketchup in big pan. Add enough hot tap water to make sauce consistency. I use my big whisk while I'm adding the water, and when the consistency is the same as a can of tomato sauce, I stop adding water! Sensible, right?

Then here's the restaurant trick: If you're using a wide pot, cover the top with each seasoning more lightly. If you're using a deeper, taller pot, sprinkle the following more densely across the top, layering the spices/herbs:

Using these amazingly fun add-ons, cover the top of the sauce with a layer of dried onion, dried garlic, basil, parsley, pepper and a generous layer of salt. Add 3-4 bay leaves.

Add 1/4 cup sugar.

Mix with whisk, heat and simmer lightly over very low heat. This is a marvelous sauce that pleases people tremendously! Basel's was popular for it's Italian dishes and this mainstay sauce was used on almost all of them.

Stop here for the vegetarian version, Kav!

But my sister-in-law Linda (the smart, savvy, half-Italian half Southern-Irish Realtor) taught me to add those meatball drippings into the sauce.

Oh, mylanta, that's the ticket to a meat-flavored sauce with just enough oil content to make you smile and declare yourself an honorary Italian!

Go you!!!!

Now I'm expecting that unless you're living in a rabbit warren (Watership Down, I loved that book) you've seen the news about our chronic snowfall these past few weeks. We haven't gotten hit quite as bad as Boston, and we're in the country, so we've got places to put the snow... but here are some taste of winter pics from upstate New York!

Fun in the snow:

The chicken run under 3 feet of snow on the level...

Great shot of my house, the snow is covering up the tacky stuff! PERFECT!!!

Girls being girls:

King Elijah:

A cloudy day at the marsh:

Another rarity, a clean bookshelf:

I have to record the rare cleanliness sightings as they occur! Wishing you all a blessed and thought-filled and thought-provoking Lenten season... Prepare ye the way, indeed!

Laura Ingalls Wilder Buzz: Surviving the Wait

This week in the Carolinas, some homes are still obsessed with Frozen. My granddaughter still insists on being called Elsa. It's been crazy up and down cold while my friends in the Kansas and Nebraska had the 60s and 70s before a major snow storm. People are still talking about the Super Bowl and the dancing shark at half-time who couldn't keep in step. 

But in the Steele house, it's all about Laura Ingalls Wilder. Now we've talked about Laura and her books here on Yankee Belle.  Jan reminded us there are still devastating Long Winters in her October Blizzard Macgyver That Sauce post  .  I followed up with a discussion on all the food featured in Little House books in Book Food: The Little House Connection .

My two favorite Little House books: The Long Winter and These Happy Golden Years.

Surely we don't need to revisit the topic!  

YES, we do!!!!!!  And yes, I'm jumping up and down because Laura Ingalls Wilder is a blockbuster hit yet again, thanks to the South Dakota Historical Society's runaway best-seller, Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Biography, edited by Pamela Smith Hill. A book fans have anticipated for years is finally out.

The book is coffee table sized: 9 inches by 11 and 1.5 inches thick.

But there's a problem. The buzz has exploded for a book with an original printing of only 15,000 copies, 4000 already earmarked. I despaired. Then second printing of 15,000 and the book I ordered in August showed up last week. The buzz is humming like an upset hive of bees (yep, a little boy tangles with one of the Little House books). The third March printing of 45,000 copies and a fourth printing is on the horizon.  Folks are in a frenzy waiting for their book to show up.

A once in a life time book and we are either waiting for or celebrating its arrival. Ack!

How to celebrate now that it's here? and for my friends who are waiting, How to survive until the book arrives?  You can go back and read the original series but the best survival manual for those who cook is the Little House Cookbook. Not only does it has a lot of beloved snippets from the Little House book series, but it is the perfect cookbook for those who need to feed their families food that is as fresh and natural as possible.  Remember, this was plain food in the days before icky chemical preservatives and food additives no one can pronounce.

Such a fun book even if you don't like to cook.

I picked up some bison, thanks to a coupon. I figured since Little House on the Prairie talks about Pa living on the land belonging to Osage Indians and Pioneer Girl details the reality of the situation, it would be a nod to the real life and times of both the Ingalls and the Native Americans who added drama to Laura's books.  

Why yes, we have bison in North Carolina.

I decided to adapt my all meat meatball recipe and make a glaze out of items in my pantry. After all, it's Long Winter time and food stuffs are scarce.

Since bison is very lean, I added a third of a pound of ground pork (a nod to the pig butchering in Little House in the Big Woods) to the pound of bison, one egg to bind the meatballs and keep them gluten-free. I also didn't add seasoning to keep them "neutral" so I could freeze some and pop them into spaghetti sauce and such.

I formed the balls and baked them at 400 degrees in a pan lined with foil to keep mess to a minimum and cooked until brown, about 12-15 minutes.

After putting them in the fridge overnight to cool down, I went off to read more Pioneer Girl and my cookbook to see what sauce Laura might whip up.

Lots of meatball sauces contain ketchup and mustard. Pioneers ate tomatoes but most likely they were cooked. So I was good there. Same with spices like mustard. I added maple syrup, imagining they may have carried a jug as they left the Big Woods.

I used equal amounts of all three but no more ingredients.  The real Ingalls were far more strapped financially than the fictional books let on, even though we readers knew they had their struggles. I heated the combined ingredients, stirring until blended.

After reheating the meatballs, I poured the warm sauce over the hot meatballs, stirring until coated. Voila.

Oops, someone has been snitching the meatballs.

Hopefully Ma Ingalls approves. 

So are you waiting to get Pioneer Girl in your hands? Are you surprised by Pioneer Girl's place on the top of the best seller lists? Have you eaten bison meat or tried other pioneer themed foods? Let's talk.