Saturday night – 01/26/2008

Half the folks who normally join us for our weekly Saturday night dinner were away this weekend, including the regular attending vegetarian. When that happens I lean towards a meat integrated meal of some type like a stew or a casserole.

Ted’s Lamb Pie
“low-fat” Mashed Potatoes (see notes)

Cranberry Upside Down Cake

Saturday night – 01/19/2008

Back to pasta this week. Nothing fancy on our part though miss_jenith brought a pretty elaborate dessert with her.

Spaghetti and tomato sauce
Homemade meatballs
Ted’s green salad
Homemade white bread

Hummingbird Cake with Caramel Frosting

Homemade Meatballs

These meatballs are roughly based on Alton Brown’s meatloaf recipe which you can probably find online via Google.

Homemade Meatballs

Ingredients

2 carrots, peeled and cut into large pieces
1 medium onion, peeled and cut into large pieces
3 stalks celery, cut into large pieces
3 whole cloves garlic
6 oz. panko crumbs
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
3 lbs. “meatloaf mix” (ground beef, pork & veal)
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg

Combine carrots, onion, celery & garlic in the bowl of a food processor and pulse under ground fine. Place in a large bowl along with the other ingredients. Use hands to combine all the ingredients making a point to not mush the ground meat. The goal is to incorporate all the veg & panko into the ground beef.

Using a disher rough form the meatballs and place them 2 13×9 glass baking pans. You’ll get around 30 meatballs. Once all are dished roll each one to form a ball.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350&def;F.

Saturday night – 01/12/2008

This week the Saturday night menu was mostly based around ingredients I already had in the cupboard or fridge. The only things I picked up from the grocery store were a green pepper for the red & white beans and apples for dessert. Which is nice after splurging on food for the holiday party last weekend.

Red (and white) beans & rice
BBQ kielbasa
Corn bread muffins

Apple crisp with vanilla ice cream

Good food

Once every 6 months or so I treat myself to a quiet lunch at my currently favorite restaurant, Tomasso in Southboro.

Today I stopped in after the lunch rush and enjoyed a glass of wine and a plate of butternut squash gnocchi with a sage brown butter. I followed that with a salad of roasted pears, prosciutto and roasted walnuts. The hostess brought the salad over, mentioned how I was playing around with the order of things and that she liked that. The salad was very tasty, the roasting bring out an extra sweetness in the pears.

One of the things I like about Tomasso is that even though it’s been at least 6 months since I stepped inside the staff acted as if they remembered me. It’s interesting to me how the phrase “It’s good to see you again.” makes me feel so darn happy.

Holiday Party 2008

Our annual holiday party was last night. Here’s a recap of what we served.

Guacamole & chips
Stuffed mushrooms
Veggie spring rolls
Dilled Shrimp mini-quiches
Chicken satay
Brie bites

Fennel & orange salad
Vegetable Frittata
Cumin dusted sweet potato “fries”
Orange-marinated turkey breast (from The Way We Cook)
Curried chicken salad on pumpernickel
Ted’s vegetarian chili & rice casserole

Blueberry gingerbread (from The Way We Cook)
Pine nut tart
Mini carrot cake w/cream cheese icing
Fruit cake