As summer turns to autumn turns to winter I find myself making heavier, warming dishes rather than the lighter fare I would have in warmer weather. Today's entry is about one of my tried and true favourites; Spaghetti and Meatballs. Now, as much as I'd love to, I don't have the time to make everything from scratch, so I tend to focus on the main part of the dish. This time was the meatballs and the spaghetti sauce; as we were hitting the tail end of an Indian Summer (that time when it's hot out when it should be cooling off, usually late September early October around here), I wanted a dish that would comfort the people eating it, but wouldn't sit so heavily on them.

Spaghetti Sauce

• 12 plum Tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cans Crushed Tomatoes
• 3 stalks Celery, finely chopped
• 2 medium Onions, chopped 
• 1 medium Green Pepper, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup Ketchup (I always use Heinz when cooking.. just 'cause it's a better product than No-Name ketchups.)
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Now, what you'll want to do is start with the celery, onion and green pepper. Throw those in the bottom of the pot with the oil and half the garlic, on medium, and cook while stirring until the onion is translucent. Then you'll want to add the fresh tomatoes, and cook it for about ten minutes or so, stirring slowly now and again, until the tomatoes have released their juice. Next, add the canned tomatoes, the rest of the garlic and the ketchup, stir it all together and switch the heat to medium-low (two or three on the stove), cover with a lid, and let it handle itself for about an hour, stirring once every ten minutes or so to keep things moving around. *You'll be adding the meatballs into this sauce eventually, so make sure you have room for about twenty-two of them in your pot.

Meatballs

• 1/8 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup Milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp dried Parsley
• 1 tsp dried Oregano
• 1 1/2 pounds ground Veal
• 1 1/2 pounds ground Beef 
• 1 cup Vegetable Oil

Alright, get a big mixing bowl, and a smaller one. Start by whisking the eggs and milk together, then adding the Panko to it along with the parsley and oregano. Let sit to the side while you combine the meat in a bowl with the olive oil. Once the Panko has soaked into the egg and milk mix, stir it up and drop it in with the meat. With clean, moist hands, mix the meat and bread together, then form it into twenty-two (or so) meatballs, each about the size of a tablespoon. Cook them in the oil, rotating for shape retention, until all sides are browned, then plop them carefully into your sauce to finish cooking through. Serve over pasta!

And that's it! Because y'all should be able to boil pasta.. Right? Right?!

 

Seems I have a thing for making a good dinner on a Wednesday night. Prolly 'cause it's mid-week, and usually that night -sucks-. "But Jeff!" you might say, "It's Friday morning! How come you didn't post this Wednesday?" Because! I'm busy, and this is the first free time since then that I haven't been spaced out on cold pills and exhaustion. Dun dun dun! Anyway, what's up today is Roasted Pork Loin with Mushroom Gravy, Potatoes, Mushrooms, Carrots, and Onions, that's what! Pictures above, recipes below! Boom bam!

Base Ingredients for the Roasting Pan

 - 2 packages Pork Loins 
 - 4lbs Yellow Fleshed Potatoes, quartered 
 - 2lbs Carrots, washed and cut into 2" segments 
 - 2lbs Yellow Onions, quartered
 - 1 can (300mL) Mushrooms (or the equivalent in fresh, sliced mushrooms)

Start by laying the pork loins in the center of the pan, pressed together, then surround with the vegetables in layers. Start with the carrots so that they cook the most surrounded by the liquid, then the potatoes, then the onions. The mushrooms go right down onto the pork loins, though you should spread them out. Once you put the liquid in (recipe below), then roast for two and a half hours or so at 300F, or until the vegetables are fork-tender, and the meat pulls apart easily.

Liquid for the Bottom of the Roasting Pan (also the gravy base)

 - 1 box (900mL) of Chicken Broth
 - 2 Navel Oranges, juice of
 - 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
 - 3 tbsp Blackstrap Molasses
 - 3 tbsp Brown Sugar
 - 2 cloves Garlic, minced
 - 3 tsp Sea Salt
 - 3 tsp Fresh Black Pepper
 - 2 tsp Marjoram

You'll want to start by preparing the pan (as above), then getting a mixing bowl. Mix all of the ingredients for the liquid together, using a whisk to ensure that the heavier molasses spreads through. Pour slowly over the meat and vegetables, then put the lid on and throw the whole thing in the oven!

Mushroom Gravy

 - Roasting Pan Liquid (post-roasting, as above)
 - 1 can Campbell's Mushroom Soup
 - 4 tsp Corn Starch, dissolved and mixed smooth (In about a half cup of the roast liquid, or warm water)
 - Salt and Pepper to taste

Take the meat and vegetables out of the pan, being sure to scrape the mushrooms off of the roast(s). Fish out about half the mushrooms, and set them aside with the vegetables. A roasting pan usually fits on two burners of a stovetop, so put two on medium, and bring the roast liquid to a simmer. Add the mushroom soup, and mix through, bringing back to a simmer. Finally, add the corn starch -slowly-, being sure to whisk the entry point with a fork or whisk to avoid clotting, and allow the gravy to simmer until it reaches the desired thickness. Take off heat and put in a heat-safe vessel, serve with the rest!

So, this dish was suggested by my pal Tiana, as something that she ate through a college winter over rice. Now, I don't particularly care for rice, but I -do- love egg noodles! So, those don't need a recipe, since they're certainly not homemade. The Peanut Butter Stew (or Mafe), turned out pretty tasty, but a little more tomato-y than I expected. If I make it again sometime, I'll dial back on the tomato paste, and maybe add some more peanut butter. Anyway!

Peanut Butter Stew (or Mafe; west African meat in peanut sauce)

 - 2 tbsp Peanut Oil (you could use vegetable or canola oil if you wanted to, instead.)

 - 2 pounds of Stewing Beef, cubed

 - 1 Onion, minced

 - 6 cloves of Garlic, minced

 - 1 tbsp Ginger, minced

 - 2 tbsp Tomato Paste

 - 2 cups Tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

 - 2 cups Beef Stock

 - 1 cup Natural Peanut Butter, unsalted

 - Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high flame. Add the beef and sauté until lightly browned on all sides, 5-6 minutes. Remove to a bowl and set aside. Add the onion to the oil in the pot and sauté until translucent, 3-4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and ginger and sauté another 1-2 minutes. Return the beef to the pot, stir in the tomato paste and cook for about 1 minute. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 8-10 minutes to reduce the volume of the tomatoes somewhat. Add enough water or stock to loosen the dish to a stewlike consistency. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Stir in the peanut butter, salt and pepper and simmer for another 40 minutes, or until the beef is tender and oil rises to the surface of the dish. Add water as necessary to keep the dish stewlike. Adjust seasoning and serve over rice or egg noodles.

More food porn for you guys and gals out there! Little bit of a SNAFU with this meal, as it seems in my travels a small hole, about the size of half a dime, developed in my roasting pan. Thankfully my neighbour Wanda was nice enough to let us borrow hers, and so the day was saved! There aren't any pickles in this meal, but I'm sure a few of you readers won't mind that.. it's not a pickle-blog after all! (Although.. I like pickles enough I'd read a pickle blog..) On to the food! OMNOMNOM~!

That up there is a nice ham dinner I made one Wednesday evening. The ham itself was smoked and cured, so I could have served it as anything really, it didn't need to be cooked. But I'm a fan of hot ham, roast-style, like you'd have on Christmas or Thanksgiving if your family doesn't like/is intimidated by turkey. The mashed potatoes turn out a little wetter than usual because of the water content of the apples, so you don't need to go heavy on the butter, or add any milk to them to smooth things out. The roasted veggies were nothing really recipe-requiring. Just toss them around anything you're roasting, and cook them until they're soft. Lastly, the red peppers are stuffed with onion quarters, sea salt, and pepper, with a little drizzle of olive oil inside.

Liquid to Put in the Roasting Pan with a Ham

- 1 cup of Cola (Coke, Diet Coke, or Coke Zero all work fine. Or any kind of cola, really.)
- 2 cups of Root Beer (I used A&W, but any kind would be good. A&W, being only inferior to Hires (which I can't get anymore), is a very creamy root beer.)
- 1 cup of Orange Juice
- 2 cups of Water (as with anything involving water, the better the quality of the water, the better the final product! I like using filtered water for this kind of thing!)
 - Salt, Pepper, and Garlic Powder to taste

Set the ham into the pan, then surround it with the vegetables, before pouring the mix of liquids over the ham itself. The sugars and combination of flavours in the sodas and juice will thicken a bit as the roast cooks, and in the end you'll have everything in the pan tasting just this side of sweet, without the thick, cloying sweetness of a glaze. Of course, if you like glaze, you could do that as well!
 
Mashed Potatoes with Granny Smith Apples

- 2lbs of White Potatoes, cut into eighths (I didn't peel 'em, but some people don't like skins in their mash, so it's up to you. Wash 'em though!)
- 2 Granny Smith Apples, cored and diced (Also, you could peel these, but I didn't. I like skins!!)
- 2 tbsp Butter
- Salt and Pepper to taste

Start by washing your potatoes and your apples. You'll want to peel them at this point, if you're going to. If not, cut up the potatoes as well as the apples (after coring the latter), and boil them in a pot of water until they're all good and soft. Drain the results, and put them back in the pot, adding the salt, pepper, and butter. With a hand masher (plastic or wood please if using a non-stick pot), mash the potatoes and apples together until you reach the desired smoothness. Allow to cool for five minutes before serving.

You might wonder why I wind up resorting to pickles a lot for side dishes. Well, as a matter of fact, we usually have a few jars of half gone pickles floating in our fridge, and I'm trying to use 'em up. Seriously, that's the only reason. That, and pickled food is delicious. As the weather's getting colder, we're getting into stew/soup season (my favourite season :O), so hopefully we'll see me posting something delicious and mostly liquid. I've got a few recipes in mind I wanna tinker with and try out; Beer Cheese Soup, Cheese Fondue Soup, Hamburger Stew, Potato Soup, Jambalaya (again, I wanna make it thicker this time), Chili, some kind of soup involving ham that isn't pea soup, Stuffed Red Pepper Soup. Ayup. Love this cooler weather, it means I can use my kitchen again without being groused at for heating up the house! On to the food! OMNOMNOM~!

So, that's Hamburgers fried with Molasses and Worcestershire Sauce, Baby Dill Pickle Spears, and Stovetop Green Bean Casserole. The only thing here that really deserves a recipe is the casserole, so that's what you're going to get! I really enjoy this stuff, and was introduced to it my first stay in America, though it was more traditional than mine up to and including the French's French Fried Onions. I have several cans of the things, but I tend to reserve them for special occasions, as up until recently you couldn't buy them in Canada.

Recipe for Stovetop Green Bean Casserole

 - 1 can of Green Beans (normal cut. The french cut doesn't work well with this dish, that I've noticed)
 - 1 can of Campbell's Condensed Mushroom Soup
 - 2 tbsp Cream Cheese
 - 1 wedge Soft Snack Cheese (optional, really. It was there so I used it. A Babybel or Laughing Cow wedge would work here.)
 - 1/4 large Red Onion, chopped and separated into bits (that's a technical term, really!)
 - 1 tsp Garlic Powder
 - Salt and Pepper to taste

Open the can of beans and the can of soup and add them both to a medium-sized pot. Stirring slowly with a wooden spoon, you'll want to add the cream cheese and snack cheese, as well as the spices and red onion. Stir until mixed thoroughly, and let cook until heated through, and the cheese has melted into the sauce. Reduce heat to minimum and let thicken a bit as the heat dies down, serve with the rest of your food when ready.

Boom bam! New format, new website, new camera (for better pictures), and an all around improvement. I hope. A friend of mine made a few recommendations about my blog, such as sticking more to the food, and talking less about something the blog isn't about; me. I'll still give a bit of backstory about the recipes, why I decided on making those, inspiration and whatnot, that sort of thing. Anyway, I figured that one, MAYBE two paragraphs to lead into the recipes and pictures would do best. Anyway, welcome to the new Epicureanomoly, hopefully I do better for ya!

So, on to the food!! OMNOMNOM~!

1. Steak, Potatoes and Pickles Dinner

This is a steak dinner I cooked for my father on his birthday; normally we take him out for dinner, but he prefers breakfast, so we did that instead. But I also know of a few other things he loves, in particular is the way I cook his steaks. They come from the butcher, who ages them for him and makes sure his best cuts go to Dad; the benefit of knowing the owner for over twenty years I suppose. Still, the only thing requiring a recipe are those potatoes.

Recipe for Fried Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Onions and Fried Mushrooms

 - 2lbs Red-Skinned Potatoes, cut into eighths
 - 1/4 cup Unsalted Butter
 - 1 tbsp Black Strap Molasses
 - 8 leaves of Fresh Basil, chiffonaded
 - 2 medium Cooking Onions, diced
 - 4 large White Mushrooms, sliced fine
 - 2 large Cremini Mushrooms, sliced fine
 - 1 tbsp Garlic, fresh minced
 - Salt and Pepper to taste

Cut up your potatoes and get a pot of water boiling; you're going to want to boil them until they're soft enough to eat, then drain them and let them sit in the strainer for awhile. Meanwhile, get your onions in the pan on medium-low heat, along with the butter and molasses, pop on a lid and let them sit around for a good five to eight minutes, or until the onions have gone a translucent brownish colour. Add in the mushrooms and allow to cook for another eight minutes or so, or until the mushrooms are nice and soft. Then you'll want to add the garlic, salt and pepper, along with the potatoes, and cook on a slightly higher heat for about five minutes, with the lid off, to get rid of some of the liquid. Then, with a plastic potato masher (assuming you're using a non-stick pan), mash the potatoes, skins and all, right in the pan, being sure to get the onions and mushrooms nicely mixed in. Leave them in the pan with the lid off on minimum heat until the meal is ready to serve, then mound them on a part of the plate, sprinkle with the basil chiffonade and serve!

I lost the pictures for the following when I switched to an iPhone 4, unfortunately. But, well, here's the recipe writeup I did for them. Shame for that to go to waste.

i. Pasta Salad

I made potato salad and macaroni salad the other week, and for some reason pasta salad stuck in my head. So I decided on a sour and savoury flavour for it, with crunchy vegetables to go well with the soft chewy pasta. I was talking to Catherine about it, and she suggested that I chiffonade the fresh basil. That means to roll the leaves up into a tight bundle, like a cigar, and then slice them thin so you wind up with nice strips of basil! Live and learn!! All the cooking I do, and there's always something for me to learn! Another note, when you use basil in something like this, wait for it to be cool. Heat seems to turn it an ugly blackish colour, and no-one likes food that looks -too- ugly. ;)

Recipe for Pasta Salad

 - 450g of Small Pasta Shells
 - 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
 - 1/4 cup Rice Wine Vinegar
 - 8 leaves of Fresh Basil, chiffonaded (Can chiffonade be used like that? Or did I mess it up completely there?)
 - 2 Red Peppers, chopped finely
 - 6 Plum Tomatoes, chopped finely after drying
 - 1 Bunch of Spring Onions, sliced fine
 - 8 Stalks of Celery, cut in half lengthwise and sliced thinly
 - 6 Small Dill Pickles, coarsely chopped
 - Salt and Pepper to taste

Set some salted water up to boil, and add the pasta when it's come to a rolling boil. Stir the noodles up, then set the wooden spoon over the pot (in my experience, the pasta won't boil over with the spoon there. I'm not sure why.), and reduce the heat to medium; it should take eight to ten minutes for that to be done. Prepare your herbs and vegetables, placing them in a large mixing bowl, and toss with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper until mixed. Drain the pasta when it's ready, and add it to your vegetable mixture, stir until the liquid/oil is coating the pasta. Cover with plastic wrap or a lid, and put in the fridge for about an hour, or until chilled. Serve cool!

ii. Chocolate and Strawberry Pie

This is pretty much the same recipe as the peach pie I made the other day, with Catherine's original recipe as the base. After the peach pie, I wanted to make something more decadent, but still light and refreshing.. Enter CHOCOLATE! I was looking for a good fruit to pair it with, and originally I was going to go with orange.. But I found a frozen virgin strawberry daiquiri mix, and holy -crap- did it ever bring the berry!!

Recipe for Chocolate and Strawberry Pie

 - 2 Keebler Pie Crusts (Same kind as last time. I used a chocolate one, and a shortbread one this time.)
 - 1 Tub of Cool Whip
 - 1/2 cup Chocolate Syrup (Don't use the cheap stuff. It's not chocolatey enough for this!)
 - 1 can of Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri Concentrate
 - 1 can of Evaporated 2% Milk (I should try it with condensed.. maybe it'll be smoother?)


Start by setting out your pie crusts; take off the lids and set those aside, you'll need 'em to keep the pie from going gross in the freezer and picking up freezer-flavour. Anyway, let the juice and cool whip thaw completely (takes about an hour from frozen, if you're unprepared). Pour the chocolate sauce onto the cool whip, in the tub, and stir it through with a chopstick until the cool whip takes on a light brown colour. Toss the juice into a mixing bowl and then, with a whisk, vigorously whisk the condensed milk with small motions while pouring it into the juice. That done, plop the chocolate cool whip into the mix, and gently fold it in until completely incorporated.. You can get lazy and just stir it after awhile, seeing as it's going into the freezer, but it's cooler to say you folded it in. THEN pour the mix into each pie crust, being careful not to overfill. Drizzle chocolate sauce over the pies in a pleasing pattern, then pop the lids on, and freeze for about an hour or two, or until firm enough to cut, then cut them into sections and serve. Be sure to cut all sections out, so when it's frozen again it'll be easier to serve.

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