These Mexican Inspired Meatballs come out delicious and very flavorful and Forking Awesome. You can use them in tacos or burritos. The Mexican Meatballs would also be great with a bean and corn salad or with  corn pasta and a green or red chile sauce and salsa. If you are a fan of tacos you will forking love these Mexican Inspired Meatballs.

Ingredients for 8 servings

2 lb ground beef – Fresh ground at home preferably (brisket- Chuck – Rib)

4 XL eggs – beaten

1 cup water

2 Tablespoons kosher salt or sea salt

2 teaspoons black pepper

1/4 sweet onion chopped fine

1 Tablespoon cumin

1 Tablespoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

3/4 cup whole wheat panko

1/4 cup masa flour

1 cup cooked rice

1 cup cooked corn kernels

2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce – chopped fine – with some of the sauce

3/4 cup scallions – chopped

1 carrot shredded

4 garlic cloves – grated

1 teaspoon annoto

1/2 cup fresh cilantro – chopped well

non-stick spray

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F and spray your baking sheets with non-stick spray.

Get a large bowl. Add the meat, all vegetables, all liquids and spices and mix well. Lastly add panko and masa flour. Mix till incorporated. Get a small scooper and scoop out and make the meatballs until you are done with the mixture. Place the meatballs in the oven till they are cooked threw. (about 12 minutes)

Forking Delicious! These Mexican Inspired Meatballs are so good you are going to have to throw a party! #CrowdPleaser

 

 

 

 

 

Celery is an over looked and under used vegetable and can be a delicious vegetable course in a meal. Think about everything you add celery to in recipes and the flavors and then it’s easy to turn celery into a delicious side dish. One of the tricks to delicious celery is that you have to peel the ribs just like you peel a carrot. The oil that the celery gets cooked in will get infused with flavors that will penetrate the celery to make it tasty.

Ingredients for 2 servings

2 cups celery – cleaned – peeled and cut into bite size pieces – save the leaves and put them to the side

1 sprig rosemary

1 sprig sage – just the leaves

2 sprigs thyme

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 Calabrian Chili Pepper – chopped fine

1 garlic clove – mashed fine

sea salt – fresh cracked to taste

black pepper – fresh cracked to taste

Parmesan Cheese – shredded to taste

Directions

Use a small fry pan and place it on medium high heat with the butter and oil.

When the butter is almost melted add the rosemary, sage and thyme to the pan and cook till herbs are crisp. (this is only a few minutes) Remove the herbs and let drain on a paper towel.

Turn down the heat to medium.

Add the chili and garlic and mix around well and then add the celery. Cover with foil until the celery is tender crisp. ( a few minutes)

Stir in the celery leaves and they only need up to a minute to wilt.

Add the fresh cracked salt and pepper and stir.

Plate up and add one of the fried herbs and fresh shredded parmesan cheese to the top .

Enjoy

Forking Good!

I saw a beautiful bunch of beets today at the store. The beets had nice leaves so I figured the beets might have been picked not too long back. Beets with live leaves usually taste much better and usually have a better texture so I brought them home.

Usually I only eat the beet greens in salads because they are bitter but today I cooked them up with the stems while I cooked the beets.

I cooked the beets with vintagers, sugar and a couple clementines to infuse another flavor into the beets.

The beets were very large and took 90 minutes covered in a 350 degree F oven. When the beets are cool enough to handle the skins just slip off.

While the beets were cooking I sautéed up celery, beet stems, onion, garlic and threw in the beet greens last.

Then the plate gets dressed up with toppings.

Ingredients for about 6 Servings

3 medium/large beets – with stems and fresh leaves for the rest of the recipe – washed well

1 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup rice wine vinegar

1 cup sugar

2 clementines – each cut in half

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 celery stalks – peeled and sliced

beet stems – from your beets – chopped

1/2 sweet onion – chopped

2 garlic cloves – ground up or mashed

1 Tablespoon kosher salt or sea salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

beet leaves – pulled off the stems in bit size pieces

2 small clementines

3 scallions greens sliced thin

3oz blue cheese – crumbled

6 dates – seeded – sliced thin

6 Tablespoons honey

3 oz almonds – toasted

6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

fresh ground sea salt

Aleppo pepper

Directions

Set your oven to 350 degrees F

Get a large pan. Cut your beets in halves and place in pan.

2 clementines cut in half and add to pan along with-

red wine vinegar, rice wine vinegar, sugar

Cover the pan and cook until for tender. (one hour – 90 minutes depending on size of beets and oven.

In your fry pan on medium high heat add 2 Tablespoons olive oil, celery, beet stems, sweet onion, garlic, 1 Tablespoon salt, black pepper and cover loosely and cook till sweated (till all is soft). Now add beet leaves and cover. (this will cook fast) and lastly stir in the two clementines segments.

For serving slice the beets and serve about one half a beet per person.

Top the beets with a scoop of contents fro the fry pan.

Top each serving with scallions, blue cheese,  dates, honey, extra virgin olive oil, toasted almonds, fresh ground sea salt and Aleppo pepper.

Enjoy!

Forking Yummy!

 

 

 

 

Water Ice, Italian Ice and Granita are basically the same thing. They all are sugar, water and fruit or juice. In the US Water Ice and Italian Ice are a popular regional food that is common in Philadelphia and in the Delaware Valley. This food has been brought over by Italian Immigrants  so it is known as Italian Ice. When your making a non-traditional flavor the icy confection should be called Water Ice.

Granita usually but not always has more of a scrapped ice texture that differs around different areas of Italy. Granita in Italy is served usually like a slush like drink and in certain parts of Italy (according to Wikipedia) is a slushy beverage that’s a part of breakfast sometimes with a Brioche.

In Philadelphia and other parts of the Delaware Valley the Italian Ice or Water Ice is often a street food sold as a cooling refreshing snack or dessert.

This recipe for Lime Water Ice is ONE PUNCH ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! It’s easy to prepare and delicious. It so light and fluffy. I DO WARN YOU YOU that this is tangy, tart, sweet and flavorful and might not be for kids. If you are used to your Icy treats very sweet this will not be sweet enough for you and you might prefer to add more sugar to this recipe. Try it this way first because the point is that the ice is suppose to be refreshing and not too sweet. Add more sugar if you need too. You will forking love this and will make this over and over again.

Ingredients for 6 servings

1 cup lime juice – fresh squeezed from Persian Limes and all the zest from all your limes. be careful and only get the green zest and not the white part because the white part is bitter. If you put the white part in I do warn you that will taste bitter.

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup water

Directions

In a small sauce pan on medium heat bring the sugar and water to a boil and let boil till sugar is dissolved. About 1-2 minutes.

Pour into a container that can go into the freezer.

Add the fresh squeezed lime juice and zest.

Leave on the counter till it cools down a bit.

Put in freezer and check it in around 6-7 hours and fluff it up a little. Put back in freezer and fluff it up in another 2 hours.

After about 9 hours fluff it up again.

At this point I left it in the freezer over night and the next day scooped it out.

Your Welcome!…This one is A Crowd Pleaser!

 

These Fresh Basil Turkey Meatballs are Forking Delicious and Very Juicy! No-one will even think they are reduced in fat. Instead of breadcrumbs I used a combination of rice and oats. I also don’t use cheese or milk or oil. I have a couple of tricks to make the meatballs moist. One trick is to use finely chopped raw onion. In most recipes they sauté the onions in oil and that gives you tasty onions. I use raw onions to flavor the meat and the onions also put moisture and flavor into the meat. My other trick is adding a small amount of stock to the mixture that is also flavorful. Lastly the fresh basil adds a lot of fresh flavor and also adds moisture. These meatballs are’t mushy either. When my husband tasted them get smiled and said UUUMMMMMMMMM! How did you make them! Then he gobbled up the sample I photoed.

Ingredients for 6 servings

1 lb ground turkey

1 cup cooked rice

2 XL eggs – beaten

1/4 cup vegetable stock

1/4 cup whole grain oats (not instant)

1 garlic clove – grated

1/4 cup sweet onion – chopped fine

1/4 cup basil leaves ( Cram the leaves in the cup ) – chopped well

1 Tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

pinch ground fennel

non-stick spray

Directions

Turn your oven to 350 degrees F.

Get a large bowl and mix everything together.

Get a baking sheet(s) and spray it with non-stick spray.

The mixture is soft so you need a small scoop to scoop out the meatballs.

Scoop out meatballs till you are done.

I got 31 meatballs.

Put in oven till they are done. In my oven they took 12 minutes.

These meatballs are flavorful and juicy. Forking Delicious with the fresh basil! You only need to serve them with grated cheese or a very thin light sauce.

Crowd Pleaser!