We go out to eat regularly and sometimes my husband will order the meatloaf or meatballs. He always tells me that this meatloaf or meatballs isn’t as good as yours. He doesn’t say it to be nice because he isn’t that way. I don’t know why many ….most…….(BUT NOT ALL)……restaurants serve FORKING AWFUL meatloafs and meatballs that have a bad texture or just aren’t flavored correctly or both problems ………I guess I’ve been making meatloaves and meatballs a bunch of times for lots of years so I can make them in my sleep. Anyways Sprouts Market had a sale on Ground Turkey with $1.99 a lb for three lb. packages and Frys Grocery Store had all kinds of fresh herbs on sale for .59 cents a package so I made individual meatloafs (meatloaves is also correct spelling…I looked it up). The meatloafs freeze well. I like to have meatloafs and meatballs in my freezer so I have a quick easy meal sometimes. I didn’t write down the exact measurements for the sauce I made. I always use either my slow cooked (6 hours) peeled tomatoes that come out very sweet or Italian canned tomatoes. I do usually but not always add a squirt of ketchup, a glug of Worcestershire and a big dash of Franks Red Hot Sauce. Not today but sometimes I add Korean Red Pepper Paste or Jamaican Picapeppa Sauce to the tomatoes for a different taste. These meatloafs come out Flavorful, Moist and Delicious and the extras will freeze and reheat very well. This recipe makes 19.5 meatloafs.

Ingredients for 19 servings

3 lbs ground turkey 85% lean

5.5 oz. shallots – fine chopped

1 celery rib – fine chopped

1 carrot – fine chopped

1/2 red pepper – fine chopped

1 fresno pepper – fine chopped

2 Tablespoons canola oil

2 Tablespoons vegetable base (for flavor and to use less salt)

1 Tablespoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon course sea salt

6 eggs – lightly beaten

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon fresh thyme

1/2 oz fresh basil leaves – well chopped

1/2 oz fine snipped fresh chives

3 cups whole wheat panko bread crumbs

4 Tablespoons water (or turkey stock or turkey drippings if you have any…today I used water and it was enough)

non stick spray

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

Get a fry pan on medium high heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot add the shallots, celery, carrot, red pepper and Fresno pepper. Cook a few minutes and then stir in the soup base, salt and pepper. Cook till soft and take off the heat and put to the side.

In a BIG mixing bowl add the turkey, eggs, herbs, panko and water mix well. When the fry pan contents with the shallots is cool add them to the turkey mix and mix well.

Spray your baking sheets with non stick spray. Get out a scale and measure 4 ounces of meatloaf mix and make individual meatloafs. Fill up your baking sheets till you are done. You should have 19 and one 1/2 meatloafs.

Put them in the oven till they are done. (should be about 20 minutes).

Serve with a traditional or non-traditional meatloaf sauce. I like slow cooked tomatoes or Italian canned tomatoes spiked with ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and Franks Hot Sauce. The meatloafs will be Flavorful, Moist and Delicious!

I was pretty excited to try the new Cook’s Illustrated Hand Rolled Ravioli because I don’t use a pasta machine. I’ve made delicious ravioli before the more traditional way with a 50/50 semolina and flour recipe but my hand rolled ravioli always came out too thick. The Cook’s Illustrated Recipe is so good that it’s too easy to roll the dough TOO THIN….I had to patch some of my ravioli. But it’s a great recipe to I will do again for all kinds of things. I cut the Cook’s Illustrated recipe in half and made 30 small sized ravioli. I also changed up the filling because I had a lot of spinach at home and just added parmesan and a little provolone to my seasoned spinach. These Cook’s Illustrated Hand Rolled Ravioli are DA BOMB!

Ingredients for around 4 servings

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

8 oz spinach

1 oz onion – sliced paper thin

1 garlic – ground to paste or microplane

fresh ground sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

pinch crushed red pepper

2 egg (for dough)

3 yolks (for dough) (use an egg white to seal ravioli)

1.5 oz parmesan cheese – shredded (plus more for serving)

2oz mild provolone slices (2 slices)

1 cup ap flour (for dough) (King Arthur Brand Flour is recommended…..I used generic flour and I found that this wasn’t enough flour…..I needed around maybe a third a cup more…plus a small amount for rolling)

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (for dough)

2 pinches sea salt (for dough) (salt is not in the Cook’s Illustrated recipe)

Directions

Put a big fry pan on medium high heat with 2 Tablespoons olive oil. add the onions, garlic, red pepper and the spinach and pack it down. Cover pan and let it go about a minute. Uncover and stir till all wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste and transfer to a colander to drain. Set to the side.

Make the dough. In a food processor add the eggs, flour (start with the recommendation of one cup), 1 Tablespoon oil, salt (if desired not a part of original recipe). Process about 45 seconds. You might need to make adjustments. If to thick to knead add 1/2 teaspoon of water. If dough is too sticky to knead (mine was) slowly add flour till it’s not sticky. *****SIDE NOTE*****my processor broke during this and I was able to mix the dough with a fork.

Roll the dough out cut either into squares or if you have a pasta cutter use it.

I rolled the dough out about 23 inches by about 15 inches. I had a pasta cutter so I used it and made 1/2 moons.

Each round of pasta got brushed with egg white so it will stick well.

To the spinach mixture mix in the parmesan cheese and insert a small piece of provolone and about 1/2 teaspoon of the drained spinach mixture. Fold and keep going till done. Save pasta scraps and cook them up at the end.

Gently boil the ravioli till they float in salted water.

Serve with tomato sauce (recipe for basic tomato sauce is on this site). Or brown butter with pine nuts or a creamy parmesan sauce.

A Special THANKS to Cook’s Illustrated for coming up with a really great recipe!

Ingredients are key sometimes to make something that taste amazing. You might know that even a simple radish will be very sharp tasting from the grocery store but from a farmers market it taste very sweet. Green Beans from the grocery often are very woody but green beans from the farmer’s market are so sweet and tender that they are incredible raw. Well I hit the jack pot when I found these gourmet red skin red flesh potatoes. They are different. These potatoes seem like low starch potatoes and turn super sweet and very buttery and creamy on their own. I knew I had to embellish them with shallots and fennel with not dry but fresh herbs for something so special. These potatoes look like red flesh when you cut them but do turn a purple color when you cook them.These potatoes are very easy to prepare and taste amazing. It will taste like something from a great restaurant. I WARN YOU TO WATCH OUT. These potatoes are so over the top delicious they will get inhaled fast. As soon as I made them I gave my husband a cup of them to try and he came in the kitchen to get more and warned me that he could finish the batch……..Portion size will vary.

Ingredients for around 6 portions

3 Tablespoons canola oil

2 lbs gourmet potatoes (I used red skin red fleshed #1b sized potatoes….other potatoes will taste different and may cook slightly different…….you can probably find the red skin yellow flesh potatoes that have a similar taste) – slice up or crinkle cut around 1/4 inch thick slices.

1 large fennel – remove core and tough outer. Slice about 1/4 inch slices (save a few fronds for garnishing)

4 oz shallots – peel – cut in 1/4 thick slices

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 spring fresh rosemary – chopped

1/2 teaspoon fresh dill – chopped

1/2 teaspoon fresh parsley – chopped

1 Tablespoon scallions – chopped

1 teaspoon fresh basil – chopped

fresh ground sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions set oven to 425 degrees F.

The sliced potatoes go in a big bowl with the canola oil and get mixed up till coated and go on baking sheets in a single layer.

The fennel gets tossed with 1 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil and goes on a small baking sheet in a single layer.

The shallots go in a small mixing bowl and get mixed with the remaining olive oil and go onto a small sheet pan in a single layer.

Put the shallots and fennel on the lowest rack and fill the rest of the oven up with the potatoes in the hot preheated 425 degree F oven. Check on things while they are cooking because some racks will finish before other racks. In about 15 – 20 minutes everything should be done.

Use fresh ground sea salt and black pepper to your taste.

Put everything in a large bowl and gently add the fresh herbs.

Garnish with fennel fronds.

Serve.

Everyone will enjoy these Forking SCRUMPTIOUS Potatoes.

I got this idea to do cucumber salad in a more delicious way. I recently made these pickled peppers and onions for burgers and steaks and they were extra tasty …….so tasty I kept thinking about that perfect pickled flavor….. I got the idea to make cucumber salad with some similarities and interesting additions like avocado. This is a big batch of salad but it does shrink as it sits. This salad is good enough to be a meal. I added some pulled chicken to it and it was delicious! I think it would also be great till fill tacos with. This salad will stay good for about a week.

Ingredients for around 18 servings

5 lbs English cucumbers – sliced in about 1/4 inch thick slices ( you can use any type of cucumber but if you use regular cucumber you should remove the seeds and possibly need to peel)

1 large white onion – sliced very thin on mandolin

1 lb Anaheim chili peppers – sliced thin (this is the chili that taste really great here)

3 serrano peppers – sliced thin as paper in mandolin

6 garlic cloves – ground to paste or microplane

10 oz tiny sweet tomatoes – slice each in half

3 avocados – cube

1 cup white vinegar

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup water

3 bay leaves

1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

4 Tablespoons sugar

4 Tablespoons kosher salt

1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves – chopped

1/4 cup fresh cilantro and tender stems – chopped

Directions

In a sauce pot on high heat bring to boil the vinegars, water, bay leaves, oregano, sugar and salt. When everything is dissolved shut off heat and take pot off the burner to cool some.

In a very large bowl or maybe a couple of bowls add the cucumbers, onion, peppers, garlic and tomatoes and mix well.

Remove the bay leaves and throw them out. Pour the liquid evenly over the vegetables and mix well.

Lastly add the avocado, parsley and cilantro and carefully mix.

Serve now or serve well chilled.

This really is a more delicious cucumber salad.

Tuna salad with Olives, Golden Raisins, Butter Beans Saffron and Sage

I had a fish dinner recently and i keep thinking about how great olives and saffron tasted on fish together. So I tried to do those kinds of flavors in a tuna salad. I didn’t run to the store and purchase $25.00 a pound tuna to make tuna salad…that is crazy and a waste of expensive tuna. I use wild caught chunk light tuna in a packet. I think this kind of tuna salad would be delicious  with mayonnaise but my husband is a mayonnaise hater so that is how I got the idea of adding butter beans because butter beans are so creamy it’s almost like adding something creamy to the salad. The fresh sage goes really well and adds more interest. This recipe makes two big servings or three smaller servings.

Ingredients for 2 servings

1 6.4oz pack chunk light tuna in water

10 Spanish Queen Olives stuffed with minced pimentos – chopped well

1 small celery rib – chopped well

2 Tablespoons golden raisins

1 juicy lemon – use just the fresh squeezed juice (mine was a medium size but it was juicier than usual)

1 cup butter beans – rinsed very well – rinse at least three times

1/4 cup sweet onion – chopped fine

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

pinch saffron – crumbled with fingers

Tablespoon (heaping) fresh sage – well chopped

fresh ground sea salt – to taste

fresh ground black pepper – to taste

Directions

Mix all ingredients together. Add salt and pepper to taste. If desired garnish with tiny tomatoes or Sweetie Drop Peppers from Peru.

Tuna Salad with Olives, Golden Raisins, Butter Beans, Saffron and Sage

The flavors are very good together. You might want to give this a try!

The Forking Truth

This is a slightly different twist on the corn muffin. You must use masa flour for these muffins to have a more interesting corn taste. All the charred vegetables add pops of yummy charred vegetable taste and also helped to reduce the amount of fat and sugar that plain boring corn muffins might have because the charred vegetables turn sweet and delicious and also add moisture. These really are extra tasty corn muffins. They might even be a new favorite for you! This is an easy one bowl recipe that can be hand mixed with a fork.

Ingredients for 12 servings

1 cup flour

1/2 cup corn meal

1/2 cup masa (no substitutions)

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon course sea salt (this kind of salt makes the muffing even tastier)

1 cup non fat milk (I used dry that I mixed with water)

1/4 cup canola oil

1 egg

1 cup corn kernels – charred (either char on grill or broil till lightly charred)

6 mini bell peppers (or one large) – chopped and charred

1 jalapeno – chopped and charred

1 large sweet onion – chopped and charred

1 poblano pepper – fire roasted – peeled – chopped

non stick spray

Directions

If you didn’t prepare the vegetables do that now. All the vegetables need to be charred. Either char them up on an outside grill or broil them in the home oven. Be careful with the corn and char that one lightly. Put the vegetables to the side when done.

Set oven to 400 degrees F and spray a muffin pan or two with non stick spray. Set the pan to the side.

In a large bowl add flour, corn meal, masa, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, oil and egg. With a fork beat up the egg and carefully mix till everything looks well combined. The mixture will be very thick. Add the vegetables and mix well again. Fill muffin pan with batter (this recipe makes 12 muffins) Put the pan on a middle rack and bake till done (ovens to differ but in my oven this took 15 minutes)

These are Forking Delicious Muffins! Leftovers also freeze and thaw perfect.