Jersey Girl Grilled Meatballs

Ok, I was going to save this post for a special, St Patricks Day Treat, but I am getting threats of violence and possibly death by drowning in Sunday Gravy if I don't   share right away, so here is my fantastic recipe for Grilled meatballs. 

  I created this recipe as part of my never-ending effort to bring my 2 cultures of New Jersey and Texas together. My meatball recipe is a typical Italian American version, that's the Jersey part. The Texas part is throwing them on the grill. This gives them a crunchy, flame grilled flavor! They're simply fantastic!

~first, start with this~ 

Italian seasoning

1 tsp red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons oregano

1 tablespoon sage

1 tablespoon marjoram

1 tablespoon rosemary

1 tablespoon dried minced onion

1 tablespoon dried minced garlic

Grind for 5 to 10 seconds in blender

 

~~then make this~~

Grind artisan bread in blender for 10 to 15 seconds until course. I used my own pizza bread.

~~next, make meatballs~~

Grilled Meatballs

1  1/2 lb ground beef 85/15

1/2 lb ground pork or Italian sausage

1  1/2 cups plus 1/2 cup Panko or homemade breadcrumbs

2 eggs

2 tablespoons Italian seasoning

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Mixed until combined then form into balls.

Roll each ball in remaining breadcrumbs

Spray grill heavily with grill spray

Set grill to 550, close lid

Allow grates to heat thoroughly

Place meatballs directly on grill, lower heat to 275, cook with open lid for 5 minutes, close lid. Cook for another 10 minutes, flip and cook another 7 to 12 minutes until firm.

*sorry, no pics of grilling. It was raining and super windy outside! *

Yumm! So delicious and crunchy! 

I'll tell you a secret. Shhhh! Technically,

I'm way more Irish than Italian but I'm not fond of Irish food. 

~~Happy St Patrick's Day! 

Sunday Gravy

One of my favorite childhood memories was watching my mother make Sunday Gravy. The picture in my mind is of her standing at the stove, wooden spoon in hand. She's stirring, and smelling, and from my view, looking up, I can see the steam rising from the pot. Sometimes, she'd sneak me a treat of a piece of white bread with some sauce on it. Mmm! 

Sunday Gravy is a meat sauce that cooks all day, made on Sunday, of course. Some Italian Americans call it sauce, or meat sauce, or Bolognese, or ragu. 

Whatever. 

If I make sauce on Sunday with meat in it then that's Sunday Gravy to me. 

Making sauce is something that I consider to be an important part of my family's heritage. My Grandmother taught my mother how to make sauce. My mother taught me how to make sauce. And I have taught my  daughters to make sauce too. It's so important to me that I imagine, on my deathbed, my last words to my girls will be, "Can you make the gravy?"

So, here in print, so you can make the gravy too, Is my recipe for Sunday Gravy. 

Mangia! 

~~start with this~~

*Italian Seasoning*

1 tsp red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons oregano

1 tablespoon sage

1 tablespoon marjoram

1 tablespoon rosemary

1 tablespoon dried minced onion

1 tablespoon dried minced garlic

Grind for 5 to 10 seconds in blender

~~Then make this~~

Sunday Gravy

4Tbsp olive oil

3 medium yellow onions, cubed

6 cloves garlic, diced

3 Tbsp italian seasoning*

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

4 Tbsp Italian sausage drippings (optional)

1 lb 85/15 ground beef

1/4 lb ground pork or Italian sausage

1 can(s) (6oz) tomato paste

12 oz red wine, I used cavets Cabernet Sauvignon 

3 cans (28 oz) crushed tomatoes

2 cans  (28 oz) diced tomatoes

3 bay leaves

Directions

Heat olive oil on medium in thick-bottomed pan.

 Add onions and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. 

Add garlic and cook another 5 minutes.  

turn up heat to medium high. 

Add meat, seasonings and sausage drippings.

Break up pieces of meat while stirring until cooked through. 

Once it's browned, stir in the paste and stop stirring for 2 to 3 minutes.

 Yes, stop stirring. Just let it go ahead and stick to the bottom of the pot. Leave it till you think it's burning then pour in the wine and bring to a boil. Stir to loosen bits off bottom of pot.

 Add canned tomatoes and bay leaves, then lower heat to simmer and cook for 1  1/2 hours. Or 2. Or 3 even. Just be sure to stir it every 15 minutes or so. 

Thus is enough sauce to feed a small army, so when I make it I put the leftovers in freezer bags and heat it in the crock pot on low all day!

Rosemary, Onion, and Sea Salt Artisan Bread

For several years now I have been experimenting in the art of bread baking. My goal here is to recreate the type of bread that is so easily available at bakeries in New Jersey. To capture a flavor, a certain crunchiness, chewiness.. that is so common to find there but not easily available here in Magnolia Texas. Now, let me say, YES, there is good bread in Texas. Somewhere. I suppose. But not here. 

I have found some decent artisan bread at HEB, and also at Randall's, but it was very pricey and inconveniently 20 + miles away! 

So, to begin my journey I read 2 books. Ok, I scanned them. They were:

The Bread Bakers Apprentice, By Peter Reinhart,

And..

Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francios

Great recipes, ideas, and science in these books. The science is important for understanding the changes going on in your dough, and helps in recipe creation.

My first loaves were ok, possibly a little over-mixed.. 

I'm not gonna cry about it! 

I learned from them. 

Since that day 8 or so years ago, I have developed a list of go-to bread and roll recipes that I've been collecting. The favorite for the family is this artisan bread that I will share with you. It's crunchy on the outside with a soft inside. It has large air pockets, and it's chewy and full of flavor.

I began with a simple low-knead recipe for crunchy white bread, and added some rosemary, seasalt and minced onions to develop a deliciously memorable bread that will help any displaced Jerseyite overcome home-sickness! 

Rosemary, Onion and Seasalt Bread

4 cups Bread Flour (AP will do)

1 tsp yeast (fast rise)

1 3/4 tsp table salt

2 cups water

1/4 cup minced fresh rosemary, with a tablespoon set aside

1/3 cup minced onion

2 Tablespoons Sea Salt, coarsely ground

In large bowl mix dry ingredients with a fork. 

Add water and onions and mix loosely, just for half a minute or so. The idea here is to almost moisten everything, but not to over-mix. The air pockets come from letting the dough do the work during this long rise, so trust it will happen and leave it alone!

 

Turn the dough into a bowl greased with olive oil, then turn the dough to coat both sides, Cover the top with plastic wrap, cover the plastic wrap with a tea towel and set it to rise in a warm location for 10 to 12 hours. I usually start dough at night so I can bake in the morning.

After the rise, turn the dough onto a floured surface, then turn the dough into itself for about a minute. It might be pretty sticky at this point, so you can add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup flour while you turn it.

Form it into a loaf then grind the seasalt over the top. Sprinkle the remaining rosemary over that and gently pat it to make it stick.  cover it for the second rise, about another 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Then, set your Dutch oven inside the center of the oven and heat it to 500 degrees.

***make sure Dutch oven goes in for the heating process as THIS is what makes the bread crunchy***

Once the oven is hot, remove the dish from the oven, carefully remove the lid, flour your hands, grab the loaf and wiggle it a little to loosen from the board, then quickly drop it into the Dutch oven, replace the cover and put it in the oven.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the lid.

Bake for 10 more minutes.

Remove from oven and immediately turn onto a cooling rack.

Now is the hard part. Let it cool. Yes I'm saying don't touch it for at least a half an hour. 

I've made this bread hundreds of times with different flavor combinations. My kids like when I use a few tablespoons of pizza seasoning from a grinder, unground, in the dough with 3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar. After the second rise I grind another tsp over the top and pat it a little to make it stick.

 I hope you will give bread baking a chance, and use my recipe to create favorite flavor combinations for your family!

The Comforts of Home

It's been a particularly long winter. Even here in Magnolia Texas. 

No, it's not as cold as NJ, or Michigan, or Montana, but it's the longest, coldest, meanest winter We've had since we moved here in 2005.

I've acclimated myself.

 I like mild winters.

 I can't wait for some consistent heat!

 I'm sure I'll regret saying that in August, but that's another story!

 Anyway, it's been cold and I've been on a comfort food kick for a few weeks now.. Trying to cook the warmth back into South East Texas..

One of my go-to comfort food recipes is Crock Pot Brisket, Jersey Style. In New Jersey it's hard to find a full sized brisket, so this dish calls for a smaller piece of meat than  what you'd find here in Texas. I use about a 3 to 4 pound piece. 

I trim the fat, brush the brisket with some olive oil and season the meat with salt and pepper, garlic powder, a few dashes of chili powder, parsley, Italian seasoning, and secret ingredient alert, Cinnamon!  

I lay this fat side down in the crockpot on top of 2 sliced onions and 5 or 6 smashed garlic cloves.

In a bowl I mix 1/4 cup Better than Bullion with a 2 cups of beef stock and a half cup of red wine, whip it up with a fork so the paste mixes in then pour in the side of the meat so as not to rinse  the herbs and spices off the meat.

 

I love this stuff!

I start it fat side down then flip it after an hour and then every hour until its done.

I cook it about 6 hours on high, but it could be done in 5 or take as long as 8. The real indicator here is the fork twist. If you can easily Twist a fork in the meat then it's done, take it out.

So you can serve it just like that, with the broth and the onions, or you can make a gravy by pouring the liquids into a fry pan and bringing it to a boil. I put a half cup if the broth into a cup and mix it with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch then pour that into the pan too. I gently boil it until its the consistency I like, about ten minutes. We usually eat this over mashed potatoes, but baked are good too.

It's like pot roast, only wayyyy better!

 

So we eat that for dinner until we are stuffed, but there is plenty for left overs which of course I need to use. 

More often than not, we are turning to tortillas to find creative ways to use leftovers. That's the Texas influence. 

Everything's on a tortilla here! Especially brisket! I make chimichangas with carne Guisada,  which is Mexican styled pot roast that I make with brisket. 

This is a chimichanga I served with a tomato sofrito sauce. Omg.

We eat a lot of fajitas and quesadillas too, so I thought we could do that with the left overs. I spread soft butter on one side of 2 tortillas and place one down in a hot fry pan. I spread about 1/3 cup of diced brisket on it, sprinkle cheddar cheese, some leftover onions and gravy, and even some leftover carrot bits and put the other tortilla butter side up in the top of this. It takes about 1 to 2 minutes to brown the quesadilla, then flip and brown the other side.

You could serve this with salsa or queso, or sour cream.. But I just cut it like a pizza and ate it.. And then I ate another. Ole! 

Pretzel Day

So yeah, I'm from New Jersey but I live in Texas. There are so many things that I can say about that. The way each place effects me, directs me, defines me. Like how much I miss New Jersey Food.. 

All along the Jersey Shore there are boardwalk restaurants and walk-up eateries that sell pizza, funnel cakes, ice cream, fudge and salt-water taffy, and chocolate covered bacon! Yes! Bacon! nom nom!

Up north there are bakeries in every town. Italian bakeries, Russian, Portuguese, and Greek bakeries that sell pastries and cookies and pies that no other state can fully understand.... Except New York, which is like the parent to New Jersey and the place from which most Jerseyites came from. 

(If you're from NJ and NOT from NY please recognize your neighbor Tony)

In New York they're making the mother pizza! The first Napoleon of the New World!  The REAL Coney 

And...

(music please🎶) 

PRETZELS! 

So this brings me to another thing I miss about New Jersey is New York. You can get a real pretzel there and "there" is 1650 miles away. 

And so, we learned to make pretzels. 

And we made more pretzels

And then we gave some as gifts and they were a big hit.

 We tried different types of toppings like pizza seasoned, rosemary, seasalt and cracked black pepper, cheese pretzels, pretzel rods, pretzel bites, and holy crap PRETZEL ROLLS!! Honey mustard dipping sauce, honey butter and cheese queso dips! 

So one day I decide to declare Pretzel Day and make a whole meal out of pretzels. I made these rolls, which are super-addictive. They're a wonderfully authentic (boiled not steamed) recipe from my friend Wendy from the recipe club, Just A Pinch. Here is a link to her recipe:

http://m.justapinch.com/recipes/bread/savory-bread/pretzel-dinner-rolls.html?p=1

I hope you will give it a shot! 

After the rolls I tried my hand at pretzel  Crusted Chicken

This was a delicious hit, and left overs turned into Pretzel Crusted Chicken Breast Sandwiches on a Pretzel Roll with Honey Mustard AND Honey Butter.

Kill me now.

These were rated "Yes Please" at my house so I will share the recipe.

Pretzel Crusted Chicken 

Trim and season chicken Breast with salt and pepper.

Brush with light coating of honey mustard, then dredge in flour.

Dip into egg, then roll in crushed pretzels. For a yummy flair try Snyder's of Hanover, Honey Mustard and Onion, Pretzel Pieces. Just crush em' up in a plastic Baggie. 

Then bake them on a greased cookie sheet for 20 minutes at 325 then 20 minutes at 425. 

For honey mustard and honey butter I just mixed to taste. You can too, it will be great! 

So that's how we did Pretzel Day! Oh. I forgot.. That I also threw together some pretzel Burgers. 

Of course ;-) 

Yes. I made that. It's a seasoned and pan fried 80/20 burger topped with cheddar cheese, grilled onions and honey mustard on a pretzel roll smeared with honey butter. 

I miss New York Pretzels but I think it's gonna be ok.