Whatcha Cooking today?

[Uncle_Feist]

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Spaghetti and Meatballs. Daughter the nurse and BF are joining us for dinner. BF has a birthday and requested Spaghetti and Meatballs.

Sauce and meatballs look great!

We love homemade sauce, and I keep a cellar full of canned maters just for that purpose. I fell in love with Pony Express f1's for canning about 15 years ago and have grown em just for jarring since. It's the only f1 I have grown for years. Last summer I took the step of saving some of the f2 seeds for selections over the next few years. I figured it was time to cut my ties with and buckle down across the board.

[karstopography]

@Uncle_Feist My sauce is a mix of frozen whole tomatoes from last year’s garden. I freeze them whole, so the sauce has some seeds in it. I peel off the skins when they thaw a little and take out the top and core.

This season, I plan on making tomato sauce with a food mill and then go to freezing some of that. I do can acidic, vinegar based things for canning, but haven’t invested in a pressure canner for more risky canned products. I have a lot of freezer space, so don’t mind freezing a ton of stuff.

[Uncle_Feist]

@Uncle_Feist My sauce is a mix of frozen whole tomatoes from last year’s garden. I freeze them whole, so the sauce has some seeds in it. I peel off the skins when they thaw a little and take out the top and core.

This season, I plan on making tomato sauce with a food mill and then go to freezing some of that. I do can acidic, vinegar based things for canning, but haven’t invested in a pressure canner for more risky canned products. I have a lot of freezer space, so don’t mind freezing a ton of stuff.

Haha!
Great sauce ain't authentic without a few seeds IMHO. I can whole or crushed fruit just like my grandma did many years ago, but, I can some seedless juice and sauce from the mill also. Lots of times I will add a jar of juice or sauce without seeds to the pot.

I don't keep up with new canning recommendations these days, but I have never used a pressure canner to can maters, only a boiling water bath. I also can most of my store in half gallon jars, I do know that is definitely not recommended. I'm a rebel, tho.

[Shule]

Oatmeal raisin cookies. Here's the recipe that I used (quite loosely based on Dropped Oatmeal Chippies from The Doubleday Cookbook):

3 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1.5 teaspoons iodized salt
1.5 cups butter (three regular sticks)
3 cups firmly packed brown cane sugar
4.5 cups old fashioned oats
6 eggs
3 teaspoons artificial vanilla flavoring
3 cups raisins

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix all the dry ingredients, except the brown sugar, together (including the oats and raisins). Melt the butter in a sauce pan. When melted, take it off the burner, wait a bit, and add (to the melted butter) the brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir thoroughly.

Grease pans (not super heavily, as that will affect the taste) with extra virgin olive oil.

Pour the combined wet ingredients into the combined dry ingredients, and mix it all up (I used a Kitchenaid mixer).

Drop the cookies on the pans (the size can be generous if you don't mind them touching in the end). Bake for 19^ minutes. Remove the cookies from the pans within a minute or two after removing them from the oven.

For me, this made just over four pans of large cookies. If you do smaller cookies, you could get more pans full of cookies. I cooked two pans of cookies at a time.

^If you only do one pan at a time and use smaller cookies, you might reduce the baking time somewhat.

They turned out quite well.

[worth1]

I stopped at the store yesterday for some quick items.
One was a couple of pounds of ground chuck that was actually under 4 dollars a pound.
I took one pound of it and browned it in a kettle and added a few ingredients.
Garlic dried onion black pepper beef bullion.
Then put in a 1 pound 12 ounce can of Cento tomato puree and a can of water.
Tossed in a few shots of A1 Sauce and Worcestershire sauce.
A shot of vermouth.
Canned sweet red peppers.
Paprika.
1 pound of sliced mushrooms.
A half stick of butter.
Let it simmer some and had one really good spaghetti sauce.

[pepperhead212]

Chili, of course - today is National Chili Day!

I got 1 1/2 lbs of beef and 1 lb of ground venison out of the freezer. While thawing gradually in the MW, I set up 1 1/2 c black beans to cook in the IP for just 20 min. This way, they were still firm, but ready to finish the cooking in the chili.

I browned the beef over maximum heat - despite being watery, from freezing, it eventually browned, though I set off some smoke alarms while doing it! The onion went in next, followed by the garlic, then the minced up green chiles. I deglazed the pan, and all that went into the IP. Then the spices, a little more water, salt to taste, then it all simmered on high slow cook for 2 1/2 hrs. This mode keeps it at a simmer, about what I get in a Dutch oven in the oven at about 280°, which is what I've always liked with chili, and some other stews. I thickened it with about 4 tb masa harina, with some of the liquid mixed with it in a bowl, then added back to the chili, mixed well, and simmered another 5 minutes or so. During this cooking, I heated some fresh corn tortillas, and these are always my favorite serve these with chili.
Browned beef for the chili, before browning the ground venison. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

All the meat for the chili. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Next with the onion. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

1 1/2 tb garlic, plus 1/3 c roasted, peeled chiles, frozen from last season. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Adding 3 types of pure chili powder, plus some sweet paprika. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Everything added to the Instant Pot, ready to simmer. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Heated tortillas, to eat with the chili. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished chili, after thickening with 1/4 c masa harina. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished chili, with a little shredded cheese. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

Yep I have been craving a hamburger for quite some time.
Ran a couple of onions on the mandolin and salted them to remove moisture.
Cooked onions on bottom of the meat patty.
Mayonnaise dill pickles cheddar cheese and bacon to boot.

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[karstopography]

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Turkey Meatball and Escarole soup. One of my favorites. Escarole came out of the garden. Delicious.

[worth1]

I had some of the salted onions leftover from yesterday.
I just let them sit out and continue to dry out.
This morning I got the rest of the moisture out with a paper towel.
Then I got this wild idea of an onion patty, what have I got to lose.
So I mixed in a little flour and corn starch for a binder.
Made a patty and it is cooking in the bacon fat from a bacon weave I made this morning.
Here it is onion burger take two.
Bun.
Onion patty.
1/2 pound meat patty with cheddar cheese.
Bacon weave.
Dill pickles.
Bun.
Duke's mayonnaise naturally.

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[Setec Astronomy]

OMG, a heart attack on a bun! Sounds really good! The burger, not the heart attack.

[worth1]

OMG, a heart attack on a bun! Sounds really good! The burger, not the heart attack.

Since I don't make a steady diet of fast food hamburgers I figure I'm ahead of the curve.
That hamburgers total cost to make was less than 5 dollars.
I had everything at home to make it except the meat.
The meat was less than 4 dollars a pound and it was cut in half to make an 8 ounce patty.
The bacon was 3 slices cut in half to make the weave.
You could actually taste the cheese unlike the garbage they serve in restaurants.
No French fries.

[worth1]

German heritage day for me.
I have some small red potatoes in the water for a German potato salad of my design.
Waiting in the isles are.
My two weeks fermented sauerkraut.
A big link of pork venison pecan smoked sausage.
A bolillo bun.

[worth1]

The mentioned ghee coming along nicely and the taters for German potato salad.

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[worth1]

Yummy

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[karstopography]

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Tri-tip rubbed with cumin, granulated garlic, paprika, salt and pepper on the BGE. Big Flathead cabbage steamed with bacon. Mashed red potatoes.

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[bower]

I would love to have a recipe for turkey meatballs... is that something you can make from leftover turkey?

[karstopography]

I would love to have a recipe for turkey meatballs... is that something you can make from leftover turkey?

It’s the recipe from Martha Stewart’s website. I’m not sure about the leftovers part. I generally do on a search engine search on various recipes and decide which one I like. With this one, years and years ago I had a Martha Stewart Cookbook and made this recipe. I just loved it.

I like to cook based on what is fresh or available from the garden, the freezer, and/or on sale and then search out recipes that might combine ingredients I have available.

[bower]

I bet it's better from fresh. But I did find recipes for leftover turkey meatballs online. Worth a try since I have some chopped turkey in the freezer and no other idea what to do with it.

[Uncle_Feist]

I bet it's better from fresh. But I did find recipes for leftover turkey meatballs online. Worth a try since I have some chopped turkey in the freezer and no other idea what to do with it.

Sounds like a turkey Manhattan is in order.

[bower]

That looks great I don't have a drop of gravy to go with it, and that's really the problem. If I had gravy and dressing, I'd put it in a pastry pocket and call it done. Seems like the meatball approach gets around the 'dry meat' issue by adding egg and (in some recipes) veggies.