How ’bout some MEATBALLS???

These meatballs ROCK! Good appetizer food! 

Asian Sweet and Sour Meatballs

½ cup finely chopped water chestnuts (from a can in the Chinese Food section)

1 teaspoon peeled, finely chopped fresh ginger root, divided

1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions with tops

1 ¼ pounds lean ground beef (or turkey of you like)

1 ½ cups soft white bread crumbs

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 garlic clove, pressed

¾ cup plum preserves

¼ cup chili sauce

Preheat oven to 400F. Finely chop water chestnuts and slice ginger root. Slice green onions.

Combine ground beef (or turkey), bread crumbs, water chestnuts, ½ teaspoon of the ginger root, green onions, soy sauce and garlic in a bowl; mix gently but throughly.

Shape the meat mixture into balls; place in single layer baking dish. Bake for15 minutes, then remove from oven. Remove juices from baker using a baster and throw away.

Meanwhile, combine the preserves, chili sauce and remaining ½ teaspoon ginger root, evenly pour over meatballs. Put it back in the oven for about 15 more minutes. Give it a little stir before serving.

Should make about 40 meatballs

Little cooking tip on Ginger root…

Ginger root has a really thin, light brown skin that needs to be removed before use. Store it in a plastic food storage bag in the ice box for up to 3 weeks or in the freezer for up to 6 months. To use frozen ginger root, just slice off as much as you need.

Hope y’all enjoy!

P.S. I always use a small food chopper to chop all my veggies and cooked meats. Makes my life easier!! You can find one here!! They are really helpful for small chores.

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Fab Finger Foods!

Summertime with friends and family is always fun! Y’all have cookouts, beach parties, lazy afternoons at the lake or even a living room picnic! Y’all ever trying to come up with easy ways to feed everyone?  How about some easy finger foods that you can serve at your next carpet party?

Pigs in a Blanket<—-LOVED these as a kid!!

Using refrigerated crescent rolls (have you seen the new ones that are just one sheet and you can cut them to size??) and hotdogs or those little smokies, roll each dog or smokie in an unbaked crescent roll. Place on a 9X13 pan(cookie sheet) and bake according to the crescent roll package directions. Serve with ketchup and mustard or ranch dressing. Smokies LOVE BBQ sauce! YUM!!

 

Taquitos (little tacos…..literally!)

Warm up some corn tortillas to soften them up. If they are cold, they will tear.(then you have to make chilaquiles(I’ll explain another day)) Place some already prepared taco meat (ground beef and seasonings) and shredded cheddar or jack cheese (shred your own cheese, please, pre-shredded cheese in the bag scares me!!) in each of them and roll them on up! Brush them with some veggie oil and bake on 350F until crispy. (about 10 min) Ole!

 

Fried Zucchini Great summer veggie!

Cut zucchini into ¼ inch slices. Heat ¼ inch oil (with a pat or two of butter for taste) in a skillet; sprinkle them with garlic powder, a little lemon juice, black pepper and parmesan cheese. Fry them until golden brown and flip. Repeat if needed. Make sure you wipe out the oil in the pan with paper towel after each batch of zucchini to avoid blackening. Blackened zucchini is not on the menu!! It’s hard enough to get folks to eat their veggies!!

 

Easy Nachos

Get ya some Tostitos Scoops, place a little bit of cooked taco meat (there’s that ground beef and seasonings again!) in each little scoop and top it with shredded cheddar or jack cheese(real cheese again! Maybe I have something here!!). Then load those little guys up with your favorite nacho toppings like sour cream, salsa, olives, jalapenos, chopped onions, etc. You can also put them on a cookie sheet in an oven at 350F for about 8-10 minutes to melt all that cheese!

 

Pizza Roll-Ups<– THESE are too COOL!! Make you own little hot pockets! (and you KNOW what’s in them!!)

Unroll refrigerated crescent rolls into triangles. Sprinkle each crescent roll with garlic and Italian seasonings. Place a few slices of pepperoni on each triangle. Place ½ a piece of string cheese in each triangle. Roll it up, sprinkle with garlic and Italian seasonings again and bake according to the crescent roll package directions or until brown. Dip in warm pizza sauce or if you are anything like me…..ranch!

 

Sweet Turkey Wraps

Soften ½ pkg. cream cheese (you know you can soften cream cheese in the microwave, just keep an eye on it and put it in there for about 20 seconds, stir and if it’s not soft enough, you can go another 10 sec or so, remember it will keep softening after you take it out) and mix with 2 tbs. applesauce and 1 tsp. dried thyme until smooth. Spread evenly onto big flour tortillas. Place a leaf of lettuce and thin sliced turkey on each tortilla and roll. Wrap each rollup in plastic and refrigerate for 2 hours until firm. Cut into one inch slices (like cinnamon rolls) and serve. MMM-HMMM!

I have TONS of appetizer and finger food ideas but I am making me HUNGRY!!

Hope y’all enjoy!!

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Chorizo ROCKS!!

chorizo-breakfastSpicy breakfast?? MMM-HMM!! Something that’ll wake ya up? Chorizo and potatoes~YUM!

I get this handmade chorizo down at the local Hispanic market and it is sooooo yummy!!! I have never had anything better! I buy it all the time. One thing I did learn from the butcher is to let it dry! So I do! I just leave it on a plate in the fridge for a couple of days. Makes it more chorizo-y.

Before you coochorizok it, take the skin off of it. I think it’s pig belly, which sounds kind of nasty, but if it works and we want authentic….??? Pig Belly it is!! (just take it off and DON”T LOOK!!)

Now, chorizo is not your regular kind of sausage. It isn’t stiff and crumbly like pork sausage, it’s more juicy, spicy and falling apart. (If you leave the pig belly casing on, you can also grill it which is really tasty!!)

I wanted to add it to some fried potatoes so I cut up about 3 pounds of potatoes (big family) into little cubes and started frying them in a pan (big pan) with just a little bit of oil and onion. Don’t use too many spices since the chorizo is spicy enough. A little salt and pepper will do.potatoes

Then after the onions and potatoes cook for about 5 minutes,  add about a pound (again, big family) of the chorizo and make sure it’s broken up so it can cook along with the potatoes. Put a lid on the pan so the potatoes can kind of steam. Check and stir about every 5-7 minutes. Potatoes should take about 13-15 minutes to cook with the lid on. Chorizo doesn’t take long to cook since it’s a juicy type sausage.

When the potatoes are soft, take the lid off and raise the heat a notch to put a little crust on them. Let it cook for a minute or two, flip everything over and give it another minute or so and there ya go!! Breakfast!! (or dinner)

Serve it up with some scrambled eggs and corn tortillas. YUM!!

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Now For Those Onion Rings!!

onion-rings22-3 sweet onions (Vidalia anyone??)

flour

salt

pepper

buttermilk

oil for frying

slice the onions about 3/8″ and separate the rings

dredge(cool word) the onion rings into flour that has been seasoned with salt and pepper.

Dip the floury onion rings into buttermilk to completely coat them and then dip them into flour again that has been seasoned with salt and pepper.

Fry them in oil for about 1-2 minutes then flip them over to the other side. They cook really fast (but not as fast as fried pickles!!!)

How about some dippin sauce????

A tsp of Dijon mustard and 2 tbsp of honey added to a cup of sour cream makes an awesome honey-mustard dippin sauce!!

Add some of that honey to BBQ sauce for a great tasting Honey Barbecue Sauce.

Enjoy!!

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Summer Smoothie!! YUM!

This is my favorite smoothie to make for me and the kids. They love it and so do I!! I have one of the greatest inventions ever made….a VitaMix blender. (Kinda sounds like a vite-meata-vege-min from my fav red head Lucy!) This smoothie maker is so cool, you don’t even have to lop the tops off of strawberries, you just throw them in there! That’s getting pretty healthy for me!!

One thing for sure……take the rind off of the oranges! Leave the white part (the pith), but remove the rind, that’s what you clean furniture with!!

You can see a Vita Mix here. They ROCK!!!mango smoothie

Pineapple Mango Orange Juice Smoothie

2 Oranges

1 Mango

½ Fresh Pineapple or 20 oz canned pineapple

Honey or another sweetener

Ice

Cut the peel off of the oranges (keep the white part on, it’s supposed to be good for you!). Cut them in half and put them in the blender. Peel the mango and cut it away from the pit. I use a mango pitter, it’s much easier!!

Peel the pineapple and slice off about half of it and put the mango and pineapple in the blender with the oranges. You can also use canned pineapple if you want. Add the ice to the top of blender and blend! If you like it thinner, add a little water. If you like it slushier, add some more ice! YUM!!

To sweeten up your smoothie add a little honey (or another sweetener) to taste. I like mine straight up!

P.S. This will make enough for the whole family! About 32-40 oz.

 

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