FoodMayhem

I’m still getting over the cold, or whatever I have, so I’m still doing lazy dishes. Thankfully, I had half a box of sausages in the fridge left-over, since it was a BJ’s box of meat, exactly 1 pound 13 ounces, so that’s what’s in the recipe. Don’t be alarmed by large amount of food this makes. It’s the perfect thing to have left-over, easily re-heatable in the microwave, or easily packed as a lunch.

Lazy Sausage Meatballs
~roughly 10 servings

• 1 recipe tomato sauce

• 1 medium eggplant, cut in small cubes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound 13 ounces hot Italian Sausages, casings removed
• 1 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (375 degrees F with convection).
2. Make tomato sauce and just leave it simmering.
3. Cover an 9X13 pan with aluminum foil and toss eggplant with olive oil in the pan. Season with salt and roast for 20 minutes or until soft. Just set aside when done.
4. While the eggplant is roasting, mix sausage, bread crumbs, and egg together in a large bowl.
5. Form 1 inch balls with all of the meat mixture.
4. Heat a large pan and brown all sides of the meatballs without oil. The sausage meat should have enough oil to prevent sticking (but surprisingly, not much excess oil/liquid will come out). After browning the sides, the inside will not be cooked through.
5. Throw the meatballs in the tomato sauce and cook on low heat for at least 30 minutes, and up to 45 minutes.
6. When the meatballs are 15 minutes away from done, toss the eggplant into the sauce and stir. Cook on low heat for another 15 minutes.
7. Serve with any pasta shape you want.

I served Garlicky String Beans for veggie.

We also had some Bacon Topped Stuffed Mushrooms.

Cousin Karen brought over these giant Chocolate Chip Cookies from The City Bakery. They are quite good, with a nice bitterness to cut the sweet, very chewy, and uber buttery. One or two of them had a bit too much baking powder or soda, which both Lon and I could taste.

I’ve never really been interested in plain chocolate cookies. I like chocolate chip, oatmeal, ones with nuts and cranberries, chocolate dipped butter cookies, the list goes on. So why would I make them? Because soft chocolate cookies are exactly what you need for a killer ice cream sandwich. You need them to be soft and easy to bite through so that the ice cream doesn’t squeeze out. Plain chocolate works well with lots of other flavors, probably any ice cream flavor.

I have to admit that when these were still warm, right out of the oven, they were delicious, very brownie like.

Still, they are even better when cooled and used to make ice cream sandwiches. This one is made with the banana cookies ‘n’ cream ice cream. What a combo!

I love cookies and cream! It has always been one of favorite ice cream flavors. When I was a teenie bopper, I think it was Turkey Hill that had a Coffee Cookies ‘N’ Cream flavor, that I ate tons of. I could never understand why ice cream companies didn’t put out more versions of Cookies ‘N’ Cream. Oh, the possibilities!

I’ve been thinking about a Banana Cookies ‘N’ Cream and came across this super easy banana ice cream recipe. It’s the easiest ice cream recipe I’ve ever seen, no creme anglais, no tempering, and it’s fantastic.

I had exactly 1 pound and 7 ounces of ground beef left from Lon’s birthday BBQ. It was just as good a time as any to practice making Empanadas, which Lon loves. I tried an empanada dough recipe from epicurious.com and made-up my own filling.

Beef and Poblano Empanadas

• 1 recipe Empanada dough

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 roasted poblano, cleaned and chopped
• 1 lb 7 oz ground beef
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon tomato vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried cilantro
• salt to taste
• 1 egg lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon of water for egg wash

Make Filling:
1. Heat oil in a large pan (12″) on medium heat. Add onions and cook for 2 minutes.
2. Add garlic and stir for another minute.
3. Add tomato paste and allow to brown a little, approximately 2 minutes.
4. Add poblanos and stir for another minute.
5. Add ground beef and stir with a wooden spoon, trying to break up any clumps. Cook until there are no more pink spots, approximately 6-8 minutes.
6. Add cumin, chili powder, tomato vinegar, dried cilantro, and salt. Stir.
7. Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Most of the liquid should be evaporated by now. Turn off the heat and let it cool to room temperature.

Making Empanadas:
1. Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (375 degrees F with convection).
2. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. While the remaining dough remains covered, roll out one piece on a lightly floured surface. Shoot for a 5 inch round about 1/8 inch thick.
3. Spoon two rounded tablespoons of filling onto the dough and fold in half. Press the edges securely together, decoratively if you wish. Transfer to un-greased baking sheet.

4. Make the rest of the empanadas the same way and brush with egg wash.

5. Bake for 25 minutes, rotating baking sheets in the middle. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Lon gave me the thumbs up on the filling but we both liked the beef patty dough I used before, better. The dough I used this time was easier to work with though and still nice and flaky.