Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

I don't know about you but I'm getting a little sick of the cold weather and am extremely ready for some SUN and WARMTH!  Our posts have been few and far between, winter took it's toll in a number of ways and between all the hockey schedules, work, fire stuff... we haven't had much time for cooking up new and exciting recipes!  All of that is about to change!  Summer is on the doorstep and our need for cooking together has never been stronger.  It's about time we roll our sleeves up, get our hands dirty, and turn out some crazy good new recipes!

Both Julie and I have been dabbling in the Paleo world...if you don't know what that is it's worth your time to do a little research on it.  I did a 5 week paleo challenge through my CrossFit gym in March and Julie is in the middle of a 21 day Paleo/Primal experiment.  All this paleo stuff has caused us to get creative with some of our recipes and find new paleo approved meals.  Last week we came across a buffalo chicken meatball recipe that we decided we'd give a try and see how it was.  Before I get into that I'll give you a quick explanation of Paleo.

To eat Paleo means to stick to a diet high in protein (chicken, eggs, beef, fish etc) and vegetables along with some fruits, nuts and seeds.  A strict paleo diet eliminates all grains, beans, legumes, and dairy along with anything processed and with added sugar.  It's pretty basic but with the way our culture eats can be difficult to stick to.  Carbs and refined grains are a HUGE part of the American diet, they're cheap and easy. A primal diet allows for some dairy every now and then.

Enough of the education... if you're interested in learning more about those ways of eating check out Robb Wolf's site or Mark's site.  Robb's will give more info on Paleo while Mark is more into Primal.

We decided to combine two different recipes for these meat balls to come up with a primal buffalo chicken meatball.  It went a little something like this...

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

Ingredients

• 1lb ground chicken
•  1 oz crumbled blue cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup hot sauce (Frank's)
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 4 green onions, sliced thin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ¼ teaspoon celery salt
• salt and pepper, to taste

  Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat with non-stick spary
• Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well 
• Form meatballs to the desired size and place on baking sheet evenly spaced
• Bake for 20-30 min or until cooked through.  Cooking time will depend on the size of your meatballs.
• Serve with extra sauce and celery sticks
• Enjoy!

We realized we had all the necessary ingredients on hand with the exception of ground chicken so we made our own using boneless/skinless chicken breasts.  We just chunked up the chicken and then processed in a food processor till we got the consistency of ground chicken.  Although it was a good idea it left our meatballs a little on the dry side, some fat is definitely necessary!  We'll have to play with that the next time we make them.  You can buy ground chicken at the store, that might work better and is faster if you don't want to make your own!

Overall these were pretty dang good besides being a little dry.  They combined all the best things about buffalo chicken wings into one tasty bite with a little healthier twist.  Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Melissa

Sun-Dried Tomato and Parmesan Bread

Today is a beautiful and warm Thanksgiving Day here in Minnesota!  We usually celebrate Thanksgiving at my parent’s house, but this year they’re with my brother Steve and his family in Chicago.  We’ll miss them but we’re excited to spend the afternoon gorging ourselves at Troy’s sister Tracy’s house.  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays…it’s great day to reflect on all the blessings in our lives and to eat loads of amazing food at the same time!

A couple years ago, Melis and I were on a bread baking (aka thigh enlarging) kick.  My friend Kristina introduced us to the recipes from the “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” cookbook.  Once we started baking, we couldn’t stop.  We made plain artisan loaves, cinnamon rolls, ten-grain bread and our favorite: Sun-Dried Tomato and Parmesan Bread.  Our bread adventure lasted about a month and in that time, Melis, Troy and I each gained at least 5 pounds.  It was a very dark and delicious time. :)

Don’t let my tale of gluttony turn you off to this delicious bread.  Use some self control and ENJOY!

Sun-Dried Tomato and Parmesan Bread

From “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day”, shared by Kristina DeNucci

Makes 1 loaf

• 1 pound of pre-mixed dough (master recipe below)
• Olive oil for brushing the loaf (I like to use the oil that the sun-dried tomatoes are in)
• ½ cup oil packed, sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
• ½ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (use the good stuff…it’s worth it)
• Dried basil
• Dried oregano
• Cornmeal for pizza peel (or parchment)

On a flour dusted surface, roll out dough into a ¼ inch thick rectangle.  Brush dough with olive oil.  Sprinkle surface with basil and oregano.  Scatter the sun-dried tomatoes evenly over the dough. Top with the grated cheese.  Starting from the short end, roll the dough into a log and gently tuck the ends under to form an oval loaf.  Allow to rest and rise on a cornmeal covered pizza peel or piece of parchment for 1 hour.  Twenty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450°, with a baking stone placed on the lowest rack and an empty broiler tray for holding water on any other shelf.  DO NOT USE GLASS, it will shatter.  Right before putting bread in the oven, brush the top of the dough lightly with olive oil, sprinkle with more herbs and slash parallel cuts across the loaf, using a serrated bread knife.  Slide the loaf directly onto the hot stone. Quickly but carefully pour about 1 cup of hot water from the tap into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door to trap the steam.  Bake loaf for about 30 to 35 minutes or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch.  Allow to cool before slicing or eating.

Artisan Free-Form Loaf Dough Master Recipe

Makes four 1-pound loaves

• 3 cups lukewarm water
• 1 ½ tablespoons granulated yeast
• 1 ½ tablespoons kosher salt
• 6 ½ cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, using the scoop and sweep method (don’t press the flour into the dry measuring cup, just scoop it up and sweep the top level with a knife or spatula).

Warm the water to 100°.  Add the yeast and salt to the water in a 5 quart container.  Mix in the flour; kneading is unnecessary.  Add all the flour at once.  Mix with a wooden spoon, stand mixer or food processor until everything is uniformly moist, without dry patches; this will take just a few minutes to do.  Do not knead.  Loosely cover with a lid, allow to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse, approximately 2 hours depending on room temperature.  Refrigerate until ready to use. 

To make a plain free-form artisan loaf, dust the surface of the dough with flour then cut off a grapefruit size ball of dough with a serrated knife.  Gently stretch the surface of the ball of dough around to the bottom, rotating as you go.  The process should take 30 to 60 seconds.  Place the round loaf on a cornmeal-dusted pizza peel or piece of parchment.  Allow to rise for 40 minutes.  Twenty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450°, with a baking stone placed on the lowest rack and an empty broiler tray for holding water on any other shelf.  DO NOT USE GLASS, it will shatter.  Right before putting bread in the oven, dust the top with flour and slash a design (cross, tic tac toe pattern or scallops) into the top of the loaf.  With a quick forward jerking motion, slide the loaf onto the preheated baking stone.  Quickly but carefully pour about 1 cup of hot water from the tap into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door to trap the steam.  Bake loaf for about 30 minutes or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch.  Cool on a rack, slice and eat.  Store remaining dough in the refrigerator and use within 14 days.

ENJOY!
~Julie :)

Roasted Carrot Soup

Well the weather here in Minnesota sure doesn't feel like November weather these days!  It's been BEAUTIFUL, sunny, and relatively warm for this time of year!  It's made what is normally a cold, gray month that drags on forever actually pleasant and enjoyable!  Even though the temps are on the warmer side (when I say warmer I'm talking upper 40s maybe some 50s) it's totally still soup weather in my book!  Today was spent making Roasted Carrot Soup for our patient appreciation week that starts tomorrow and goes through Wednesday!

When I first found this recipe it sounded good but I really wasn't so sure about it.  It was SO simple with limited ingredients that I had no idea if it'd actually be something that was full of flavor or if it'd just seem like I was drinking a carrot.  So... I brought the recipe over to Julie's and we decided to give it a shot but we didn't really have our hopes too high for it!  We were in for a pleasant and tasty surprise that we've made many times since.  Over the year or so that we've been making it we've made a few changes to make a fast and easy recipe even faster and easier!  This truly is a simple recipe with amazing flavor.  It'll turn even the cooked carrot haters (Julie's sons... who tried it without knowing what it was and LIKED it until we told them it was carrots haha!) into lovers, ok maybe just likers or tolerators... but they won't hate it!

This soup is perfect for a cool fall day... warming to the insides and delicious on the tongue it's sure to turn even the cold and gray days into happy ones!  We hope you enjoy it as much as we have!  Ps... it is a great soup to freeze into single serving containers for those times you just want something familiar but don't have the time to cook!  Enjoy!

Roasted Carrot Soup
Adapted from food52
Servings: 4

6 to 8 large carrots (about 1 3/4 pounds)
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt
6 cups vegetable stock (good quality, not too high in sodium)
1 piece ginger, an inch long, peeled
A few sprigs of thyme, plus more for garnish
1/2 large sweet onion
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
Freshly ground black pepper

1.  Peel and cut the carrots, onions, whole garlic cloves, and ginger (roughly chopped) and combine on a large baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Set your oven to Broil and move the rack up so it's about 6-8 inches from the top.  Broil the carrots, onions, garlic and ginger making sure to stir every now and then.  You should get a nice char on the vegetables and the carrots should be soft (about 30 minutes give or take)

2.  Meanwhile, bring the stock to a boil, add the sprigs of thyme and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

3.  Remove the sprigs of thyme from the broth and add in the carrots when they are done.  Let simmer for a few minutes then using an immersion blender blend mixture till smooth.

4.  Serve with fresh thyme to garnish and enjoy!

* This soup pairs great with a grilled cheese sandwich using Munster!

Raspberry French Toast Bake

With Thanksgiving fast approaching the time seems to be flying by faster than ever.  The last week has been filled with all sorts of stuff and it only seems to get more busy with each day!  I just finished making a monster batch of Julie's Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Balls... I mean HUGE!  I made enough to almost fill a gallon size ziploc bag!  It took me over an hour but I was enjoying myself on this Friday night listening to a video and making loads of protein balls.  The weekend will be filled with more cooking... roasted carrot soup, mixing up a batch of almond butter, and getting all the ingredients ready to make a double batch of pumpkin oatmeal for next week.  All this food is for an awesome thing I have going on next week!

For the 3 days before Thanksgiving at my dad's office (he's a chiropractor and I work there with him!) we're having a patient appreciation celebration.  It'll be filled with goodies, free care for our patients, laughter, music, and fun!  It's a time for us to thank them for being our patients!

Anyway... back to the food and more importantly the Raspberry French Toast Bake.  This recipe comes from my cousin and the first time I tried it I loved it!  Who would have thought someone who doesn't cook would have such a stellar recipe!  (Really... she doesn't like to cook and she sometimes claims she doesn't know how... I think she just knows there's plenty of cooks in the family and she'd rather eat our food than slave over the stove :) haha)  Either way... she delivered big time with this one.

All the prep for this recipe is done the night before so in the morning all that's pretty much required is waking up to pop it in the oven!  It's a warm, chewy and slightly crunchy breakfast that'll fill your belly and warm your soul.  Hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!

- Melissa

Raspberry French Toast Bake
Recipe from Michelle Gaertner

12 slices cinnamon bread, pulled into clumps (use the whole loaf or more, it should fill the entire pan)
5 eggs, beaten
1 3/4 C milk
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 C sliced almonds
1/4 C butter - melted
2 C raspberries (can be bought frozen, but defrost)

In a greased 9x13 pan add:
eggs, beaten
milk
1/2 C brown sugar
cinnamon
nutmeg

Pour over clumped cinnamon bread and let sit for 8 hours (overnight)
Remove from fridge 1 hour before baking

Drizzle with mixed almonds, melted butter and 1/2 C brown sugar  (put on before baking)

Bake at 400 degrees for 25 min uncovered
Add raspberries for an additional 10 min
Total Bake time 35 min

Pozole Verde

On Saturday, Melis and I did some fall soup cooking!  We conducted our own “Battle of the Pozoles---Rojo vs. Verde”.  You can find the info for the Pozole Rojo recipe here.  On the flip side of that delicious coin is Rojo’s sassy cousin, Pozole Verde.  The green version is everything the red is not.  Where the red has earthiness, the green has tang… the red is robust, the green is piquant.  BOTH are delicious.

Tomatillos lend a snappy tartness to the base of this soup.  The chile peppers and herbs balance perfectly with the chicken and hominy.  It’s a full meal in a bowl….hearty and refreshing at the same time.  Add delicious garnishes like avocado, sour cream, purple cabbage and cilantro and it’s like a fiesta in a bowl!  

I always make a double batch of Pozole Verde and TRY to get some in the freezer before it all gets eaten.  It freezes beautifully!

Pozole Verde

Inspired by an amalgamation of internet recipes; this is our final perfected version.

• 8 cups chicken stock
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, poached and shredded
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound tomatillos, husked and quartered
• 2 poblano peppers, seeded and diced
• 2 serrano peppers, seeded and diced
• 1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
• 1 Tbsp dried oregano leaves
• 3 15 oz. cans hominy, drained and rinsed
• Salt and pepper to taste

Garnish items: diced avocado, shredded purple cabbage, sour cream, lime wedges, serrano slices and tortilla chips.

Poach your chicken breast and set aside.  To perfectly poach chicken, follow these steps:  Put chicken breasts in a pot and cover with stock or well seasoned water.  Bring to a boil then quickly reduce to a simmer.  Partly cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  Turn heat off completely and allow chicken to remain in hot water for 15 minutes.  Remove, cool slightly and shred.

In a large pot, heat olive oil to medium, sauté onions and garlic until softened. Add tomatillos, poblanos, serranos, oregano, cilantro and 2 cups of chicken stock.  Boil till softened, about 20 minutes.  Using a stick blender, blend till the mix is the correct consistency of smoothness for your preference (just go buy a stick blender …they’re awesome…but if you live a million miles away from a Target, you certainly can carefully blend this in batches in your blender).  Add remaining stock, hominy and shredded chicken to the soup base, heat through.  Adjust seasoning.

Line up the garnish buffet, load up your bowl, crack a cold Sol beer and enjoy this amazing soup!

ENJOY!
~Julie

Pozole Rojo

I’m a total soup junkie.  I could eat soup every single day of my life.  And, there’s no better time to make all sorts of soup than November in Minnesota!  Case in point, my weekend:  On Saturday, Melis and I got together for a “Battle of the Pozoles--Rojo vs. Verde" (Pozole Verde recipe here) and on Sunday, my parents came over for my Faux Pho.  Three amazing soups in 36 hours…definitely a good distraction from the brown grass and gray skies.

The jury is still out on exactly who won the Battle of the Pozoles.  I think in the end, it just might be a tie…a very delicious tie. 

We started with the Pozole Rojo which is basically a pork and hominy stew.  It’s a robust, earthy soup that’s satisfying on so many levels; it has heat from the serrano peppers, massive flavor from the garlic and herbs and that familiar taste of fall from a touch of ground cloves.  It truly is the perfect comfort food for a chilly fall day. 

Pozole Rojo

Inspired by an amalgamation of internet recipes; this is our final perfected version.

• 2 fresh poblano peppers
• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 pound pork loin, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 onion, diced
• 10 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 serrano peppers, minced
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chile powder
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 8 cups chicken stock
• 1 (19 oz) can red enchilada sauce
• 2 (29 oz) cans white hominy, drained and rinsed

Preheat your oven’s broiler and set the top rack about 6 inches from the heat source.  Line a baking sheet with foil.  Place the poblanos on the baking sheet.  Broil the peppers, turning frequently, until the skin is blackened and blistered.  Place blackened peppers into a bowl and tightly seal with plastic wrap.  Allow to cool for about 20 minutes.  When the peppers are cool, peel away the skin, discard the seeds and dice the poblanos.  Set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot at medium high heat.  Add cubed pork loin.  Saute pork until all the juices are evaporated and pork begins to crisp on the outside (if necessary, add more olive oil to help out with the crisping process).  Remove pork and set aside. 

Add the remaining olive oil to the pot, heat to medium.  Saute onion and garlic until the onion has softened.  Stir in the poblanos, serranos, oregano, cumin, chile powder, cloves, salt and cilantro.  Cook for about 1 minute.  Pour in the chicken stock and enchilada sauce.  Stir in the pork.  Bring to a simmer over medium high heat.  Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer for 1 hour.  Stir in hominy, recover and continue cooking for another hour or until the pork is tender.

Serve this comforting soup with a big dallop of sour cream, some diced avocado, a few sliced serranos (if you're brave) and a few sprigs of cilantro.  DELISH!

ENJOY!
~Julie

Cookiversary = Pizza!

Hello hello!  November is a special month for us because it's the month of our very first time cooking together!  Officially, November 3, 2009 is the first time we ever ventured into the kitchen together and it became the beginning of our friendship/love for cooking together!  I had Julie and her sister-in-law Tracy over to teach them how to make my dad's pizza, sample some Melanzane and try my dad's fresh baked bread.

Yep, that's me squishing the tomatoes for the pizza.  I was in heaven!

Little history on the pizza before I get into the details of the night...  My grandpa owned a restaurant (he was also a St. Paul cop) and my dad grew up working there.  One of the pizzas they used to make in the restaurant was a little different than what you'd expect from the typical American pizza.  It started with a thicker crust topped with romano cheese, a little mozz, canned whole tomatoes that were broken up by hand and spread over the cheese and seasoned with olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and slices of garlic.  I remember eating this pizza as a kid when my grandpa made it and he used a thinner crust sometimes which I think I loved if I remember correctly!  The crazy thing about this pizza is that the cheese was between the crust and the tomatoes, not on top.  As a kid I think it took some getting used to but as the years went by I really started to enjoy it and develop a love for this pizza... my family's pizza!  I used to love helping my parents my our pizza when I was a kid.  It had the potential to be a VERY MESSY job... squeezing the juice out of the whole tomatoes took some skill and even the most seasoned squisher managed to squirt juice all over at times! 


So back to our Cookiversary night.  I had everything ready to go when they arrived, the pizza crusts had been made on a different day, it takes some time to make the dough, let it rise, roll them out and bake them.  I had about 8 cans of whole tomatoes, tons of garlic, romano and mazz grated, and all of the rest of the seasonings.  We put a strainer in a big bowl and dumped all the tomatoes into the strainer so we could squeeze the juice out of them before putting them on the pizza.  Building the pizzas goes a little something like this...

1.  Spread romano cheese all over the already baked crust

2.  Spread some mozz over the top of the crust, as much or as little as you'd like but we     typically don't go cheese crazy when we make these

3.  Empty the cans of tomatoes into a big strainer/bowl.  Grab a tomato or two and stick your thumb into it to relieve the pressure and squeeze the juice out.  As hard as you'll try to keep it all in the bowl... you're guaranteed to squirt the person across/next to you haha!

4.  Break up the tomatoes over the cheese until all of the cheese is covered with chunks of tomato.

5.  Scatter sliced garlic on top of the tomatoes and then push them down underneath so they don't burn.

6.  Sprinkle tomatoes with salt and pepper then oregano and basil, be generous.

7.  Lastly, drizzle tomatoes with olive oil and use your finger tips to work the seasonings into the tomatoes.

8.  If the pizzas seem a little dry some of the reserved tomato juice can be sprinkled onto the top.

9.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 40 min... you'll just have to keep your eye on them as they go but they will take for sure 30 min.

We made 2 big pizzas and while they baked we snacked on some Melanzane and fresh baked bread!  A totally new experience for both Tracy and Julie and they loved it!  I loved sharing my food/family recipes with friends (especially since they thought it rocked)!  It was a great night and a night that we'd repeat every year for the next 3 years!

This year we were short on time (life is busy, ya know?!).  We made a last minute decision to get together and make pizza but we'd have to settle for regular pizzas on our cookiversary and find another night to make the real thing.  We grabbed some necessities from the store and swung by a local pizza joint and bought a few dough balls for 16" pizzas (awesome discovery... great dough and super cheap.  We paid $3.00 for 4 large dough balls!)  We really kept it simple and made a cheese pizza and a few pepperoni pizzas seasoned with basil, oregano, and garlic salt.  They were still delicious and it was a great year to spend our 3 year cookiversary!

Looking back on the last 3 years it's hard to believe we've managed to cook all the things we have.  We've made TONS of amazing recipes and only a few that didn't quite turn out how we hoped.  We've been pleasantly surprised, rarely defeated (we always blame it on a crappy recipe if our food doesn't turn out haha!), and extremely happy.  Cooking has been at the center of our relationship, it has given us a great opportunity to hang out and create a bond that I believe few people have these days.  Through our food we've been blessed with showing our love to our family and friends and they have benefited from the delicious treats they get to consume.  I think I can speak for both of us by saying we look forward to the many more meals we get to create together as our relationship continues to develop.  Enjoy your family and friends, find an activity that allows you to bond with the people you love.  Enjoy the relationships, the ups and the downs.  Learn to love all parts of life and go through them with those closest to you.

We hope you enjoy the food we continue to make and can make some of it with the ones you love!

Enjoy!

MELISSA