Sunday, November 20th
Today has been a slow cooking day at madonia.kitchen. In fact, except for some soft scrambled eggs with cottage bacon, I haven’t spent anytime cooking. It’s been a busy day cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen for the most part. Mostly ad hoc projects that totally didn’t need to get done today, but my ADD got the best of me.
The only cooking going on this evening is meatball prep for our Thanksgiving appetizer, and it is not even being done by me! The chef wishes to remain anonymous, but I will say that his meatballs are the best I have ever tasted. They are so go that I have not even tried to replicate them. Here is his secret recipe…
Ingredients
- 3 ½ pounds grass fed, 85% lead, ground chuck
- 3 eggs
- Italian bread crumbs (Cento is his favorite)
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Italian seasoning
- Kosher salt
- Pepper
Time to Make the Meatballs!
Crack the eggs and put them in the bowl of a standing mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix the eggs on low with a lot of the seasoning. How much? Good question, but there is not a good answer. Use several “shakes” of onion and garlic powder - equal parts - and double the amount of italian seasoning. Use a pinch of salt and a couple of cranks of the pepper mill to start. Mix the seasoning and the eggs well, then add the meat. Add the bread crumbs until the meat starts to bind together. Again, I don’t have an exact measurement, so just keep an eye on it. You will know by the look of the mixture.
Heat a frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil on low on the stove. Start to make your meatballs - we are making mini meatballs today (this recipe produced about 60). As the meatballs cook, add additional seasoning - garlic powder, onion powder, italian seasoning, and pepper. The chef says he over seasons the meatballs. As the meatballs start to get color, flip them. Keep your pan moving so that the meatballs don’t stick. Cook them until they are “crusty brown.” Cut into one, to test that they are done. We tasted a lot of meatballs during the meatball making process around here!
This is a recipe you will just master by feel. You just got to jump in and try this one!
We shared a great bottle of wine during the process - our favorite - a San Andreas Pinot Noir from Hirsch Vineyards.
So what’s on the agenda for tomorrow? Well, tomorrow is a work day, but I do have some prep work planned…
- Final round of grocery shopping - hitting Standard Market after work
- Making the ice cream base for the Cranberry, Orange, Chocolate ice cream
- Writing out the name cards and making my place settings
- Deciding on what to do about the “roll situation” - the recipe last night was just meh. I just don’t have a knack for bread. I think the rolls will be store bought again this year!
That’s probably all I can handle for one evening. Since we can’t eat the meatballs, we need to come up with a dinner plan. I need a rest tonight, so I think we are going to Portillos. Doesn’t seem like the best plan but I’m tired and hungry and need a night off.
Until tomorrow - stay tuned…