Mini Meatball Soup with Rosemary

I spent the better part of my shift at work the other day trying to come up with a meal for dinner. My day was completely misspent, however, as I based my ideas on what I thought I had in the pantry. Even though  all my ideas were completely scotched, the soup that happened was so yummy.

I don’t know what my deal is lately with my refusal to run to the store for ingredients! If I don’t have something for the recipe, I will substitute or scratch the recipe completely and do something else. It’s a combination of stubbornness and laziness. Mostly stubbornness.

So I did it! I made the whole thing, tasting every step of the way to see what needed to be added, digging deep for spices way in the back of the cupboard….

spicy, meatball-y, tummy-warming soup…..

….and then sent my lovely, obliging husband to the store for bread.

Oh well, you can’t win ’em all. 😉

~K

*Spicy* Mini Meatball Soup with Rosemary

Ingredients:

4 cups water to two parts each of chicken and beef bouillon (I ran out of chicken, so I used some beef and it changed the flavor. In a really good way)

2 Tablespoons minced garlic

1 whole green bell pepper, minced

1 whole white or yellow onion,minced

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Worcestershire Sauce

Beer, about 6 ounces

3 Bay leaves

3 sprigs rosemary leaves (I cut it directly off the stem into teeny pieces)

1 can diced tomatoes (the Italian seasoned ones) with juice

salt and pepper, to taste

———-

*If you like it a little thicker*

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons flour

——–

For the mini meatballs:

( I only had 1/2 a pound of ground beef, use more if you have the stuff!)

*** I did not measure at all here, totally judged by when the meatballs held a shape well and weren’t too sticky***

1/2 lb ground beef

minced garlic

salt and pepper

Italian Breadcrumbs

1 egg

Instructions:

Mix the ingredients for the meatballs in a bowl with your hands, shaping them into the size balls you want. In the soup pot you’ll be using, brown the meatballs in some olive oil until browned on all sides. Take them out and set aside. Do not rinse the pot. 

Add the garlic, bell pepper, and onion to the pot and saute. Then add the beef/chicken broth, tomatoes, rosemary, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then add meatballs, Worcestershire sauce, and beer. Let simmer.

***At this point, I added the roux to thicken it. This is optional!***

In a saute pan, heat the butter until it’s frothy and bubbly. Then add the flour and, using a whisk, beat over heat until combined. Then add to soup.

—Taste this often so you can add more seasoning if you need to! I added a lot of pepper, because I like spicy, so don’t be afraid to add as it simmers. I did end up adding a little more beef bouillon near the end to amp up the savory-ness of it.—

Oh! And don’t forget the bread 😉

Enjoy!

 

 

Holy Fried Green Tomatoes Batman!

I’d like to start off by thanking M PROFUSELY for my birthday poem (I can’t believe she wrote that!) and for the mile-high cheesecake! It looked beautiful, and I bet it tasted even better than it looked!

Oh, and clearly someone is going through old family photos. Wow. 😉

I’m sure you all saw the canvas photo transfer challenge I gave M a few weeks ago, and saw how fabulously it turned out! Not gonna lie, I was super impressed. Now it’s my turn. M told me that my challenge was going to involve a recipe and I immediately got a little nervous. Cooking doesn’t usually make me nervous but M is much braver than I am in the kitchen. She always tells me about peanut oil, peanut powder (?), and coconut milk and I’m like ‘Ummm, I’m happy if I get dinner on the table, I’m stickin to what I know.’ HOWEVER. When she said I had to make fried green tomatoes, I got suuuper excited. Have you all seen the movie? I love it. It’s a must-see. It’s right up there with Steel Magnolias. For those of you who’ve seen Fried Green Tomatoes, M and I have always been taken in by the crunch noise Ninny makes when she bites into a fried green tomato- it just sounds delicious. I totally replicated that noise when I tasted mine. It was life-changing.

The thing that’s wonderful about the recipe I followed was that I had most of the ingredients in the pantry already, so it is a relatively cheap dish! The one snag that I did hit that I hope doesn’t disappoint too greatly is that I could not find green tomatoes. I know, right? I was bummed, but I made do! I got very firm Heirloom tomatoes instead and carried on! (that phrase seems to be popular right now…Keep Calm and Buy Heirloom Tomatoes…haha) p.s. I didn’t even know what exactly green tomatoes were until my mom told me- just unripe red tomatoes. Sounds kind of self-explanatory, but I wasn’t sure if they were another type of tomato or what!

First I cut up the tomatoes in half inch slices…..

…..approximately lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

just LOOK at those babies!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sprinkled the tomatoes with salt and let them set while I mixed the dry goods….

Top left is the flour/Cajun seasoning mixture, top right is the milk/egg mixture, and bottom is the corn meal/breadcrumb mixture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I got the vegetable oil heating in the frying pan on medium high, and started coating the tomatoes! (I only cooked three at a time, and I coated each tomato individually right before throwing it in the pan). First the flour mixture on both sides, then the milk mixture, then the bread crumbs.  **key point!! I ALWAYS get ahead of myself and throw food in a semi-hot frying pan. I held back, and listened to Chef Robert (from Restaurant Impossible, love him.). “Do not put food in a warm frying pan! It. Doesn’t. Work!’

Tossing these things in the pan made the most delicious hissssss….

Those bubbles made a yummy noise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

….aaaaand FLIP!

LOOK at that COLOR!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

….aaaaand take them out! I laid them on paper towel to absorb excess oil….and bit into it while it was still piping hot. It was so worth it. I did let it cool for a minute, but honestly, you want to eat it hot out of the pan. You get that crunch of the crust, then the hot, fresh tomato…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy patootie, people. It tasted phenomenal.

I will be making this as a side dish quite often, I think. They took no more than 20 minutes and they are really really good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The end.

THANKS M!!!!

-K

Fried Green Tomatoes

3 large green (or heirloom!) tomatoes

salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon Cajun seasoning (the recipe says it’s optional, but I really advise you use it!)

1/2 cup milk (or buttermilk)

1 egg

1/3 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup fine plain breadcrumbs (I only had Italian, and they tasted great!)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Cut the tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices. Sprinkle slices with salt. Let tomato slices stand for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, place in separate shallow bowls: the flour and Cajun seasoning, buttermilk and egg, and bread crumbs and cornmeal.

Heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat. Dip tomato slices in the flour-seasoning mix, then buttermilk-egg mixture, then the cornmeal-bread crumb mix. In the skillet, fry half of the coated tomato slices at a time, for 3-5 minutes on each side or until brown. Set the cooked tomatoes on paper towels to drain. EAT THEM ALL. Seriously. I did share, but there are no leftovers 🙂