Grammie's Meatballs

Sunday I wanted to have a big dinner at home...Italian style!  I made Grammie Skilling's homemade meatballs along with some slow cooked Italian sausages.  Grammie was my dad's mother and also an amazing cook!  She would come and stay with us for extended visits when we were young and I remember her always helping out in the kitchen.  We grew up eating her meatballs with dinner, during football games (with a mayo-horseradish dipping sauce), and also just by themselves! 

Meatballs:
1 pound of ground beef
2 eggs
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup of milk
Italian breadcrumbs
salt & pepper

Preheat oven at 350.  Mix everything except the ground beef in a medium mixing bowl.  Then add the ground beef and mix this with a fork (not spoon!!!).  Mix until evenly combined, cover, and set in the frig for at least an hour before cooking.  Form into small little balls and place them on a non-stick baking sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes and then allow them to slighty cool before wiping off any excess fat. 
Italian Sausages:
Brown a package of Italian sausage links in a pan for about 15-20 minutes.  Place in a warm crock pot on high for an hour with a jar or 2 of marinara sauce.  Once bubbling turn it down to low heat.  They should be ready in about 3-4 hours!  Once the meatballs are done you can place them in the sauce and serve over pasta when you're ready to eat. 

Mangia!

Savory Chicken Pot Pie

This is a Rachel "Paula Deen" Skilling special...

Ingredients

• 3 whole carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 Vidalia onions, quartered
• 1 (5-pound) whole chicken
• 1/4 cup salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2 sprigs fresh sage

Filling:

• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 4 red potatoes, sliced thin
• 3/4 cup corn
• 1/2 cup peas
• 2 1/2 fat free half and half

We started with a "best of the boneless" chicken - all the meat (white and dark) and none of the mess.  Bake the chicken at 350 for about 45 minutes, salt and pepper to taste and be sure to catch the drippings. Cut the chicken when it is done and allow it to cool.  Save the drippings and then reuse the catch pan to roast the onion, carrots and potatoes for the filling.  Season with salt and pepper.  Once well roasted, put the cut chicken and roasted vegetables in a large bowl lace with chicken juice from roasting pan along with potatoes, carrots, peas, corn, heavy cream and flour. Mix together well. Set aside.

We cheated on the top crust and just used from grand flaky biscuits, pressed flat and then drizzled in a little butter.  Put the filling mix in a large baking pan, add the crust topping, cover and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, covered.  For the last 20 minutes, uncover and allow the biscuits to get crispy and finished... when you take it out of the oven, let it cool and enjoy!  (we finished the meal with a wedge salad of blue cheese and bacon - mmm!!

One of our Favorite Restaurants!

It's no secret that the Farm kitchen is one of our favorite places to eat!  You can always find a good snack in the overflowing snack drawer or frig.  Sunday afternoon we gathered for some much needed sister and mother time in the kitchen together.  Speaking of mothers, our dinner recipe is a family favorite passed on to us from our good friend (and second mother), Sandy E!   

Mom cooking it up in her kitchen!

Chicken Florentine
Chicken:
10-12 chicken breast halves (flattened)
1/2 stick butter (melted)
1 1/2 cups of Parmesan

Line a cookie sheet with foil, spray with Pam, dip chicken in butter then in Parmesean.  Layer on cookie sheet and broil 2-3 minutes (on one side only).  Now heat the oven to 375 and start on the creamed spinach. 

Creamed Spinach: 
3 oz melted butter
2-3 medium onion, chopped
12 oz mushrooms, chopped
2 10 oz packages chopped frozen spinach, cooked and drained
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp cracked pepper
2 T Parmesan
2-3 T bread crumbs
2 T mayonnaise
8 oz cream cheese

Creamed Spinach

Saute onions in butter until transparent.  Saute mushrooms and add spinach, salt, soy, and pepper.  Mix and turn off the heat.  Add Parmesan and breadcrumbs (depending on how soupy).  Add mayo and cream cheese.  Cook until cream cheese is mixed in completely.

Everyone knows that George loves chicken! 

Top the breasts with the spinach and sprinkle with Parmesan.  Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes.  Cooking time may vary depending on how thin you made the chicken breasts.     
*If desired, you can top the creamed spinach with fresh lemon juice when serving*

Mangia!
Momma Skilling, Melissa, & Mamby

Swiss Chard?

A friend, Erin, at work is 8 1/2 months pregnant.  Each week she gets an email/update on the size of her baby girl, Claire.  These updates compare the size of Claire to a fruit or vegetable.  I remember when Sandy E did this on her blog for Olivia before she was born.  Each week I've enjoyed seeing Claire grow right before my eyes.  This week Claire is the size of a leaf of swiss chard!  Interesting...

Before

Erin graciously offerd me the swiss chard since she'd never had it. I decided to cook the swiss chard since: a) I've never had it, b) I hate to see food thrown away, and c) I'm always up for a food challenge!  Over the past year I've been coaxing Erin into cooking her husband, Kyle, different recipes and encouraging her to try new things.  Well, tonight she returned the favor!  I have no recipe of my own to cook the swiss chard so I did a little research.  I settled on this recipe from the Food Network website since it had some good reviews and I had all of the ingredients already at home:

 http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/savory-swiss-chard-recipe/index.html

The verdict is still out and I'm interested to see what Frank says about the chard.  (He had some very colorful nicknames for swiss chard earlier today that I'll spare you from.)  I thought it was both interesting and different.  I'm neutral.  The green itself was a little bitter, but the flavor was good.  I used smoked paprika instead of the cumin.  I think I'll try it again with the cumin before giving it a "yay" or a "nay".  Anyone have any other swiss chard recipes to share?  I've always said there are 2 things I won't eat: Jell-O and beef stroganoff.  We'll see if I am adding a 3rd to the list!   

After:  All of that swiss chard made so little!

Gameday Grub

As most of you know, yesterday was a very important day for Dawg fans across the South.  It was the first homegame of the 2011 football season.  Although the game didn't end how we would have liked, the food and fun made up for the loss!  Frank and I hosted our good friends, Brian & Jennifer, for the weekend.  They were in town from Alabama for the game and also brought their children over for part of the morning.  We were later joined by Brent & Jordan and Byerly & Cole.  The boys had Stricklands for breakfast and I made a Tomato Tartlet for the ladies.  I actually forgot to take the picture when it first came out of the oven, so here it is minus my piece! I have served this at many baby and bridal showers and it's always a hit!  It's also a good addition to any brunch you might have.   

1 frozen unbaked pie crust

3 eggs

3-4 tomatoes, sliced

1 T of basil pesto (I like to use Classico)

4 oz of shredded mozzarella cheese

4 oz of feta

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

onion powder

pepper

Preheat the oven to 375.  Mix the eggs, pesto, mozzarella cheese, onion powder, parsley, and pepper in a small bowl.  Place 1/2 the tomatoes in a single layer in the pie shell.  Pour half of the egg/pesto mixture over the tomatoes and then top with 1/2 of the feta.  Repeat this for the second layer.  Bake 35-40 minutes.  *If you don't like parsley you can always substitute a few dashes of Italian seasoning*

Since it was an afternoon game Frank cooked up some 4 Star sausage and 3 racks of his delicious ribs.  You'll have to ask him to explain his method and grilling secrets!  I know that he used a rub made by Southern Way Groumet (in Whitesburg, GA) named "James Do All" and some fresh cracked pepper.  We used BBQ sauce from our favorite local BBQ place "Jot Em Down". 

Sweet and Spicy Banana Peppers

I received a huge bag of fresh banana peppers from one of my co-workers and despite my best efforts, could not use them up before they started to go bad.... so, our choices were to either freeze them or pickle them for salads and sandwiches - Rachel and I decided to try our hand at pickling them.

We started with a mixture of equal parts vinegar and water and used the pickling jar as the measure - since we expected to end up with 4 jars, we added three jars vinegar and three water into a large pot.  Bring to a boil. In a separate pot, warm up water and drop in the lids and stand up the jars to warm them up.

Wash, clean and the cut the ends off the peppers, then remove all the seeds and cut in to slices.  Add them to the boiling mixture for 5 minutes.  To each jar, add 1 tsp pickling salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 dash red pepper flakes, 1 head of garlic, and a jalapeno pepper. Add in the pepper slices, and then fill with the vinegar mixture to the neck of the jar.  Tap them on the counter to remove any air bubbles and then put the lids on the jars.  Seal tightly, and shake to mix the ingredients.  Once cool, keep the jars in the fridge - the peppers should be ready in about 2 weeks.  Enjoy

Books for Cooks

Somehow over the years I have managed to accumulate over 30 cookbooks!  Some gifts from friends, hand-me-downs, and a few wedding presents.  I didn't realize that I had that many until we bought our buffet about a year ago.  It was a great way for me to clean out the cabinets and make room for some much needed new kitchen stuff!  I have been trying to cook 1 new recipe per week to add some variety to our meals.  I wanted to pass along a few of my favorites that you may or may not know about. 

 

This was a wedding shower gift from Ali & Austin Burrous and Sandy & Mike Ewanowski.  It has a TON of recipes in it for quick dinners, crockpot meals, breakfast, desserts, etc.  A friend at work borrowed it and pointed out some new recipes to me that I'd never tried!  I can always find something in here that is tasty! 

 

 

Frank gave me this as one of my birthday presents in March 2011.  The author, Rebecca Lang, is an Athens native and also writes for Southern Living magazine.  I served the Shrimp and Grits in this book as a part of our Easter dinner with The Cranes & Carvers.  It was easy and delicious.  There is also a great recipe for marinated shrimp in here that would also be good for a party. 

 

 

 

Melissa gave me this as one of my Christmas presents.  I LOVE the blackeyed pea and corn salad.  It is mayo-free so you can serve it at a BBQ or picnic and not have to worry about it sitting out of the frig.  It only gets better the longer it sits in the frig!