Fancy Pants Foodie

Foodie news, reviews and how-tos from Arkansas and beyond.

Pesto, Marinara and Meatballs (Or, breaking in the new kitchen)

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My kitchen remodel is nearing the end. Most of my new pretties are usable, minus the ovens. Those are installed and plugged in, taunting me with their little digital clock; alas, I have to wait until a new electrical service is pulled to actually use them. The remodel also took longer because I needed to make sure I checked the foundations of the property using a pest control service like those on this website https://www.pestcontrolexperts.com/, this was because I noticed some slight water damage and I knew this was a sign of termite infestation! Nevertheless, holding back for your dream kitchen to become a reality is worth the wait. Viewing the end product of a beautiful kitchen is the ultimate satisfaction, which is something Karin Ross understands; I love this about KARIN ROSS DESIGNS!

Meanwhile, I’m making up for about 6 months of not cooking, other than at school. It wasn’t enough.

Hubs had a long, yuck day at work, and the daughter was craving something familiar to eat. Spaghetti! My sauce is easy and delish.

But I had to add a few points for style and difficulty: Italian meatballs. Cooked in the sauce. Yessss…..

I didn’t even look up a recipe. Here’s what I did, roughly:

  • 1 lb. ground pork
  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1 fresh hot dog bun, pulled into small bits (not kidding)
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 c. or so of dry Italian breadcrumbs
  • 1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary (I guess…it was a 6-inch branch, stripped)
  • 1/2 tsp. dried basil
  • 1/4 tsp. dried oregano
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

True Italians might disagree, but I like using dried herbs in something like this that will cook a little while. The rosemary gets a pass because it is so sturdy; be sure to mince it to almost dust and it works just fine.

Oh, and about that meat…I only ended up with about a 1/4 lb. of the beef. My new microwave is apparently superpowered, even on defrost, and cooked my frozen brick to a rock-hard brown oblivion. I was able to rescue the middle. Moving on.

The fresh bread may sound gross if you’ve never used it that way before, but it’s essential to Italian grandma tender meatball goodness. I just happened to have some leftover hot dog buns after July 4, but any ol’ soft bread will work.

Mix all that stuff gently with your hands. (Yeah, get over it.) Add more dry breadcrumbs until the mixture is just solid enough to hold a ball. Then, make a bunch of ’em, a little smaller than a golf ball. Hold all these on a sheet pan near your cooktop.

Then, in a heavy Dutch oven (I love my enameled Lodge), put 1 part olive oil and 2 parts vegetable oil over medium high heat, enough to cover the bottom of the pan by about a half-inch. Exact proportions are not essential. Using tongs, put five or six meatballs in at a time, turning them after each surface browns. I like to flip to the opposite side, then turn sideways, with a few turns to get brown all around.

Note to the OCD out there: They will be wonky. The first fry will flatten one side, then the other. If you want perfect spheres, get a deep fryer.


The purpose here is not to cook the meatballs all the way through, but to brown them with crispy yumminess. After the last batch, pour off the oil, deglaze with about 1/2 c. red wine or broth, then follow my marinara recipe. When you’re about 30 minutes from done, drop the fried meatballs in. (Photo below is of fried-but-not-yet-dropped.) When the sauce is done, you can cut a meatball open to check for doneness, or use a temperature probe and look for 160 degrees.

While I waited for the sauce to finish, I should have been getting my pasta water on to boil. Instead, I got super-ambitious and made pesto. A friend just gave me a boatload of basil, and that puts it somewhere along the lines of a moral obligation. Like banana bread.

In case you were wondering, you can use a stick blender. In fact, I’m thinking it’s pretty much an awesome way to go.

I turned my still-half-packed kitchen upside down the past two days (basil languishing in the fridge) looking for my food processor. Turns out I loaned it to someone and forgot, but that’s another matter…

After a quick innernets search, I found a lovely vegan blog with a post expounding the virtues of making pesto with a stick blender (also called an immersion blender…you know, that thing you use to make shakes!).

Anyway, now you know, and I do too. And another pasta dinner is ready for tomorrow.

Anyone wanna come help me with all these dishes?

Cooking for a Crowd (Recipes Included)

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Photo of me and a parent helper taken at the event, which went great.

Today, I’m cooking for my first big(ish) crowd, my daughter’s aftercare program. They started a new tradition this year of having dinners every couple months for the families of the children. What I thought was going to be 20 or so folks when I agreed turned out to be more like 60+, which is cool. I love a challenge.

The menu:

  • Leek and potato soup, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day
  • Spring mix salad with choice of ranch or homemade orange vinaigrette dressing (see below)
  • Spaghetti with meat sauce (loosely based on marinara recipe posted here earlier, just the tomato products, herbs and garlic)
  • Italian bread with parsley garlic butter (It hurt me to not bake the bread, but we gotta draw the line somewhere. I made the garlic butter, though.)
  • Cupcakes with homemade chocolate buttercream (see below)
  • Tea (sugar syrup on service table)

The challenges for  this event included figuring quantities and portions (already using that culinary math they taught a couple weeks ago in school), figuring out where to buy stuff (some from Sam’s Club, some from the grocery store, and some from Ben E. Keith), and remaining mindful that about half of the audience is children, who will usually eat less and often not the same stuff as the adults.

I must say that I felt pretty cool buying from Ben E. Keith, our local large-quantity foodservice supplier. They are letting me start small on some things, since I’ll probably be a customer from now on, either for catering events, doing classes or whatever I decide to do when I grow up. My daughter and I went to their customer service dock on Saturday to pick up a big box of leeks, two boxes of salad, the dairy products (cheaper there than elsewhere) and some other random things.

Saturday, the director of the aftercare program helped me make the sauce and the base for the soup (everything but the dairy products), and put it all in the fridge. I also cooked all the spaghetti to al dente, rinsed with cool water in a colander and tossed with olive oil, zip-bagged it and put it in the fridge. Not the optimal way to treat pasta, but great for cooking for a crowd — we’ll just hit it with hot water tonight to revive it for service. (My Food Production I instructor told me that trick. Thanks, Chef!)

Today, I’ll brown meat for the sauce (forgot that part Saturday), bake off the cupcakes, make the buttercream, warm the bread, make the vinaigrette (also from my Food Production I instructor), make the sugar syrup (it blends better than anything granulated), and generally freak out. But I’m sure it will be fine.

While planning the last details, we remembered that it’s Lent. So we’ll hold out some of the sauce to be without meat for anyone abstaining. The soup will also be a good option. (I would have had a lentil and mushroom dish available if we had any true vegetarians coming, which we don’t.)

So. All this to say, this is my first big crowd, and I’m a little nervous. But it’s for kids and their parents, so it’s a low-risk proposition. It all boils down to a great practice opportunity for me, as well as a good time for a great bunch of folks.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT: Please comment below and let me know if you’ve ever cooked for a crowd of, over, let’s say 30. How did you figure out portions and ingredients? How did things turn out? Where did you get your product? Any war stories, tips or suggestions? I look forward to your input.

Orange Vinaigrette Dressing

  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 2 T. balsamic vinegar
  • 1 T. Dijon mustard
  • 2 tsp. honey
  • 1/8 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

Whisk ingredients together in a bowl. Or, place ingredients in a small jar with a tight-fitting lid, cover and shake until combined.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

  • 1/4 lb. (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 1/4 lb. (1/2 cup) shortening
    Note: May use 2 sticks butter and eliminate shortening. Frosting will have a better mouth feel but will be less stable.
  • 1 lb. powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 3 tsp. cocoa powder
  • 2 T. cool water

Cream butter and shortening (if using) together in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment. Add sugar in several installments, scraping down the bowl occasionally. In a cup, mix cocoa and water together; add to fat/sugar mixture along with vanilla. Beat until smooth and lightened.

Simple Sugar Syrup

  • 1 cup granulated sugar (may substitute all or half with turbinado sugar for a more natural, deeper-flavored product)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 small sprig of any type of mint, optional

Simmer all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. When all sugar is dissolved, cool for a few minutes off the heat, then pour through a sieve (if mint was used) into a squeeze bottle or other container, I also recommend you to check this ginger mint cooler mocktail recipe for a special occasion like this. Perfect for use in cold drinks.