Recipe: Easy Baked Meatballs

Make-ahead cooking is wonderful in theory. The flaw (for me anyway) is that it assumes you have a block of time to make these things in the first place. Since I'm more of a deadline-driven gal, I was forced to use up 2 lbs. of ground beef I thoughtfully removed from the freezer a few days ago, I decided to make a batch of meatballs and freeze them for use later in the week/month.

I found this recipe a few years ago when I used to get Kraft Foods monthly magazine for free, which I loved! But alas, they don't offer it as a free subscription anymore, I guess because their recipes are so readily available online. But I don't go to their website regularly so I think their theory is flawed. Anyway I have made these a few times and they are really tasty.

Enough of my ramblings - here is a wonderful and easy recipe for baked meatballs!


Easy Baked Meatballs
Recipe By: Kraft Foods

Ingredients
2 pounds Lean ground beef
1 package Stove Top Stuffing mix (120g)
1 cup water
2 eggs

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400°F. Line 2 large pans with foil. Spray pan and rack (if using) with cooking oil.

Mix together all ingredients, and form into 32, 1-1/2" balls. 3Place meatballs on the pan (or rack if using) and bake for 16 - 18 minutes, or until done.

I use my cookie scoop to make these meatballs and it yields 70 meatballs.

Tip: Make ahead and freeze. When you need an easy weeknight meal, drop the desired amount of frozen meatballs into a pot and add a jar of spaghetti sauce. Heat to boiling, then turn down and simmer for about 10 minutes. The meatballs will defrost while the sauce simmers!

Photos from August trip to Europe - Part 2: Palma de Mallorca

After Naples, we had a day at sea followed by a full day in Palma de Mallorca, a very small Mediterranean island off the southeastern coast of Spain. I was fortunate to have a morning off so as soon as we got into port I disembarked and went walking into town. It was early so there weren't many people milling about.

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

The Passeig de Born is one of the city's squares where they have a few boutiques, offices and residences. Being so early in the morning there was nobody - and I mean nobody - around. Mind you, it was probably 8:30 or so, but for Europeans that is early - especially on a Saturday. Normally the place would be bustling with people on bikes, on foot, motos (the Spanish word for motorbikes), etc.

Passeig de Born, Palma de Mallorca

Armed with a sub-par tourist map I meandered through the streets and stumbled upon some beautiful architecture.

A local businessman waiting for handsome cab customers
Catedral de Mallorca, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Catedral de Mallorca, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

St. Nicolau Church, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Ancient Mills of el Jonquet, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Let me tell you, getting lost in a foreign city sucks. And getting lost on foot really sucks. But sometimes getting lost brings you to places off the beaten path that you wouldn't have normally seen. The windmills above are one example. The mega-yachts below are another.

Palma Marina is a playground for the rich!

I did eventually make my way back to the ship and relieved my coworkers so they could enjoy the afternoon ashore. This marked the end to our cruise, since the next morning we were to dock in Barcelona for our final departure. My overall thoughts of the cruise were that it was OK, but I don't think I'd ever want to do it on my own. There was too much time spent on-board and not enough opportunities for people to really experience the ports of call.

Here are a few other interesting cruise-related images to remind me of the trip....

Huge ferry docked next to our ship - unloading cars and even semi trucks!

Our ship, the Norwegian Epic
I could never get a full shot of it because the thing was so huge!

Towel animals courtesy of my cabin steward - the sunglasses on the bunny were a 

nice touch, and the monkey scared the cr*p out of me when I opened my cabin door!

Next stop - Barcelona!

December highlights

Merry Christmas!
Clockwise from top left - Terry, Sue, Eric, Duke, Justin and me

Justin made chocolate covered pretzels which are destined
to be a new regular addition to our annual cookie tray.

Such a busy month for us! As you know from my previous post, I went to Austin and had a blast with my sisters. I also had my annual cookie exchange which was a lot of fun as usual. I made Brown Eyed Baker's Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars for the exchange and I got some awesome cookies in return too. Terry loved the peanut butter
ones so I made a second batch just for us using my beautiful new Kitchenaid Stand Mixer that Santa brought me! My Christmas baking also included my traditional rum cake, cake balls (red velvet with blue coating to match my color scheme), chocolate covered pretzels by Justin and some other goodies.

Red Velvet Cake Balls

We enjoyed our usual Costco prime rib roast on Christmas Day, but must make a mental note for future years to get it earlier and freeze it. We made the mistake of buying it late in the afternoon when all the smaller ones were gone - so ours was a whopping 11 lbs! Even though there were just the five of us this year, I don't mind the size (though it took seven hours to roast) but the price was considerably higher. Needless to say we enjoyed prime rib sandwiches for a few days and I even stuck some in the freezer.

My beautiful and functional Christmas gift!

Decorating cookies on Christmas Eve

Christmas can be exhausting.

"Noel" glass block decoration

I got my "craft" on this month by making some lighted glass block holiday decorations - mostly for gifts but I did make one for myself too. I was pretty happy with how they came out - I made one in blue for my Mom like the one you see here, and also a red one and a green one for a couple of friends. I'm considering making one that is Valentine's Day themed, but not sure where I would find the white-string lights at this time of year - they were hard enough to find during the Christmas season.

Eric is still dealing with bureaucracy from the Navy. He is hoping it gets cleared up by early January so he can formulate his plan for the service. He's still working part-time in retail but he really wants to get his life in gear - the waiting is hard on all of us but we are trying to be patient.

Justin was busy with lacrosse - he attended a 2-hour clinic at Arizona State University early in the month. Even more valuable was the ASU clinic he attended at a nearby High School that spanned over 3 half-days - he got some great tips and learned techniques from the college coaches and players. Now he has to go practice those things with the lacrosse goal Santa brought him.

New Year's Eve was pretty low key - we went to a friend's house for a small party but were home by about 12:45. For New Year's Day (today!) we are having 'fun food' for dinner while we watch the Giants (hopefully) kick some Cowboy butt. On the menu is sushi, cheese fondue (with bread, steak and broccoli), homemade pizza (reference Austin post below) with homemade dough (made with "old blue" and baked on my pizza stone) and for dessert we have strawberries dipped in mascarpone and brown sugar and cannolis.

Best wishes to all for a very happy and healthy 2012!

Happy New Year!

May 2012 bring you peace, love and prosperity!

December trip to Austin

Allison and Ethan

This month I went to Austin and spent a few days with my sisters. Funny thing about my trips to Austin - our activities so often center around food. Maybe it's because Austin has about a bazillion awesome and unique restaurants. Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for a cool food truck. Or maybe it's because we just love to eat. This trip took my palate to many new and different places.

Eating with my sister Allison and her family: We made pumpkin spice cupcakes as the finale for a delicious home cooked pot roast she prepared in the slow cooker.

Ethan using the mixer

I spent the next day with Danielle, who showed me how to make pizza. We looked up a pizza dough recipe on YouTube I've been wanting to try, and used her Kitchenaid Mixer which definitely made the work easier, as well has her pizza stone which I'm sure made the crust tastier. The result was delicious - we enjoyed a traditional (Italian-style, not CPK-style) Margherita and a fig, caramelized onion, Gorgonzola and arugula pizza. Both were excellent, and I've been inspired to make my own at home.

While the dough was rising, we took a break and went to a nearby dog park with Stella. Sadly, these were the best shots I got from that event, partly because I apparently haven't mastered the autofocus on my camera yet and partly because of the lighting conditions at dusk.

Danielle and Stella

Stella the moving target. I have about a dozen photos of this area 'empty' because
she and her friend were like lightning bolts dashing around the area.

Danielle, Allison and me

Me, Allison, Danielle and Al's friend Brenda

The next day we went ATVing with a Groupon I found (don't you just LOVE Groupon?). None of us had ever been before, and it turned out to be a great time. I did hit a tree (just a little bit on the bottom) but none of us managed to fall off (though Allison almost lost it once).

Allison, me, Danielle at the Grist Mill, Gruene, TX

After that adventure (which was a blast) we went to nearby Gruene where we enjoyed lunch at the Grist Mill and walked around in some little shops.

Gruene's water tower

One of our mornings was spent at the Austin Farmer's Market - I saw a comment on Foursquare that said "This market has more meat than produce - Texas." I think that's probably accurate. It was kind of chilly that morning so we were bundled up - Allison brought the kids and Ethan burned his tongue on some hot chocolate (which explains some of these photos).

Danielle and Stella at the Farmer's Market

Ethan at the Farmer's Market

Lucy in Disguise costume shop

No trip to Austin is complete without going to Big Top Candy Shop

Big Top Candy Shop: Avery, Allison, Ethan and Caleb

Danielle in Big Top. Yes please, I will have the sensory overload
to go with my sugar high.

Food Truck site near Big Top

Stella meets a mule

Ethan and Danielle in front of
Wurst Tex Food Truck 

Avery and Danielle

We also went to lunch at a place called Bacon. As you might guess, everything on the menu has bacon. They have breakfast food, sandwiches and desserts. My favorite dish was the Bacon fries. YUM!

French fries + sour cream + melted cheddar + bacon + chives = Bacon Fries!

Bacon!

Where else but Austin would you find a VW Bug with a mustache?

Hi, how are you? Near UT

One other awesome thing we did which wasn't documented with photos was going to the Alamo Draft House - a movie theater with tables and complete dinner service. Food was good and it was fun! We saw New Year's Eve which was predictable and so-so, but the best part was spending time with my sisters.

Overall a fantastic trip - and I get to go again in February! Wonder what sort of fun things we can look forward to then?