Chinese Chicken Meatballs and Quinoa Fried Rice

Prepare to be blown away.  Craving something packed with flavor, not calories?  This is the meal for you. Last year, I found this recipe for Quinoa Fried Rice.  I made it several times last spring and summer.  This weekend, while it was warm, I decided to bust it out again.  It is very simple to make, delicious to eat, and tastes just as good leftover.  I decided to take my favorite Chinese Chicken Burger Recipe and adapt it for meatballs to put on top of this awesome rice.  Here is what I did:

Ingredients:
1 lb of ground chicken
3 gloves of garlic (minced)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of soy sauce (low sodium)
1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil
1/2 tablespoon of lemongrass (paste or minced fresh)
2 scallions diced on the bias
1/2 cup of panko breadcrumbs

Making it happen:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl.  Roll out into golf ball size meatballs.  Place on lined cookie sheet.  (I used aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray).  Cook for 20-25 minutes until just cooked through.  Top each meatball with Hoisin Sauce and let bake for another 3 minutes. Pull out of oven and let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.  This will allow all the juices to settle.  Place two meatballs on top of fried rice.

Comfort Food

Comfort food- the food we eat when we are cold, hungry, nostalgic, or perhaps even sad.  I most often crave comfort food during fall and winter months or when I'm feeling homesick for my mother's kitchen.

  

It was once quoted of New Orleans:

"Winter never feels truly at home in New Orleans. An unwelcomed visitor that shows up long enough to remind us of what we're missing, then leaves us just in time for us to forget again." 

- A Love Song for Bobby Long

The same can be said of Wilmington, which is one of the reasons I love it so much.  I tolerate winter until New Years Eve, and then I am ready for spring.  This year, the cold has been brutal, making me crave comfort food more than usual.

This past weekend, I went home to Charlotte for a birthday party.  On Sunday, while the dogs and my nephew hung out by the fire, my mother and I spent some quality time cooking the ultimate "comfort food". The star of the show was fried chicken, which is the epitome of Sunday lunch at my parent's house. Over time, my sister and I have developed our own love of cooking and now when we are home, we all cook together.  

My mom and I baked pecan pies for dessert.  As a rule, pie should be enjoyed during lingering conversation at the dinner table.  This fact, this tradition of dessert, makes pie of any variety, but especially pecan, the ultimate comfort food..... the thing that is eaten during heavy conversations and accompanied with loads of laughter.

Spanish Pea Soup

This is an Ina Garten recipe.  In my experience, she rarely gets it wrong.  I've been wanting to try this forever.  I love sweet peas, but this soup is a lot less boring and has a lot more depth of flavor.  

Ingredients

2 lbs of frozen sweet peas 

2 large shallots

3 cloves of garlic

4 cups of chicken stock

Salt/pepper

Olive Oil

Thin slices of prosciutto 

Making it happen:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  In a large pot sauté shallots in two tablespoons of olive oil until translucent.  Add chopped garlic and sauté for one minute.  Add chicken broth and peas.  Bring to a boil. 

 Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.  Purée with an immersion blender.  Simmer on low until ready to serve.  Place prosciutto on cookie sheet and bake for five minutes until crispy.  Ladle soup into shallow bowl, top with slice of crispy prosciutto and drizzle with olive oil. 

Christmas Highlights

I made the drive home to Charlotte the Friday before Christmas.  I was home for about two weeks and it was so nice spending time with my family and catching up with old friends. 

Bethany and I love baking together. The bourbon balls were a Southern Living recipe and amazing this year. 

Lee got golf clubs and was so sweet Christmas morning. 

The dogs got matching Wonka Wonka balls.

Now I am back in Wilmington, enjoying these beauties. 

Christmas Oreo Balls

I make these every Christmas and distribute them to co-workers and friends.  They are far too decadent to be an everyday dessert, but once a year, they are worth the indulgence. 

Ingredients:

1 pack of double stuffed Oreos

1 log of Philadelphia cream cheese

1 package of white chocolate bark

Making it happen:

Breakdown the Oreos using a food processor until they are this consistency

Once all Oreos are broken down, add cream cheese.  Pulse until the mixture forms a ball. 

Start rolling the dough into balls and lay on cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  Once all the dough has been used, put the formed Oreo balls into the fridge for at least three hours. 

Next, melt the white chocolate, roll balls through the melted chocolate until fully covered, and drop on wax paper to dry.  Sprinkle with red or green sprinkles. 

Spicy Pecans

The perfect cocktail party appetizer.  

Ingredients:

20 oz of pecan halves

1 tablespoon course salt

2 tablespoons of cayenne

1 1/2 teaspoons of paprika

1/2 cup sugar 

2 large egg whites 

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix cayenne, sugar, paprika, and salt in a mixing bowl.  In separate bowl, mix egg whites until foamy.  Slowly add spice mixture to egg whites.  Stir in pecans. 

Spread nuts, in a single layer, on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake at 300 degrees for 15 minutes.  Reduce temperature to 250 degrees, turn cookie sheet around, and bake another ten minutes.  Once out of oven, put on a clean piece of parchment sheet to dry.  

- I used aluminum foil and the nuts got stuck, so best to use the parchment paper. 

Once dry, serve along some festive cocktails. 

Chopped Taco Salad

My friend Danielle came over last night and I whipped up this salad.  My mom makes a killer taco salad, but I decided to play around with the recipe.  You certainly could add or take away any of the listed ingredients. Here is what I did.

Ingredients:

1 Romaine Heart (chopped)

Half a Head of Iceberg Lettuce (chopped)

1 Red Bell Pepper (chopped)

1/2 Red Onion (chopped)

1 Avocado (chopped)

4 Roma Tomatoes (chopped)

1 Jalapeno (seeded and chopped)

Bunch of Cilantro (chopped)

1 can of Black Beans (drained)

1 can of White Kernel Corn (drained)

1 lb of Ground Turkey

1 package of Taco Seasoning

Tortilla Chips

Catalina Dressing

Making it happen:

Brown the turkey, drain, and put in fridge for an hour or until cool.  Next, chop your vegetables and put them in a large mixing bowl.  Drain beans and corn, then add to vegetables.  Next, pull ground turkey out of fridge and mix with the package of taco seasoning.  Add this mixture to the bowl of ingredients.  Mix well.  Top with crushed tortilla chips and desired amount of dressing.  Enjoy!