Meatballs with Spaghetti

5 01 2010

Last week, in the most unlikely of places, I dreamt of meatballs. Given that I was in Florida, you’d think my thoughts would’ve wandered to something more appropriate. Sangria, perhaps.

But no. Surrounded by sand and shells and sunshine, all I wanted was winter comfort food. All I wanted was meatballs.

The small island where we were staying has an Italian restaurant. But at dinner that night I turned them down, opting instead to make them from scratch at vacation’s end. Too many meatballs are dry, oversized spheres, like baseballs in disguise. I didn’t want to risk disappointment, especially not when the craving was so strong.

So yesterday, our first full day back in Denver, my oldest kiddo and I got to work. I made the red sauce; she, full of creative energy from watching episodes of The Next Food Network Star, tackled the meatballs. Elated to be working on her own, she measured and mixed and shaped, happily exclaiming at one point, “Mommy, this is the first time you’ve let me work with raw meat!” Having just celebrated her eighth birthday, she saw this as a badge of honor, a promotion to the next level of responsibility in the kitchen.

Next she browned them in batches in olive oil (another first), then covered them in red sauce to simmer until they were fork-tender and delicious. How good were they? So good that hours later, when my five-year-old was snuggled in bed telling me about the best part of his day, he said it was eating his sister’s meatballs. Next time, we’ll double the recipe.

Meatballs
Makes 12-16, depending on size
Adapted from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook

1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 egg, beaten
2-4 tablespoons olive oil
4-6 cups red sauce, preferably homemade

In a large bowl, mix the first eight ingredients (beef through egg) and shape them into small balls. In a saute pan, heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat and add half the meatballs. Cook about 15 minutes, turning gently until brown on all sides. Remove to a plate, heat remaining oil if necessary, then continue with the second batch. Remove and wipe down the pan. Gently transfer all meatballs back to the pan and cover with 4 cups of red sauce. Cover and let simmer 45-60 minutes, adding more sauce if the pan looks dry. Serve with whole-wheat noodles, red sauce and plenty of parmesan.


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Categories : In Winter, Kids in the Kitchen, Recipes, Uncategorized

Milk Controversy in Schools

3 12 2009

An article in Monday’s Denver Post got me thinking about the hoops we jump through to get kids to eat healthy. Entitled “Cartons of Controversy,” the article weighs the pros and cons of serving so-called flavored milks, as opposed to just plain white milk.

On one side, folks believe that chocolate milk is too high in sugar to be healthy. On the other side, people say that kids won’t drink plain milk, so the high sugar content is worth it since at least the kids are getting calcium, potassium and vitamin D.

I’m sympathetic to the struggle. My youngest child went through a phase where she was underweight and refused to drink “plain” milk, so a nutritionist advised that we switch to chocolate. (She also recommended serving all vegetables with a dipping sauce like ranch dressing and that oh-so-nutritious-vegetable called french fries, advice we chose not to follow.) But we did switch to chocolate milk, and despite the pleas of her older siblings, we served it only to her. As soon as her weight improved and she was no longer off the growth chart, we weaned her off the chocolate milk. Now, I’m relieved to say, chocolate milk is mostly a thing of the past, though we still drink plenty of hot cocoa on cold, snowy days like today.

Parents, teachers, other adults out there, what do you think? What hoops do you jump through to get your kids to eat healthy?


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Categories : Food News, In Winter, Kids in the Kitchen

Day before Thanksgiving

25 11 2009

The day before Thanksgiving finds me doing what you’re doing: cooking. I just finished a three-hour stint in the kitchen, preparing dishes that can be made a day ahead so I can cook less and play more tomorrow. Today is also my son’s 5th birthday, so in addition to orange-cranberry sauce, cornbread for stuffing and green beans, I made his favorite chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. Somehow, pumpkin pie doesn’t cut it for a birthday dessert, even if the birthday falls just hours from Thanksgiving.

All my kids love to cook, but today it was the birthday boy who joined me at the stove. (The day hasn’t been all work. We took him out for sweet potato pancakes and then to see mummies and an Imax film at the Nature & Science museum, a dream outing for a little boy.) He and I started with the orange-cranberry sauce (see recipe below), admiring the bright red jewels and laughing as they popped in the simmering orange juice. “This is my favorite part of Thanksgiving,” he kept saying. I’m not sure if he meant the cranberries or cooking with me, but my guess is he meant a combination of the two.

With no one to pick up at school and grandparents in town to amuse his sisters, we had plenty of time to slow down and appreciate being together and really look at our ingredients. If you have kids around today and tomorrow, remember to bring them in there with you; there’s so much fun to be had with kids in the kitchen. Today we just enjoyed each other’s company and marveled at the rainbow before us. Red cranberries. Orange zest. Yellow cornbread. Green beans.

The orange-cranberry sauce, right after we dumped the cranberries into the pot.

Our nearly-finished product. The only steps that remain are to sample it when cool…


…and add orange zest to taste.


Two pans of cornbread, soon to be cornbread stuffing with sausage, rosemary and apples.


Green beans for tomorrow’s wok-seared green beans. This, along with our Spiced Pumpkin Soup, diversify the flavors at the upcoming feast.

Orange-Cranberry Sauce
2 oranges
½ to 1 cup sugar
12 ounces fresh cranberries

Zest one orange and set aside. Juice both oranges, and pour juice into a one-cup measuring cup. If you don’t have enough, top with water until you have 1 cup. Put juice and sugar in a medium pot and bring to a boil. (Use the smaller amount for a tart sauce and the greater amount for a sweet, i.e. kid-pleasing one.) Add cranberries and bring to another boil, then let simmer for 8-10 minutes or until berries have popped. Remove from heat and let cool. Add orange zest to taste and refrigerate.


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Categories : In Autumn, Kids in the Kitchen, Recipes, Uncategorized

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

23 11 2009

At Thanksgiving, cooks tend to fall into two camps: traditionalists and rogues. Not rogues as in “vagrants,” but as in mischievous types who break the rules. In my house, we’re mostly traditionalists, with a table anchored by a heritage, organic turkey; my dad’s mashed potatoes; my orange-cranberry sauce; and my great-grandmother’s baked apples. But every year I experiment with a few new recipes to prevent culinary boredom from setting in.

One new dish on my table this year will be spicy pumpkin soup. Actually, it’s a mix of pumpkin, acorn and delicata squash, but that’s way too long for a title. You can make it with just one of these, or with any combination of winter squash you might have on hand. I used these because they’re what I’ve received in the past few weeks from my farm share.

With a new recipe, it’s always best to take a trial run. That way if it’s horrible, it won’t ruin the Big Day. This is even more critical if you’re making up your own recipe. For tonight’s soup, I decided to combine a few different recipes. Part of the reason for this is that many soup recipes involving pumpkins or winter squash soup call for boiling stock, onions and flavorings with squash that’s been peeled, seeded and cut into 1- or 2-inch pieces. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a recipe for cutting off a finger.

I opted to cook the pumpkin and squash like I always do, cut in half, scooped out, and placed upside down in an inch of water to roast at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes. When it was very tender, I added it to a stockpot of chicken broth flavored with onions, garlic, ginger and curry powder. Then I pureed it and smoothed it out with some low-fat coconut milk. The result is a sure cure to the foodie doldrums on Thanksgiving day.

Kids in the Kitchen: If you’re not sure how the soup will go over with the half-pints, why not involve them in the process? The more invested they are, the more likely they are to take a bite. I showed my kids the three varieties we were using, and we talked about their hard shells. When they came out of the oven and had cooled down, we talked about how soft they’d gotten. Then I scooped out each variety on its own plate — pumpkin, acorn squash, delicata squash — and we did a taste test. One child preferred the acorn squash, another jumped up and down saying the delicata was better. My son deemed it so delicious, he kept scraping his spoon against the skin to glean more of the bright orange squash.

A study in orange: Our taste test of pumpkin, acorn squash and delicata

Spicy Pumpkin Soup
Adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

4 cups cooked pumpkin and/or winter squash
2-3 T olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves minced garlic
1 T finely chopped ginger
1/2 T curry powder
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup low-fat coconut milk

As the pumpkin/squash is cooking (see above for roasting instructions), heat the oil over medium-high heat and saute onion about 7 minutes. Add in garlic, ginger and curry powder and stir well for 30 seconds. Pour in stock and let simmer for as long as you have, preferably 30 minutes or more to bring out the flavors. Stir in the cooked pumpkin and/or squash. Puree in a food processor, then add coconut milk and salt to taste.


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Italian Sausage Soup with Tortellini

15 11 2009

kids clean carrots My kitchen burn-out has finally ended. Maybe it’s the snowy day that just begged for soup. Maybe it’s the fact that we’ve eaten up all the party leftovers. Maybe cooking is too much of a creative outlet for me to forsake it for too long. Whatever the reason, today was the day that I (finally!) reached for my wooden cutting board and favorite chef’s knife.

As if to prove how little cooking I’ve done this week, I had to start with a quick inventory of my produce bin. Carrots. Onions. Garlic. Potatoes. Acorn squash. Pretty much the entire contents of last week’s CSA delivery. I grabbed the first three ingredients and some Italian sausage, and began the soothing process of making a favorite at our house: Italian Sausage Soup with Tortellini.

This recipe came to me from a talented cook and mother of four, so you know it fits my criteria of being 1) healthy and yummy; 2) quick; and 3) kid-friendly. Sometimes I make it as written, with organic beef broth and red wine. Sometimes I make it with homemade chicken stock and white wine. Since I have red wine leftover from the party, today I made the former, although I have to say I’m partial to the chicken stock/white wine version, probably because the homemade chicken stock adds that sumptuous layer of flavor.

Besides being a one-pot meal, this soup is fantastic because it’s so quick to make. You start by browning the sausage, and by the time it’s done, you’ve chopped the onion, garlic, carrots and zucchini. Everything else gets simmered together, filling the house with warm, hearty smells. My kids joined in the fun (four-year-old on the left, scrubbing carrots; seven-year-old at right, peeling them), happy to be part of the action and sensing, perhaps, that the kitchen is the foundation of our family, and family meals are the foundation of our home.

Italian Sausage Soup with Tortellini

1 lb Italian sausage, not in casing
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
4 cups chicken stock (or organic beef broth)
1 cup water
3/4 cup white wine (or red, if using beef broth)
14 oz can diced organic tomatoes*
1 1/2 cups sliced carrots
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 1/2 cups sliced zucchini or squash
14 oz cooked chickpeas
8 oz cheese tortellini
3 T chopped parsley

Brown sausage in a large dutch oven over medium heat. (Or use sausage in a casing and slice in half lengthwise, then in slices when cooked through). Reserving 1 T of fat in pan, remove sausage and drain on paper towels. Cook onions and garlic until tender. Add sausage, broth, water, wine, tomatoes, carrots, basil and oregano. Let boil, then simmer 15 minutes. Add zucchini and chickpeas simmer until vegetables are cooked. In a separate pot, cook tortellini and add it to the soup just before serving so the noodles don’t get mushy. Top with parsley and parmesan cheese when serving.

*As I’ve recently written, there’s concern over BPA levels in the lining of some canned foods such as tomatoes. Look for ones in glass jars or Pomi brand in cartons.

** Okay, it’s not technically a one-pot meal since I cooked the tortellini separately. When I’m so pressed for time that I don’t want even one more pot to wash, I’ve cooked the tortellini in the soup (as specified in the original recipe), but I find that cooking them separately is worth it, especially if I’m cooking the soup ahead.


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Couscous with Carrots, Lemon and Parsley

6 10 2009

A few weeks ago, Monroe Organic Farms (our CSA) had a harvest festival. My kids had so much fun picking carrots that we headed home with quite a large bag. Since then, I’ve been flipping through the indices of favorite cookbooks, looking for fun ways to use them all up.

This recipe was a hit, not just with the family but with me because it’s so quick to make. Note that the recipe originally called for frozen peas, but I prefer parsley instead. It is a classic counterpart to lemon and adds the same pop of green.

Kids in the Kitchen–If you’re making this with kids, let them roll the lemon on the counter before slicing and juicing it. This will keep little hands busy and it will allow you to squeeze more juice. If they’re adventurous, you can also let them sample the yellow outer part of the peel and the white part, called the pith. Which tastes bitter? Hint: there’s a reason why cooks only use the yellow part when recipes call for zest.

Couscous with Carrots, Lemon and Parsley
Adapted from The Bon Appetit Cookbook

1 3/4 cups chicken broth
2 carrots, peeled and chopped fine
1 1/4 cups couscous
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon zest
1-2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Boil broth and add carrots. Cook a few minutes, then add couscous. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for five minutes. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, butter and parsley and stir. Season with salt and pepper to taste.


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