For those with lots of ground beef around: little meatballs

Marla and family,
Adam mentioned this favorite use for ground beef from the family bulls... the soup is great, but I also use this meatball recipe for plain meatballs for any use (I make a bunch and freeze them), or as the base for hamburgers. I do all the chopping for the meatballs in the food processor (the toast-->bread crumbs, the cheese, the onion.) Enjoy!

1/2 head escarole (about 1/2 pound)

1 1/2 large carrots, chopped

12 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade

4 ounces ditalini or tubetti, or spaghetti broken into bite-size pieces

Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Meatballs

1/2 pound ground veal or beef

1/2 cup plain bread crumbs

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1/4 cup very finely minced onion

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Trim the escarole and discard any bruised leaves. Cut off the stem ends. Separate the leaves and wash well in cool water, especially the center of the leaves where soil collects. Stack the leaves and cut them crosswise into 1-inch strips. You should have about 4 cups.

Combine the escarole, carrots, and stock in a large pot. Bring to a simmer and cook until the escarole is almost tender, about 30 minutes.

To make the meatballs

Meanwhile, combine the ground meat, bread crumbs, cheese, onion, egg, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Shape the mixture into tiny balls, less than 1 inch in diameter.

To assemble

When the escarole is almost tender, stir in the pasta and return the soup to the simmer. Drop the meatballs into the soup. Cook over low heat, stirring gently, until the meatballs and pasta are cooked, about 20 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Serve hot with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Escarole-and-Little-Meatball-Soup-109027#ixzz1MXQVpLOk

Coconut rum cake recipe

Was great fun seeing you all last night!

Am sharing the coconut run cake recipe per Sharon's request.
Steve, I told you this was nut-free but of course it does have coconut, I trust that was OK.

Coconut Colada Chiffon Cake
From: 365 Great Cakes and Pies, by Carol Prager

2 C cake flour
1 1/4 C sugar
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
5 large egg yolks, room temp
1/2 C vegetable oil
1/2 cup cream of coconut (I used coconut milk from a can, like for Thai food)
1/4 dark rum
1 t vanilla extract
1 C flaked coconut
8 large egg whites, room temp
1/t t cream of tartar

- Preheat oven to 350 degs.
- In large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make well in center.
- In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks, oil, cream of coconut, rum and vanilla until smooth. Stir in coconut flakes. Pour into center of flour mixture. Gradually whisk liquid ingreds into flour until blended.
- In large bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer until foamy. Add cream of tartar, beat 3-4 more minutes until whites are stiff but not dry.
- With rubber spatula, genrly fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the cake batter. Repeat with other thirds, mix until just blended. Pour into ungreased tube pan. (OK, I did grease my pan and it came out great - can't say how ungreased would work.)
- Bake 60-75 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and cake springs back when touched gently. Immdiately balance pan on bottle of some sort (to lift into the air and maximize cooling.) When totally cool, invert to unmold. Da ta.
- I served with cut mango and rum sauce (made up: rum, bit of water, lime, sugar, cornstarch.)

Crunchy Cabbage Salad

For the raisins I substituted some plums from my tree that I'd dehydrated. I think I found this at food.com.

WEST AFRICAN CRUNCHY CABBAGE SALAD
3 c. finely shredded cabbage
1 c. diced apples
1 c. diced cucumber
1/4 c. raisins
2/3 c. mayonnaise
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tbsp. vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/3 c. chopped unsalted peanuts
In a medium bowl combine cabbage, apples, cucumber and raisins. Toss to mix. In a small bowl blend mayonnaise, lemon juice, vinegar, salt and sugar. Pour over cabbage mixture. Toss to coat well. Sprinkle with peanuts and chill well.

West African turned Carribean turned ...whatever

Sandra and Adam hosted.
Menu was:
Rice and Beans: Marla and Dave
Eggplant deliciousness: Diana
Mango salad with jerk shrimp: Sharon and Steve
Jambalaya: Chris
Crunchy Cabbage Salad: Beth
Oatmeal stout homebrew: Dave
Rum Coconut Cake: Sandra

If you've got a recipe to share, try making it a separate post with some cuisine or ingredient tags.

Retrying the blog

So there have been enough comments about sharing recipes that I'm going to see if this platform can work for us. I've made everyone an author, and I can add other email addresses, too. Some of you should be able to do that as well.

Feb 14

I'll host this Sunday. Japanese theme as promised. I'll probably do a hot pot (shabu shabu) which is pretty darn simple to cook since everyone does their own at the table. Things other people could bring:
- Sake
- Miso soup (I actually have some miso paste so only need tofu and green onions)

Otherwise, don't think we necessarily need any other sides, but if someone wants to venture by all means feel free.

-chris