Mini Meatball Soup

If you stick around, you'll find I'm a big fan of Rachel Ray's recipes.  She tends to strike a good balance of healthy ingredients, inexpensiveness, and speed.  All good things.  One of the first (and most used) cook books I purchased was her 365 days, No Repeats.

While its not in the book, I saw her make the Mini Meatball Soup on Food Network and decided to give it a try.  I won't say its my favorite soup, but its pretty darned tasty.  I can also attest that it is very good with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Mini Meatball Soup

You don't have to use the meatloaf mix for the meatballs.  I've always made do with 80% lean beef and things turned out for the tasty.

Be warned, though:  making the meatballs can be deceptively slow going.  It's much faster if you can blackmail score yourself some helpers.  If you've got kids, this would probably be a great time to throw on some grubby clothes (or aprons) and let them help you.  Put all the ingredients for the meatballs into a plastic baggy and let them squish it around -- or just throw it all into a bowl and have them mix it by hand.  Most kids seem to love this sort of messy, squishy activity.  You can then portion out the meat and let them roll the balls.  Just make sure that you add them to the soup yourself.  Getting splashed with hot chicken broth is not a happy fun time for kids.

An alternative is using a cookie scoop.  If you make cookies more than three times a year, these gadgets are fantastic.  You get evenly portioned cookies and don't have to scrap the dough off a spoon with another spoon.  I've always hated that part.

BONUS:  If you're not drowning in a wealth of homemade stock, and don't particularly care about everything being organic, you can usually pick up some nice chicken broth at the Dollar Tree store.  I think it's Kendal Farms, but the ingredients list didn't make me flash back to chemistry class, and I consider that a good sign.  It's decently tasty, can be had by the quart for $1, and seals back up if you don't use the whole thing.

Sharp as a Whip

This is going to cover some basic knife care.  If you're already skilled with your hardware, you can skip this post (unless I tend make you giggle or something -- then you can carry on).

So you've got yourself a fantastic knife -- and spent a fair bit on it too.  It might come with a nice edge, but eventually you'll find it doesn't cut as well as it used to.  So you use a knife sharpener, right?  Nope.  Because it might not actually be dull at all!

How can that be?  Well, it has to do with how sharp the knife is.  The edge on a properly sharpened blade is quite thin and over time it actually bends.  Once the edge gets out of alignment, it blade can seem dull even though its still really got a good sharp edge.  The honing steel (or rod) lets you gently put the edge back into alignment and carry on your merry way chopping, dicing, and mincing.




I'm sure you've seen TV chef's do this all the time.  The honing rod doesn't actually sharpen the blade, mind you, so if its still too dull after proper honing you might need to get it properly sharpened.





Now, you don't HAVE to go all out like this gentleman, but if you're going to shell out the dough for a premium blade, it might be worth the expensive of having it sharpened professionally.  If you're lucky enough to know someone who hunts (especially if they'll give you venison!), there's a minor chance they might also butcher some of their own meats so ask them what they do with their knives.  You could also question your local butcher or other friends who are avid cooks about good places to go.  I have a little manual sharpener that works pretty well myself, so you don't have to go the pro route.

Last thing about care: Washing.  I do not recommend tossing your good knives in the dishwasher.  Even if you picked up a stainless steel one, getting knocked around with other flatware isn't kind to the edge.  If you've got a steel blade, it can and will rust if you don't care for it properly.  A quick rinse with some dish soap and a sponge followed by immediately drying and storing is my personal method.  But stay away from those cheap electric knife sharpeners!  They really aren't that kind to your blade.

Taking good care of your knives means you won't have to work as hard to make those tasty dishes.  Less frustration leads to greater success, from my experience.  Plus, its really easy to intimidate impress guests when they see you working away on the honing steel.  You'll look like a total psycho pro!

Roasted Chicken Thighs

There's not much that's as cheap as bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs at the grocery store.  Just compare the price per pound with boneless, skinless types and you'll probably consider buying a boning knife and doing it yourself.  I don't know if I said it before, but I'm cheap.

If you want an easy, inexpensive dinner, you should consider this one.

Bone-in, Skin-on chicken thighs (1-2 per person depending on the size of the thighs)
Olive Oil
Kosher, Sea or other coarse salt
Black pepper
Alternatives: 1 garlic clove per chicken thigh, 1 sprig of thyme per chicken thigh, 1 lemon wedge per chicken thigh

1.  Crank your oven up to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet with tin foil.
2.  Drizzle olive oil on each chicken thigh on both sides.  Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides and rub everything in.
3.  Lay the thighs skin side up on the cookie sheet.
3a.  For a fancy touch, put 1 garlic clove, 1 sprig of fresh thyme, and 1 wedge of lemon under each chicken thigh.
4.  Bake the thighs for 30-40 minutes, depending on how hot your oven runs.  When done, the juice should run clear when thigh is pricked with a knife and the skin should be golden brown and crispy.

You can fix this with whatever side dishes you like.  I usually pick one vegetable to steam and grab one of those cheap, flavored packages of rice or noodles.  If you want to make something fancy like risotto, this works as a wonderful, easy protein.

Just One Thing

If you're going to spend money on just one thing for your kitchen, I'll tell you what it should be:  One Good Knife.

That may sound pretty basic, but I've been in many a kitchen where people didn't realize what difference that One Good Knife makes.  Heck, I didn't realize for the longest time.  Until someone hands you a good quality knife, its very hard to imagine just how awesome cutting up a piece of cucumber can really be.

There are a million websites and articles that deal with the subject of choosing that One Good Knife, but most agree that an 8-10 inch Chef's Knife is the one to get.  There are a lot of options to choose from.  Stamped or forged?  Carbon steel or stainless steel?  Full tang or partial?  Most of this is going to be up to you.

My first "good" knife was a stainless steel Farberware santoku I bought for $10 on a whim at the grocery store.  The difference between that and the knives from my $20 knife set from college was night and day.  Suddenly, finely chopping parsley was no longer an exercise in futility.

Now I have an amazing steel set my Dad made for me (I am one lucky cook!) that contains everything under the sun.  I have to take much greater care of the blades to prevent rusting, but boy-oh-boy is it worth it.  Personally, I prefer the steel knives to the stainless steel since they really hold a much better edge and tend to be tougher all around (I am not a gentle kitchen flower).

 This is a good place to start for knife knowledge, but spend some time searching and reading before you make a choice.  If its at all possible, set yourself a budget, and trek out to a store that sells kitchen supplies (a restaurant supply store would be ideal).  Get your hands on the knives, quiz the sales people, and try to pick something that feels right.  You don't have to spend a fortune, but even a $30 knife can feel like an beautiful extravagance if you've been struggling with terrible equipment.

You should definitely pick yourself up a honing/sharpening rod.  I'll talk about those next week, but if you're going to shell out some cash on a good knife, you'll want to take care of it.

Tarragon Chicken

I'm a big fan of crockpots, as you're probably learning.  Being able to chuck in a bunch of ingredients, leave for 8 hours and come back to a delicious dinner hits all the right notes with me.  You can make some seriously affordable and amazing dishes with those gadgets.

Tarragon Chicken

You want a cheap, seemingly fancy meal that'll impress a crowd?  Try this one out.  The chicken will fall right off the bone into your mouth... er... Well, let's just say it's tender.  Serve it over rice or noodles with some veggies for a seriously filling dinner.

If you spend some time pricing meat cuts in your grocery store, you might have overlooked the amazingly cheap chicken leg quarter.  I can regularly grab a 10 lb (that's not a typo, folks) bag of them for $5.60 at Wegman's.  I'm sure your grocery store (or butcher if you're one of those lucky types) will hook you up proper.  These are absolutely perfect for the crockpot and ideal for this dish.

To save some time in the morning, slather the mustard mixture on the chicken pieces the night before.  You can toss the crock for your pot right into the fridge till the next day.  I usually chop the garlic and tarragon at the same time and just store them in a bowl near the crock.  You'd probably be fine sprinkling that on the chicken overnight and just pour on the chicken stock in the morning.

If the sauce sounds daunting, don't sweat it.  It's actually very quick and easy.  If you've never worked with corn starch, I do recommend whisking as you add it since that stuff has a habit of setting up at an aggravating speed.

For the folks who don't like the concept of corn starch or are allergic to it, here you go:  Substitutions galore!  Try potato flour for a change of pace.  You can even use it to coat chicken for frying for a light, crispy texture.  It's also a kindness to those who want or need to avoid gluten.

Out of Milk

So, I finally got a smart-phone about a month ago.  It's pretty awesome, I must say.  I was blown away by the number of useful apps to be had, many for free!  I love free.

I also love lists.  I no longer purchase sticky-notes because I was running out of places to stick them.  Fortunately, my lovely little smart phone lets me make lists and keep them organized all in one place.  Enter the Out of Milk app.

This lets me make shopping lists, including the price and any notes.  Even better is the Pantry Lists section where I can keep track of things I already have.  I'm the sort of person who ends up with three half empty boxes of orzo pasta because I forgot I had some left.  You can even scan items barcodes and have them automatically pop up on your lists as well as tag unit prices so you can track how much things cost.

All of this is included in the free version.  Pretty sweet, huh?  But there's still a good reason to buy the full one.  For $4.99, I can do all the same editing (minus the barcodes since that function relies on the phones camera) online, share my lists with other users, and track my coupons.  The coupon thing isn't hugely sophisticated.  There's a box to check if you have a coupon and a field with notes about it.  But I tend to forget coupons, so its useful for me.

Sharing lists is pretty handy even if you only pass off your website login info to your housemates.  They can then add things to the lists as they use them up or mark off stuff that they buy so you don't end up with three loaves of bread.  I've heard that its incredibly handy if you have multiple smartphone users with the app in the house since you can do some seriously organized shopping trips.  You can watch in real time as they snap items off the shelf and mark them off the lists.

I'm sure I sound like I'm shilling for the company, but I promise no one is paying me (too bad...).  The free version is very awesome and handy for tracking things.  Give it a try and see if you like it.  Depending on how you shop and plan meals, that might be all you need.

Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad

It should say something about me that I put the recipe for Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad in my "vegetarian" section of my recipe binder.  Its got vegetables.  That counts, right?

Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad

 

I don't get too fussy when it comes to salad "recipes."  For this one, I grill the chicken in my (awesome) cast iron grill pan, slice up an avocado, fix some bacon, and add whatever I've got that looks like it might be good.  Sometimes I scramble and hack up an egg (Sister doesn't like egg yolk, so no hard-boiled).  Sometimes I'll grab a tomato or onion if they look good at the grocery store.  Have some left over carrots in the fridge?  Chop 'em up matchstick style.

 But for the most part I have no reason to be too picky.  Put what you like in there.  You could even add some diced ham or whatever kind of cheese you happen to like (feta's pretty good, actually).  This is part of the reason I like salads.  You can stash all the ingredients in separate bowls and let everyone just throw on what they prefer.  Nicely egalitarian and helps get people to eat some veggies at the same time.  You barely even need dressing for this one since there are so many fantastic flavors.

Bottle o' Lemon

I'm going to file this under things that you "might very well know if you cook, but pretty handy knowledge anyway."  You know how apples turn brown after you cut them?  Well, you can blame science.  Curse you, chemistry, for ruining my tasty looking fruit! *fist shake*

This oxidation can be prevented, or at least slowed to a crawl, with several methods.  Immersion in water, sealing in an air tight container, or wrapping in plastic helps keep the air away.  One of the most recommended (and tastiest, if you ask me) methods is using some kind of citrus juice.  Lemon, lime, or orange juice can add a nice flavor note in some dishes.  This works great for apples and avocados.

I used to pour a bunch of lemon juice over my apples and (poorly) gauge the amount to "lightly" coat all the slices.  That never worked terribly well, and I'd end up with slightly soggy (though still tasty) apples.  Not so bad in a pie, but a bit messy for snacking.

Then I got the bright idea of putting the lemon juice in a spray bottle.  Fortunately, I could cheaply find a wide array in the "aisle of tiny, pretentious travel bottles."  You know the one.  They're everywhere.

The spray bottle is a perfect delivery vehicle for a light misting of juice.  Just enough to fend off the icky browning.  Fight science with science!  It works nicely for a kick to your salad greens as well.  I imagine it would work for oils and vinaigrettes as well(no more buying aerosol cooking sprays!), though you might have to find the right bottle to prevent clogging.