My Favorite Fall Meal

This being my first post I'm not really sure where I am heading with a blog. I think of that Julie and Julia movie and I feel embarrassed.  Do I want recognition for my writing? Hell no. I have never been exceptional in that department but where I have excelled is in the kitchen. We're not talking overly complicated meals. I'm not traditionally trained. My skills come from trial and error, a passion for entertaining my friends, and eating foods with names I'll remember.

I don't strive to impress you with my "mad skills" but I think it would be cool to have a voice in a field where I'm trying to make a living. Street cred isn't enough anymore baby...it's all online. I'd love to acquaint myself with professionals in the Baltimore area to see how they got their foot in the door or to help a mom trying to get her 5 year old to eat like a normal person. Chicken nuggets and Mac-N-Cheese are SO out.

So, in an attempt to do something with my life...here it is. Food I cook. Real food. Nothing anyone couldn't do. Nothing that involves hours of prep work. Nothing that involves you having to care more than wanting a good meal that's easy to put on the table for you and a couple people.

I'll try and post pictures when I can!

Please feel free to comment. I'd love suggestions for ways to improve my recipes or to answer any questions about making meal time fun and easy.

Also---if you're in the Baltimore area and you want some menu planning, food prep, grocery shopping list...basically, anything involving getting that meal on the table I'm your girl!

Let's start here- Double Concentrated Tomato Paste in a tube that you can keep in your fridge! No longer do you have to buy those little cans and waste nearly the entire thing because you only ever need a lil bit! I love this and garlic paste too. BUY!

Staples: Tomato and Garlic paste, cookie dough of choice (duh), fresh garlic, mushroom stock, chicken stock, a bar of dark chocolate, sweet cream butter, lemons and limes, coconut milk, unsalted butter, olive oil, grape seed oil, and a kitchen radio (preset to NPR, duh).

Invest in some herbs. Whole Foods has a great and maybe a little more diverse selection of things BUT going to the local grocery you'd be surprised what you could find.  For the fall I like curries, pink salt, lemon pepper, red pepper, lavender, thyme, mustard seed, cinnamon, nutmeg, and bay leaves.

Having these things handy are super wonderful when you're trying to make an easy meal. I pinky promise.

Tonight Meal (Family of 5, 1 vegetarian. Roland Park)

While a gingerbread latte at Starbucks may be douche-tasticly seasonal... Spaghetti Squash with a deliciously fresh tomato, basil, and peppers sauce AND turkey meatballs just feels like fall to me. The combination of the end of summer vegetables in a heartier sauce with hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, and lavender makes for a complex and exciting treat for the taste buds.

Need something to put the sauce on:
* Spaghetti Squash (2 large) --- Prick those things, put them on a baking sheet, slide them into a 375 oven, and bake until tender to the touch. (It takes about an hour and 15.) PS- Don't be lazy, they taste horrible in the microwave.
* After they're all done baking pull them out of the oven. Let them stand for about twenty minutes. (Go fold your laundry, work on your sauce...but really let them stand or you will get squash mush not little strands.)
*Cut long ways (hot dog way) scoop the seeds and stringy stuff out. Throw away. I promise you aren't going to get motivated to make spaghetti squash seeds to eat up at a later time.
*Use a fork and scrape around the squash. Little strands that look like spaghetti will come up. It's awesome. All of it should come out.
* Put in a bowl. 1 teaspoon of lavender...crush up really nicely...sprinkle, toss, set aside.

Sauce! Yummy yummy sauce:

Need:
Yellow and Orange Pepper (Chopped into chunks, a little bigger than a stamp I'd say)
1/2 Sweet Onion (slices into little slivers)
1/2 White Onion (diced)

5-7 Cups of various tomatoes...get some yellow and orange ones, romas, heirlooms...all sorts.

About a cup and 1/4 of fresh basil 
5-7 chunks of garlic all chopped up (If you love garlic go for 8 or 9)

Salt and Pepper to taste
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg


Okay get this started...

Get that stove on med-low, but make sure the pan is hot hot hot before you throw stuff in. Start with a lil olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Just a lil. Throw in the sweet onion, half your garlic, 1/2 tablespoon of tomato paste.

Slowly add the peppers. While I have the above mixture going I'm chopping up the peppers and adding them as I go.

When the peppers start to get a lil softer throw in the rest of the garlic, white onion, 1/2 table spoon of the paste, a lil chicken stock to thin down the sauce (or water, whatever you like better). Get it to bubble. It will smell AWESOME.

Throw those tomatoes in. Stir.

Cook down those tomatoes. Don't smush them though. The texture is important.

Let all this kind of work its magic. Add basil, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste at the end.

Looks like this. Taste like heaven in your mouth.

Turkey Meatballs-

Okay, let's be real here. Not everyone is going to make their own meatballs. There's no way that every time I make this I even make my own. So I suggest that you get plain turkey meatballs (not Italian seasoned). Shadybrook Farms has good ones...Trader Joes has the BEST ones.

If you're going to do them homemade:
Ground Turkey
1 egg
Pepper
Panko
Ricotta (skim)
Oregano
---Combine all. Be realistic, spoon full of the ricotta, slowly adding the panko...you don't want your meatballs to fall apart. Just work with them until they're perfect little balls. Pan sear...then start recipe from here...

If using frozen or store bought start here-

Get pan hot hot hot...
2 teaspoons sweet cream butter
1/2 tablespoon tomato paste and garlic paste

Throw your meatballs in....

Add a little mushroom stock (maybe 1/4 cups...maybe?? OR water)

Dice up some button mushrooms ( a whole package), soak them in some mushroom stock.Throw them in.

Cook everything through.

YES. I usually throw some parm flakes in there at the end. This is when it get good. Generous serving of the spaghetti squash, sauce on top, and a few meatballs. The flavors are OUT of this world.

I hope you enjoy....