Chicken lemon meatballs

Ok and now, back to dinner. 

My sister has been sick and I have been doing my best to drive down each month with a few meals so the pressure is off her to feed the family. Because even when you are sick, you can't escape the pressure of dinner, which sucks. She escaped to my house for a few nights last month, and I revived an old favorite for her. This is one of my jotted-on-a-crumpled-stained-sticky-note favorites, from a friend I used to work with. She shared a few more winners with me, and when I locate those sticky-notes, I'll blog them too. Enjoy!


Chicken lemon meatballs
I usually double the recipe to serve 4 and a few left over...if you are lucky...

Most of the time, I serve this with couscous I've fancied-up with curry powder, chopped sautéed veggies, currants, pine nuts or almonds, and lots of salt and pepper.

1/3 cup soft, coarse fresh breadcrumbs (don’t use crusts)
2 tbs. fresh lemon juice - maybe some zest if you are motivated to zest
1 lb. freshly ground lean chicken (light and dark meat) or ground turkey breast
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste - optional
2 Tbs. finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2/3 cup minced onion, sautéed in 2 tbs. butter or olive oil until translucent
2 tbs. olive oil
2 tbs. butter

Make the meatballs:
In a large bowl, soak the breadcrumbs in the lemon juice until plumped and the liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Add the ground chicken or turkey, salt, paprika, cumin, pepper flakes, parsley, and sautéed onions, along with the oil in the pan. Mix gently but thoroughly. Shape into 1-1/2-inch meatballs; maybe 20 per lb of meat. I use a one ounce scoop with a spring release.

To fry: In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and butter over medium-high heat. When the butter has melted, add the meatballs (take care not to crowd the pan) and cook, turning gently, until browned on 2 or 3 sides and cooked through, about  8 minutes total. Transfer to a 350 oven to finish cooking and hold until all meatballs are cooked.

I will often fry first and finish in the oven to be sure the meatballs are cooked thorough. Frying is such a mess though. And mine don't keep that round meatball shape. So sometimes I just bake them...

To bake: place meatballs on an oiled rack/pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. This is the easiest, least messy option. You will want a rack pan that can catch the juices, which you'll use for the sauce.

Then finish sauce in the skillet: add a 2 tbsp each of butter and flour to the pan and gently brown for three minutes (make a roux) then deglaze the pan with a 2 cups of chicken broth. Finish the sauce with a half a cup of heavy cream and salt and pepper to taste. Nestle the cooked meatballs and any remaining juice they released into the sauce and return to a simmer before serving

To finish if baked: Add a 2 tbsp each of butter and flour to the pan and gently brown for three minutes (make a roux). Scrape the browned bits and juice from the base of the rack pan into the roux then deglaze the pan with a 2 cups of chicken broth. Finish the sauce with  half cup of heavy cream and salt and pepper to taste. Nestle the cooked meatballs and any remaining juice they released into the sauce and return to a simmer.

Waffles for Dinner

We got off the waffle train about a year and a half ago. Our trusty wedding-gift waffle maker was looking bald of it's non-stick coating, which is always a sign for me that we've ingested it all and it's time to start poisoning ourselves again with new non-stick. A friend who house-sat recently gave us a new waffle maker, but I never mastered it.  And besides the child had moved into a chocolate chip pancakes phase, so we have been busy eating the non-stick coating off the pancake griddle.

A few Sunday mornings ago, someone in the family announced they wanted waffles and it up and started again, the waffle obsession. It was time for me to master the new waffle maker, and needed to burn a few before getting the temperature setting and cook time just right. The new waffle maker consists of four big squares and is semi-deep—not like those fancy, deep two-sided Belgian ones - but rather a hybrid between traditional and Belgian. And it is huge. Maybe I could eat two squares max, then fall back into bed in a carb-and-syrup induced coma. 

Since that Sunday, we've made waffles every weekend **successfully** in the new waffle maker. No, we didn't eat them for dinner. But you could! I just put that in the post title because the blog is called Hot Mess Dinner and I felt like I needed a tie-in.  See below for a savory waffle note. 

Really Good Waffles from Scratch

This makes about three full (4 square) waffles in my waffle maker, which is giant.

You can double this recipe to make a lot more waffles and freeze them for later. 

Just pop in the toaster to reheat. 

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp white sugar

2 eggs, separated (!!!)

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup buttermilk (my obsession continues)

> mix and warm them on the stove top or in the microwave for a minute or two so they are not ice cold

1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled a bit

1 tsp vanilla 

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, sugar and set aside. 

In another bowl, temper the egg yolks with the warm milk and combine. Add the melted butter. 

In yet another bowl, beat the egg whites until firm and set aside.

Add the liquid mixture (egg yolks, milk, and melted butter) to the dry mixture (flour, etc) and mix just until combined. It may look  a little lumpy, that's OK. Gently fold in the egg whites until they are evenly distributed. Don't over mix, you don't want tough waffles. 

Scoop the batter into a preheated waffle maker that has been sprayed with cooking spray or brushed with melted butter or coconut oil.  

Cook until your waffle is crisp and dark golden. 

You can throw a few handfuls of mini chocolate chips into your batter and make yourself a chocolate chip waffle. Top it with whipped cream and that's a perfect dinner!


>>Little note here: After some inspirational pancakes at the St Francis Soda Fountain, we've done the savory waffle thing a few times now and it is deeeeelicious.

Start by putting some julienned proscuitto into your waffle maker (spray with cooking spray first) and let it cook until crispy. Respray and add some waffle batter and shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Mix it around so the cheese is covered with batter, otherwise it may get a little burny.

Cook until waffle is done, and serve with some sour cream and chopped green onion. Maybe a fried egg on top?

Now this IS a waffle you could have for dinner. 

Andi's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread/Muffins/Whatever you like

Went walking with my new friend Rachel this morning and we talked about obsession with all things pumpkin. It's in the air this time of year.

Not that I am one of those obsessed people. In fact I might have been the opposite - I remember once having a pumpkin mask applied during a facial and it stung like a thousand evil bees. Made me a little wary of those innocent looking pumpkins. But I have been making this recipe since college and no one has ever claimed I was inflicting torture by serving it. 

I have received marriage proposals, venture capital offers, eye rolls of ecstasy and pledges of eternal friendship -  all resulting from baking this bread. And so, in honor of all the co-workers, family, friends, neighbors, Teacher Appreciation Day eaters, random school bake sales, pre-school morning treat eaters, high school advisory breakfast eaters AND new friendships, I'll post it.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread/Muffins/Whatever

The original recipe MAY have called for this to be baked as muffins, but I have really only made it in mini-loaf pans, until last week, when I made a double batch and just needed to get it all baked. Then I finally tried muffins, which came out great. Be sure to fill your cups very close to the top to get that magical muffin top goodness. 

Although I haven't tried, if the butter freaks you out, it might work to do 50/50 butter and applesauce. 
I will say that this recipe is worth the butter.

1 stick of unsalted butter, melted and cooled enough to not cook the eggs
1 cup plain, canned pumpkin
2 eggs, preferably at room temp

1 cup sugar
1 2/3 cups flour
1 tbsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (I measure this generously)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp (fine) salt

1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350º
Coat whatever you are baking in with no-stick cooking spray. 

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix wet ingredients in a medium bowl. To save doing more dishes than necessary - I melt the butter in a medium microwaveable bowl and let it cool for a bit. Then mix in pumpkin and eggs. 

Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, then fold in chocolate chips. Don't over mix. Mo one like tough muffins. 

Here comes the whatever-you-like part. I use mini loaf pans, but muffin tins work great too, and I am sure you could make this in a regular-size loaf pan too. You'll just have to wait the extra time for it to bake, which I guarantee will be torture. Fill your receptacle(s) almost to the top. I don't think I've ever had spillage from this recipe and I have made it about 10,000 times. 

My mini loaves take about 20 mins (give or take) in my oven, muffins maybe 15-18. Watch carefully for doneness, a toothpick will come out clean when done. Try again if you hit a melted chocolate chip. Remove immediately and let cool in pans 10 mins before removing from pans. Then try to control yourself. Usually I've inhaled two loaves before I break my pumpkin trance and realize what I've done. 

And here's hoping you will make many new friends and maybe score some venture capital with this recipe.  

Cumin Honey Garlic Chicken and appropriate sides

Some of the best meals I have made literally come from that weeknight Top Chef Quickfire Challenge ***PANIC*** that I have about 30 minutes to get dinner on the table and a small assortment of strange and limited ingredients. Usually things that need to be used that night, and a smattering of leftovers my husband refused to eat for lunch. I'll never forget my daughter breezing in at 6 pm from school, she was probably seven at the time, and announcing that she "felt like something with peanut sauce" for dinner. Well, I like a kitchen challenge, so I busted out some damn good peanut noodles tossed with (leftover) diced pork tenderloin and snow peas. Boom. 

Although I didn't have any stray leftovers to use, tonight's dinner was a success, so I figured I'd document it. 

I use my iPhone notes section to save all sorts of recipe ideas, menus, and general food-related info that I'm sure I wanted to remember, but subsequently have forgotten why. Today I saw an entry that said Cumin Honey Chicken and Tahini underneath. No recipe, no chef name, no cookbook or website. So tonight I just went for it. 


Cumin Honey Garlic Chicken
I like the idea of this spice combo because it can go a few directions with sides - 
Latin (I'd serve it with roasted potatoes topped with Poblano Crema)
Middle eastern (maybe with an awesome Fattoosh salad and some tahini-ish sauce)
Moroccan (definitely with curried couscous full of veggies and nuts and currants)
Tonight, I served it with some potatoes that had started to grow eyes (roasted, with a few handfuls of chopped Kale and some sliced red onion thrown in during the last ten minutes of cooking) and a Caprese salad. All things that needed to be used up tonight! 

4 bone-in, skin on chicken breasts (or one per person, however many you are)

2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil (I cook with avocado oil but use what you like) 
1-2 tablespoons honey (use 1 tablespoon if you don't like savory things super sweet)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 cloves of garlic, chopped or through a press
ample salt and black pepper

Preheat oven to 400º

Pat your chicken breasts dry and put them in a roomy baking dish sprayed with something to try and keep it from getting too messy - I use awesome spray coconut oil. (Thanks TJ's!)

Mix all the other ingredients together and pour over the chicken, making sure you coat all sides. 

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, depending on the size of your breasts. If they start to brown too much (the skin gets burn-y) then slip a piece of foil over the top. I use an instant-read thermometer and take my breasts out when they hit 155-160º, then cover them with foil and let them rest for ten minutes. 

I put my roasted potatoes in the oven about 15 minutes ahead of the chicken and they were done at the same time. 

Too bad I am a crappy photographer or I would have included a photo. Maybe the next time I make it for a dinner party, I'll shoot it. 

Finally, THE BEST Banana Muffins

Because of my baking business, I'm not posting a lot of (um, any) baking recipes **sorry you're gonna have to buy that triple-layer coconut cake** plus this is a dinner blog, NOT a baking blog. But my daughter and I made some pretty awesome Banana Nut Chocolate Chip muffins tonight and I wanted to write down the recipe before I forgot it. 

I have searched for years for the perfect banana bread/muffin recipe but with no luck. When you buy it out at a cafe, it's perfectly moist, thick slices of banana goodness or sky high, fluffy muffins. But the many, many recipes I have tested were generally disappointing.

One thing I did differently tonight is use my immersion blender to blend the wet ingredients. I was really frustrated with mashing the bananas - maybe they weren't ripe enough? Skins were black, but they were still pretty firm inside. So after I mashed them with the potato masher, I put all the wet ingredients into a 4 cup measuring cup and whizzed it a few times. Just like a banana-buttermilk-raw egg-canola oil-smoothie. Yum. You could probably get the same results with your regular blender. Just more parts to wash. 

If you know my baking, you may know that I am OBSESSED with buttermilk. Maybe you don't know that, because I don't publish my recipes?! But literally every cake-ish thing I make for the business contains buttermilk. It is magic stuff. It gives a rich tang, a perfect crumb... ah I could go on. But I won't. Here's the recipe: 

My BEST Banana Muffins

2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup buttermilk (NO SUBSTITUTIONS, just buy a quart)
2/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (do I really have to tell you **pure**?)
1 large egg
2-3 large bananas, very ripe, well mashed with a potato masher
1 cup chopped walnuts
at least 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375º

In 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup or another high sided bowl, combine egg, buttermilk, oil and vanilla and mashed bananas. 

With your stick blender (Or heck, put all the above in your real blended if it fits) blend until smooth. 

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugars, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt then mix thoroughly.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold gently by hand using a wooden spoon or my implement of choice, a rubber spatula  *** DO NOT OVER MIX, or your will have TOUGH MUFFINS **

Generously spray muffin tins with cooking spray, including the top surface, so when the muffin top rolls over it won't stick.  

Use a 2 ounce ice cream scoop to measure out the batter into muffin cups to the TOP. That's right, fill 'er up to the top. Then your muffins will be big and beautiful - finally appreciation for a generous muffin top!

18-22 minutes or until muffins spring back with touched and tops are nicely browned. Rotate mid-way through the cooking time and check at 16 minutes with a toothpick - you don't want to overcook these babies. 

Let rest in the pan five minutes if you can possibly wait that long. If you don't, you may burn your fingers getting them out. Slather with butter and eat them all immediately like we did. 

Another fast/easy pork marinade

Thanks to Alton Brown for this recipe cuz it is damn good. I like the idea of pork but it inevitably ends up dry. Not these!

I served them at a Fall dinner party with an arugula, pomegranate and persimmon salad, plus roasted cauliflower drizzled with Calabrian chili oil. For a Summer BBQ, I'd pair them with fresh corn-on-the-cob, a kale salad (uh this will be the next several posts...my obsession with kale salads) and maybe some heirloom tomatoes and really good Burrata. 

Be sure to rinse them well (like rub them under running water) if you don’t want the salty-crustyness when it’s been BBQ’d – I think that’s the best part but it can be intense. 

I also halve the recipe when it’s for just the three of us – I can fit five or so chops in a half recipe of brine.

Easy Pork Chop brine

Thick loin-end pork chops  (or use what ever cut pork you wish)
3/4 cup kosher salt (DO NOT use regular white table salt!)
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon mustard powder (do not use prepared mustard!)
2 cups cider vinegar (heated until hot)
1 lb ice cube

Heat the vinegar in a microwave-proof glass container (I use a Pyrex measuring cup) until very hot, not boiling

Measure the salt, brown sugar, peppercorns and mustard powder into whatever container you will brine in. I use a deep plastic container with a tight lid, or a 9x13 glass dish if you are doing a lot of chops.

Add in the HOT vinegar and swirl to dissolve the sugar and salt completely.

Let the mixture stand for 20 minutes at room temperature to develop flavor.

Add in the ice cubes and shake to melt most of the ice.

Add in the pork chops, making certain that the meat is completely covered with the brine.

Cover with lid and refrigerate for 2 hours (real recipe says NO MORE than 2 hours! But I think you could go 30 mins longer for thick cut chops **BUT** you need to rinse them well or the outside will be VERY VERY SALTY.)

Rinse the pork WELL under cold water before cooking.

Cook as desired. I usually go 4 minutes each side and then let them rest for awhile.

Vietnamese pork chops to go with your slaws

All this talk of Asian-inspired slaws made me need to write down my pork marinades. Now you have something to go with them!

I make these all the time. I am pretty lazy and never remember to marinate them overnight (which makes them great, so don't skip it) so now I actually make a lot at one time and freeze a few bags of the pork chops in the marinade. All I have to do is defrost and grill them.

I serve these with steamed rice or soba noodle salad and one of the Asian slaws or as the meat on Bahn Mi sandwiches (Sriracha + mayo = mmmm).

Vietnamese pork chops
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup fish sauce
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium shallots, minced
2 tsp ground black pepper
8 thin center cut pork chops (I have also used sliced pork tenderloin with success)

In a zip lock or large bowl, combine oil, honey, fish sauce, garlic, shallots and pepper. Add the pork chops and marinate/ refrigerate overnight.

Grill 3 min per side. Don't overcook them, but you want them to be a little burny on the edges. That's the caramelizy goodness.