Dinner 042312

I made homemade spagetti sauce and meatballs, known as "gravy" if you are italian, for dinner all because I had an eggplant to use up, which I turned into eggplant parmesean.

The recipe for the sauce and meatballs is posted a few posts back.

What's left of the eggplant parmesean.  I baked the breaded eggplant this time, instead of cooking it in the skillet with oil first, and WOW the taste was so much better, I can't recommend baking it first enough!  I also left off the mozzerella cheese this time, and my best friend Brenda brought me some organic parmesean cheese to use, the taste was out of this world heavenly!

Spagetti Sauce

Mrs Guidicessi's Spaghetti Sauce:

2- 12 oz can tomato paste 1 medium onion
2- 15 oz can tomato sauce 1 tsp. sugar
1 - 2 lb good stewing meat salt and garlic salt to taste
(you may combine park neck, 1 jar mushrooms, whole or pieces bones, veal, or chicken)

Wash and dry meat that has been cut into serving size pieces and brown in 2 T oil in large saucepan, at least 4 qt. size.

Add chopped onion, cook until soft, watching constantly so it does not burn. 

Add tomato paste with seasonings, be careful of salt, do not add too much, as you can add more if needed. Cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, then add tomato sauce, after it has simmered another 10 minutes.

Add two tomato paste cans of water and simmer for at least 1 1/2 hours, checking it periodically. If it is too thick add a little water.

You may also add 1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper and 1/2 black pepper for a spicier sauce. Better to have too thick as you can add water. Altogether cook the sauce at least 2 1/2 hours to 3 hours. slowly, covered. Add the mushrooms with the tomato paste and sauce.

That is the basic recipe. Instead of sugar I use 1 tsp. anise seed ground in a mortise and pestle. Instead of garlic salt I use 3-4 cloves garlic minced. I also add 2 tsp basil and 2 tsp oregano. I also do not use the stewing meat.

Meat Balls
1 lb ground pork butts, lean
1 tsp black pepper
2C bread crumbs
2 tsp sweet basil
1/2 C grated Romano cheese
salt and garlic salt to taste
2-3 eggs (according to size)

Place meat in a large bowl, season with salt and garlic salt. Pour bread crumbs over,add cheese. sprinkle black pepper and crushed sweet basil. Add eggs and mix as if you were mixing a meat loaf. If the mixture is too stiff, moisten with a little milk until it is the consistency to roll into ball. About an hour and 15 minutes before the sauce is to be served roll into balls about two inches in diameter using milk or water to moisten hands. Drop into sauce and do not stir until balls are nice and firm.

Instead I use 1 lb breakfast sausage from Fareway ( local midwest grocery store) and 1 lb lean ground beef. Four slices regular bread turned into crumbs in the blender. You can also make the balls smaller.

Pasties or Hot Pockets

I used the left over veggie and chicken mixture, and pie crust, to make two hot pockets tonight or if your Welsh then pasties.  This is my first attempt EVER at making hot pockets.  It took about 30 minutes for them to bake, the bottoms are not burnt though the sides are rather brown.

Mono printing

I over printed yesterday's reverse print, which didn't turn out so well the print looks really good with color coming from behind, though if I were to do it again I'd make the top print more saturated.

This last one is my favorite out of the bunck, even if it is a little crooked on the paper. The object in the background to the right is a windmill, they are springing up all over the rural landscape here so it's only natural I would incorporate them in my work. ;-)

Dinner

John made home made spagetti sauce with meat balls - delicious. I made the salad big whoop right.

Canning Chili

I forgot to bring my camera to the kitchen so the in progress pics are limited this time. I made up my favorite recipe of chili x 10 and put it into hot jars, it'll be processed for 90 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure in the All American. I under estimated on my recipe hoping for 40+ quarts but will be getting 28 quarts instead. These jars have yet to be processed.

I started with ten pounds of ground beef and 4 pounds of dried beans, 2 pounds kideny beans and 2 pounds small red beans. I used one #10 can of chopped tomatoes, one # 10 can tomato sauce, one # 10 can of pureed tomatoes, and one #10 can of Mrs. Grimes Chili with Beans. To this I added 2 very large minced Onions 2 cups minced garlic - comes in a jar at Sam's Club - spices, honey and mole. I browned my beef with the onion, garlic, and spices added. I browned all 10 pounds at once in my 23 quart BWB pan! I added the tomatoes and chili sauce to the browned ground beef etc., and simmered for about 4 hours. I turned the heat off and let it sit overnight - I was bad I left it on the stove and it was still very hot this morning at 6 am.

The beans were soaked overnight, drained this afternoon and added to the simmering pots. I divided the chili meat sauce between two BWB canners 24 cups per pot, approximately, and added the beans dividing them up equally which ended up being approximately 12 cups per canner