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This recipe makes a lot of meatballs so make sure you have dinner guests or you are going to be able to eat the leftovers the next day.
Scandinavian Spiced Meatballs with Caramelized Apples
This recipe looks complicated at first glance, but meatballs are pretty easy. You blend all of the meatball ingredients in a food processor, shape the little suckers, and then cook them with the sauce ingredients.
Start by blending 1/2 medium onion, 1/3 cup dry red wine, 1 large egg yolk, 1 garlic clove (I used 4), nutmeg, ground ginger, salt, coriander, cumin, and pepper in your food processor. Now the recipe says to add 1 lb lean ground beef and 1/2 lb ground chicken (or turkey) to the processor and pulse 5 times. I just turned out the processor into a large bowl and added the meats and blended with my hands. At this point you also add 3 sliced up large scallions 5 large, diced, pitted prunes.
Many meatball recipes I have done in the past call for 1 tablespoon or so of white rice as a thickener, here they use prunes. And they magically blend in and you can't taste them, so don't worry about those picky eaters--what they don't know won't hurt them!
Shape into 20 plus meatballs. I ended up with a few more since those organic ground meats come pre-packaged and I didn't want to waste any meat. So I had to cook my meatballs in two batches. Film a saute pan with oil and heat over medium-high. Add the meatballs and brown before turning. (The authors point out that your meatballs should not touch, but I would have to cook mine in 3 or 4 batches and they turned out just fine squeezed in together.) 
Once they are browned, turn the meatballs and sprinkle with pepper, a bit of bruised caraway seeds, 1/2 of a diced onion and 1 diced apple. (1/4" dice works nice.) Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and cook until middles are no longer pink, about 8 minutes.
Remove meatballs with slotted spoon and place in serving dish. Turn heat to high and boil down the pan juices in the apple mixture. Using a wooden spatula, frequently stir the apples until they are getting nice and brown. Then add 1/2 dry red wine and keep cooking until wine is cooked down. Then add chicken broth and and boil it down by half and then pour sauce over meatballs to serve.
Now, I have to admit, sometimes I don't read things too carefully and I added the wine and the broth at the same time and I let it cook down by half and it turned out delicious anyways.
I served these babies with spicy green beans, and smashed and roasted potatoes. The roasted potato recipe I found on The Pioneer Woman's blog. Dish delish! I make these potatoes all the time now.
62 recipes down in How To Eat Supper.
The obvious key to any good sauce is usually the high fructose corn syrup present in whatever base you are using. Store bought Hoisin Sauce's number one ingredient? High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Hoisin China Noodles with Four Flavors
We were having a dinner guest so I wanted to make something a little fancier. This comes off very well and it is high maintenance with the prep work and makes a lot of dirty dishes, but the cooking part couldn't be easier.
First you prep the four "flavors"--this are raw ingredients that you serve at table so this part is easy. Prepare 1 and 1/2 cups each: thin-sliced radishes, bean sprouts, peeled, seeded, and diced cucumbers, and thin-sliced spinach leaves. These look very nice if served in their own separate bowls.
Next you need to cook 3/4 pound of Chinese Egg Noodles. Now the recipe calls for the thin noodles, substituting egg spaghetti if nec, but I used the wider noodles because that is what I had and they worked great because they held the sauce so well. When noodles are done, rinse in cold water. It is best if this is all done before you start cooking the pork and sauce. When I cook this again, I will start the noodles before prepping the veggies.
Marinate 1 lb ground pork butt with 3 T dry sherry, chopped garlic, and 1 teas sugar. Set aside for now.
In another small bowl blend 2 T hoisin sauce with 2 T soy sauce and 1/2 teaspoon hot chile paste. (Another thing to admit, I doubled the hoisin and soy sauce and quadrupled the chile paste. You can never have enough hot spicy yummy sauce.) Set this aside as well.
In a large skillet or wok, warm up 3 T canola oil. Add the pork mixture and cook for a few minutes, breaking it into smaller bits and cooking until most of the moisture is gone and the pork is no longer pink. Add 1/2 cup sliced green onions and 1/2 cup sliced water chestnuts. (I also add a sliced red pepper since we had one from our farm share.)
Cook for no more than a minute and add in you soy sauce mix. Heat that for another minute and then add 3/4 cup chicken broth and cook, stirring constantly for about 3 minutes over high heat. Add your drained noodles and cook long enough for the sauce to get all over the noodles and to heat them up a little, just a couple of minutes. Serve immediately in a nice large bowl with your four flavors on the side for your guests to select what they want.
Trevor and his friend Tony both liked the dish a lot. At least their plates were empty by the end of dinner! The only thing I might try differently is to add raw carrots to the flavors and actually throw the spinach in with the noodles to wilt them a little.
Very delicious. Drink with cold beer.
61 recipes down in How to Eat Supper.
The piano tuner is here so I am more than a little distracted by his tinkling of the keys.
Supper Tart of Red Onions, Greens, and Grapes
If you want to impress a crowd, there is nothing like puff pastry to help you out.
This is a lovely and simple tart and it is very fast to make.
Defrost on your counter I package of puff pastry (2 sheets). It will go faster if you take the sheets out of the box and lay them side by side to thaw.
Take 1 light-packed cup of greens of your preference---I used spinach---and tear them into bite-sized pieces. Toss in a bowl with a half cup plus of green grapes, 1 slivered medium red onion, shredded zest of 1/2 lemon, 1 chopped garlic clove, chopped fresh thyme, salt, and pepper.
Once sheets are thawed, lay them side by side, overlapping by 1/4 inch or so on a large baking sheet. Press the overlapping edges to seal and pinch the outside edges to create a rim. I actually rolled my sheets out a little bit to make the tart a little larger. You should end up with a sheet about or larger than 7" x 17".
Fill the tart with your onion and greens mixture and spread it out evenly. 
Now the authors say to bake this at 500 degrees on the bottom rack for 15 minutes. I know my oven is extra hot so I put it on the middle rack for 15 minutes at 450 degrees.
While it is baking, blend1 cup shredded cheese (they recommend Asiago) and 1/4 cup heavy cream. OK OK I just used half and half and it turned out fine.
Pop the tart out of the oven and spoon your cheese mixture all over the tart. Bake for an additional 6 minutes. Serve warm. YUM!
This is easy and in a pinch you can get away with whatever cheese or veggies you have on hand.
60 recipes down in How To Eat Supper.
Everything tastes better coated in egg, dipped in breadcrumbs, and fried!
Pan-Crisped Risotto Patties (Variation)
I didn't make any of the cookbooks risottos-I just made some based upon what I had on hand: onion, eggplant, garlic. And it was tasty-but this is not a risotto recipe, it is a pan-crisped risotto recipe.
Start with any risotto leftovers. Wet your hands and then make hamburger-like patties with approximately 1/2 cup of risotto per patty. Dip patties in beaten egg and then toss in breadcrumbs, panko, whatever your prefer.
Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add patties and turn heat down to medium. Cook until golden on one side, turn over and cook until the other side is done to your preference. Drain on paper towels if needed and serve with a squeeze of lemon.
I tried this two different ways. Yesterday, I made the patties as directed but I baked them instead of frying them. I finished them by broiling them to turn them brown and they were tasty. Today for breakfast, I took the leftover baked patties and sauteed them as originally directed and they were just as good, maybe a little crispier. Both times I ate them with a dollop of sour cream, extra yum.
59 recipes down in How to Eat Supper.
I must admit, I thought I was making gazpacho, but it was really just salsa.
Sante Fe Summer Pot with Avocado and Shrimp
This recipe is masquerading as an entree in the Main Dishes section of the cookbook, but I realize there is no appetizer section for it to really be in. So make this for a first course! We took a few bites of this, realized it was really salsa and went out for dinner instead!
I read that there was cucumber in the recipe and that was the true mistake of my confusion. Gazpacho leaves the salsa realm with olive oil, cucumbers, vinegar, and bread (sometimes blended in, sometimes served on top). We had an AMAZING garlic/yogurt gazpacho in Walla Walla and I did some research and it was a traditional ajo blanco and I will be making that very soon before summer is completely gone.
OK, back to the recipe-- this is really a pico de gallo. The authors also say it has a prep time of 10 minutes. Do they have eight arms? It took me over 20.
Combine 1/4 cup lime juice, 1/2 chopped red onion, 1 minced clove of garlic, and 1/2 a seeded and minced jalapeno with a blend of cumin, ground coriander, and pepper.
Let that mix marinate while you blend 1 and a half pounds of fresh tomatoes with cilantro in a food processor. The authors recommend 1 or 2 sprigs of cilantro, I say use the whole bunch if you are ending up with salsa! Keep it chunky and then add in the onion mixture and blend with just a few pulses.
Turn out into your serving bowl. Fold in 1 small peeled and diced cucumber, 1 diced avocado, and 1 pound cooked, peeled shrimp or prawns. (They said shrimp in the recipe, I used baby shrimp and then realized they probably meant prawns.)
Serve with chips and a few lime wedges. 
Maybe the chips were a signal this was really a salsa? This really tasted quite fine, but it was not what we were expecting and so we didn't really enjoy it. Also, the onion was incredibly strong. I might substitute a sweet onion in place of the red.
58 recipes down in How to Eat Supper.
Weirdly, we ate a lot of soup while on our road trip so I have had a big soup craving since we got back.
Curried Cauliflower Cream Soup
I have always loved cauliflower soup. It takes flavors nicely and has an interesting texture. This was a little on the simple side, I was surprised to discover, and very easy to make. It doesn't even have cream in it, they use yogurt to thicken it instead.
Start with a simple saute in oil of one chopped medium onion, 5 chopped garlic cloves, and 3 tablespoons of generic curry powder. Cook over medium low for 5 minutes, making sure not to burn it.
Add I large head of chopped cauliflower, 3 potatoes skinned and cubed (I used red), 4 cups chicken broth (I used one box), and enough water to cover the veggies if nec. Bring soup to a boil and cook until the veggies are fork tender. The cookbook says 15 minutes and then let it sit 15 minutes to cool. I guess so the yogurt won't curdle when you add it.
But after 15 minutes, my veggies were still very firm, so I ended up cooking it for half an hour and I had to add a little water as it cooked down. Then I only let it sit for a few minutes before I pureed it with my hand blender.
If you don't have a hand blender and you like to make soup and smoothies, I heavily recommend it! I am not a big fan of buying a million different silly kitchen gadgets, but this little device is a modern miracle. I used to puree soup by zapping it in small batches in my food processor and that was a MESS and took forever. Now I just puree it right in the pot, no mess, easy to clean the hand blender. I bought mine on amazon for $29, a steal!
Ok, back to the soup. It is basically done at this point. Serve with a giant dollop of yogurt and a squeeze of lemon blended in each bowl.
I served this alongside our favorite Lynne's Retro Garlic Bread.
However, I have to admit, I thought this could have used some more interesting spices. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but a little spice, a little pepper, anything could liven it up. I will definitely keep experimenting with this recipe. We love the cauliflower.
57 recipes down in How To Eat Supper.
After an eight day road trip to Montana, Wyoming, and Walla Walla, I am ready to cook!
Almond Chutney Chicken in Lettuce Roll-Ups
After eating A LOT of steak and fries and wine the last week, I tried to pick out a healthier looking recipe.
This is in the spirit of Vietnamese Spring Rolls and is made of a chicken salad served alongside lettuce leaves and a few crispy fillings.
The chicken salad has a secret ingredient-- Major Grey's Chutney. This is a ready-made, mango-based chutney with about a zillion ingredients supposedly invented by a British Officer in India and even the cheap brand I bought from Fred Meyer's tasted pretty good so I will skip any long-winded speech about making your own. Just buy it!
Start with a whole roasted chicken. Another day I might roast my own chicken first, but I was hungry when I was at the grocery store, so I just bought one of the ready-roasted birds. It wasn't organic, so I am sure the authors would be disappointed in me. Pull all of the meat you can from your chicken, discarding the skin and bones. Then shred it or cut it into bite-size pieces.
Combine in a large bowl: 1 diced red onion, 1-2 diced jalapenos, grated zest and juice of one large lemon (or more to taste), one 9 oz. jar of Major Grey's Chutney, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Fold in chicken along with 1 cup chopped almonds and a few stalks of chopped celery.
Serve with bibb lettuce leaves, sliced cucumber, fresh cilantro, fresh basil and radishes. 
This was very tasty and came together really easily. It would be easy to use substitute. I think jicama or carrots could be a nice addition and I might try it with peanuts instead of almonds.
The only problem was that the lettuce was small and it was a little messy. For lunch today I sliced up the rest of the lettuce and tossed it with the chicken mix and it was delicious.
56 recipes down in How to Eat Supper.
Once they are browned, turn the meatballs and sprinkle with pepper, a bit of bruised caraway seeds, 1/2 of a diced onion and 1 diced apple. (1/4" dice works nice.) Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and cook until middles are no longer pink, about 8 minutes.
I served these babies with spicy green beans, and smashed and roasted potatoes. The roasted potato recipe I found on The Pioneer Woman's blog. Dish delish! I make these potatoes all the time now.
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