Italian Wedding Soup

I love this soup so much!  It's warm, delicious, hearty and comforting. I've always been a fan of Italian wedding soup, but I've found ordering it tends to be hit or miss.  Sometimes it's really good and sometimes not so much.  This is my first time making it, and I'll probably never order it again.  The homemade version was so much better than I could have ever expected and better than any version I've had in a restaurant.  I think this is due to the spinach.  When soup is held in a warmer the spinach keeps cooking and loses flavor.  At home the spinach is just barely cooked and tastes fresher. Seriously so good.  And this so easy to make when you already have the meatballs in the freezer.

This recipe calls for the frozen meatballs I wrote about in another post.

Adapted from: Smitten Kitchen

Serves: 4

7 oz cooked and frozen tiny meatballs
8 cups chicken or vegetable stock*
1 cup peeled and diced carrots
3/4 cups orzo
4 cups baby spinach

1. Bring the stock to a boil and add the frozen meatballs and carrots.
2. Once the stock is back to a simmer add the orzo.
3. When the carrots and orzo are cooked and the meatballs are heated through, add the spinach.  Cook until the spinach is just wilted.

*Better than Bouillon is a really good quality stock base that you can just mix with water to make stock.  It's super easy and convenient and available at most grocery stores.

Meatballs

I love meatballs, and these are my favorite.  Not only are they tender, flavorful and delicious, but they are versatile as well.  So far I have five different ways to serve them, but there will probably be more in the future.  The mix of meats is what makes these meatballs so delicious.  I find meatballs made only with beef to be a little dry and tough.  Adding ground pork and veal makes all the difference. I multiply this recipe by six, so I'll have plenty of meatballs for all these different applications

Difficulty: Moderate
Category: Simple Side
Column: EG & EH
Adapted from: Smitten Kitchen

Pork Meatballs

This is another delicious addition to my collection of meat patties/meatballs that work so well as summer meals.  They're delicious and convenient.  They would also be great as the meat in a Bahn Mi Sandwich.

Difficulty: Easy
Category: Freezer to Pan
Column: EI

Head over to The Garlic Diaries for the meatball recipe.  The only change I make is that I use soy sauce instead of fish sauce as I am not a fan of fish sauce. Make the meatballs, but don't cook them.  You'll freeze them raw, and cook when you're ready to eat.

To freeze:
Place the raw meatballs on a sheet pan lined with parchment.  You can do up to two layers on a tray, separated by parchment.  Freeze them until solid, then transfer to a container or bag for storage.

To serve:

Coleslaw
1 bag coleslaw mix
10 basil leaves, sliced
5 mint leaves, sliced
3 tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 green onion sliced
1/4 cup rice vinegar
5 tbsp mayo
4 tsp sweet chili sauce (available in the Asian section of the grocery store)

Sweet chili sauce
Lettuce leaves (romaine or butter lettuce)
Lime wedges

1. Combine the coleslaw mix, basil, mint, cilantro, green onion.  Combine the vinegar, mayo and sweet chili sauce.  Toss the dressing and vegetables together.
2. To cook the meatballs heat a frying pan over medium heat and coat with a thin layer of oil.  Add the meatballs to the pan.  Cover the pan with a lid to help the meatballs cook.  Flip the meatballs occasionally, so they brown evenly. Cook the pork until reaches 170 degrees.
3. Drizzle some sweet chili sauce over the meatballs and toss to coat.
4. To serve, make lettuce wraps by filling the lettuce leaves with coleslaw and meatballs, and squeeze the limes over everything.

Meatloaf Patties

A while back I wrote about the possibility  of making meatloaf patties instead of the traditional loaf shape.  I finally got around to it, and it's way, way better than the loaf shape.  

Reasons patties are more convenient than a loaf:

1. No thawing - When I made meatloaf in a loaf form the loaf needed to thaw for 48 hours before cooking.  Patties can be taken from the freezer and go directly in the pan.
2. Cook faster - The loaf shape takes at least an hour to cook.  These were done in less than 30 minutes.
3. No oven - These are cooked in frying pan.  The oven doesn't need to be turned on, which is especially nice in the summer.
4. Easy portion control - A full sized meatloaf is enough food for my family for two meals, and we'll still have leftovers.  With individual patties it is easy to make as much as we will eat in one night.  

Nashville Hot Chicken

A couple years ago I visited the Nashville, TN area.  I love to learn about and try the local specialties of places I visit, so in Nashville I discovered hot chicken  It was incredible.  I had to learn how to make it.  This isn't it exactly, but it's close.  I'll keep experimenting with it.  I think the flavor might be improved by making the spicy oil the day before to give the oil time to really absorb the flavors, but for now, this is pretty darn tasty.

This is a part of my series on making and using frozen breaded chicken cutlets.

Korean Fried Chicken

I love this spicy and sweet fried chicken.  It's one of my favorite meals.  It's a part of my series on making and using frozen breaded chicken cutlets.

So Much Fried Chicken

Chicken Milanese is one of the first meals I posted to this blog, and it's one that we have continued to enjoy.  Over the past couple years I've come to realize that I can do much more with a breaded chicken cutlet than just this one delicious meal.

It started when I ran across this recipe for  Korean Fried Chicken.  It looked incredible, and I had to try it.  Looking at the recipe I noticed that it started out very similar to the Chicken Milanese above with breaded chicken, although there were some minor differences in the breading mixtures.  After the chicken is breaded and fried it is dipped in a sweet and spicy sauce.

Then I visited Nashville, TN and tried its amazing hot chicken (spicy fried chicken).  I was sad that this deliciousness was only available in Nashville.  I resolved that I had to learn to make it.  When I looked into recipes for it I learned that chicken was breaded, fried and dipped in a spicy oil afterwards.  I realized I could make a generic, breaded chicken cutlet and use it in a variety of ways.