A Full Plate

It's been a busy week.  Two birthday parties, eye exams, packing up to move, studying for my UK citizenship test, training for my half marathon in June, and keeping my title as Domestic Goddess and Mother Of The Year.  Phew.  I'm tired.

I did manage to fit in a trip to Jamie's Italian in Oxford.  I have to apologize now.  I get so excited when I go there and they put my plate down in front of me, I forget to take pictures.  It was fantastic.  Simple, good quality, real food.  I also love that I'm contributing to Jamie Oliver.   He is my food hero.

We started with Mushroom Bruchetta, and mixed olives.  The mushrooms were grilled with thyme, lemon and garlic and placed on top of a crusty piece of olive oil soaked, garlic rubbed, toasted ciabatta bread.  The olives blow me away every time.  I HATE olives.  These olives are amazing.  They are bright florescent green and apparently from Puglia, Italy.

For our main dishes, Carlos got the burger with truffle and Parmesan fries.  While we were looking for a place to park that night, we stopped the car next to the restaurant to give our friends a call to say we were there, and I saw these burgers through the window being delivered to various tables.  They looked amazing.  He said it was one of the best burgers he's ever had.

I had the Mushroom Panzerotti, which was like big mushroom and ricotta stuffed ravioli.  I also had simple green salad on the side with a buttermilk dressing.  Very fresh and super yummy.

 For dessert, Carlos got the special tiramisu.  It was flavored with an orange liqueur and chocolate.  I had an espresso and dark chocolate tart.  Extremely rich, and not very sweet.  I loved it.

It was also Super Bowl Sunday and even though I was gonna be in bed (11am -4am over here in the UK), I couldn't let the occasion pass without making something for  Carlos to take to his party that night.  I was really excited about this recipe.  It was one of those desserts that is so rich and sweet that after a couple of bites you know you should stop, but you can't.  I give you Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip  and homemade Football Cookies.  I made three flavors of the dip: Snickerdoodle, Double Chocolate Fudge Cookie Dough, and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  The cookies were perfect for dipping into this dip.  They weren't very sweet at all, so you had a nice balance with the dip.  My football shape turned out kind of goofy (they DID look like leaves), but hey, I cut them free hand.  You can't buy american football cookie cutters in the UK.  Just not gonna happen.

The cookie tray came home empty, so I'm guessing the guys like it.  I'm glad I sent it out of the house, 'cause I would have eaten most of it myself.

Friday Food

Fridays are my favorite day of the week.  I love having the whole weekend to look forward to.  My husband works from home most Fridays, so I get to see more of him.  It is also the day when I really get my cook on.  I work on Saturdays and Sundays, so I like to make sure the fridge is stocked with easy, good food that my husband and the kids can eat while I'm not around.  Friday night is  pizza night.   I  like to try out a new dessert that night too, to kill the craving I may have been having all week for cheesecake or brownies.   This Friday I made Jenna's Heath Bar Blondies,  this AH-mazing pizza (best one I've made ever),   I tried my hand at making some baguettes, and for a change, I made meatball hoagies to go with our pizza.   Think I might have a tendency to put a little too much on my plate (excuse the pun)?

I had originally intended for the baguettes to go with the hoagies, but I didn't read the recipe properly (such a rookie mistake!)  and had to send the husband out for some at the store.  I missed the part where it said the baguettes had to rise in the fridge overnight.  We have a lot of bread at my house now.  Never a bad thing.

I wanted to do something a little different with my meatball hoagies.  For some reason, I always end up with half a tub or pesto lingering in my fridge after I've bought it for a recipe, so I thought I'd make Pesto Meatballs.  They turned out really good.    A subtle flavor of basil and garlic, with pine nuts and Parmesan running through the meatballs.  They were very tender too.  I'm definitely keeping these in my recipe rotation.

Pesto Meatballs

• 1.5 lbs ground turkey
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1/4 tsp marjoram
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 heaping Tbsp pesto

Preheat oven to 280C (350 F). 

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.  Shape into meatball shapes and put in a lightly greased baking dish.

Bake for about 25 minutes.  Done.  

The possibilities are pretty endless with these guys.  I made hoagies with this marinara sauce.  I added mushrooms and green bell pepper and I loaded up the hoagies with grated mozzarella.  

That's the incredible pizza and my pesto meatball hoagie.

Yep, that's beer in the wine glass.  I'm not be pretentious. The bottles these ales come in are so big, I'd be asleep by 8 if I drank a whole one myself.  So we split one, and now it's a Friday night tradition.  We try a different one every Friday night.  Yeah, it's the little things that excite us now.  Thanks, kids.  

Anyhow, I digress, the meatballs.  We had a lot of meatballs in marinara left over (yay for leftovers!) as you can see....

Looks kinda weird in the pic. Trying to work on the camera issues.

I can see spaghetti and meatballs in the very near future.  You could also make some pretty cool little appetizers with these.  Hunks of mozzarella, fresh basil leaf, cherry tomato and a meatball on a toothpick.  Super Bowl snacks?