potluck

Mozzarella Stuffed Turkey Meatballs

~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

After we found out we’d be moving to Ohio I started to do some Facebook research on the spouse group connected to my husband’s organization here. I was excited to discover that there were multiple clubs and plenty of opportunities to get to know people.

One of the groups is the Recipe Club. You can imagine that I was excited for this one! It took five months before I could fit this extracurricular activity into my new mom schedule. I could have gone in December and was prepared to bring Broccoli and Grape Pasta Salad but I came down with a winter fever the night before.

Last week I was not only able to attend, but the theme of the night of “New Recipes” (something you’ve never tried before) fit in perfectly with a food blogger’s normal kitchen routine. The meatballs I was even planning to make could easily be adjusted to feed more and bring to the potluck-style event. Don’t worry, I did hold a few back for Stuart.

If you bring these to a party you can make them a but smaller than I did (or not!) and provide marinara for dipping. If you have these for dinner just whip up a quick batch of pasta! The leftovers can easily be made into an epic sandwich, too.

Mozzarella Stuffed Turkey Meatballs

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 lb ground turkey
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 C freshly grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 C Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
  • 20 cubes mozzarella, from approximately 4 oz
  • 3 tbsp olive oil

Steps:

  1. In a large bowl, use your hands or a wooden spoon to combine the ground turkey with garlic, eggs, parmesan, breadcrumbs, and S+P.
  2. Form balls from 1 tbsp of the meat mixture. Place a cube of cheese into the ball, grab a little more of the meat mixture and seal it up. Repeat until all the meat is used up – I got 20 golfball sized meatballs.
  3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  4. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown meatballs 2 minutes on each side. (I had to do this in two batches of 10.)
  5. Bake meatballs in a lightly greased casserole dish for 10-13 minutes, or until cooked through.

*This recipe is modified from Kayle at http://www.cookingactress.com/2014/12/mozzarella-stuffed-meatballs.html*

Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs | Sew You Think You Can Cook

SRC: Broccoli and Grape Pasta Salad

~ lk529 ~ 26 Comments

newsrcbanner

I love the Secret Recipe Club so much that when the opportunity presented itself to help someone out in Group B’s reveal day I jumped on it! There are four groups in the Secret Recipe Club. We each post on a different Monday. As I am a member of group D, my reveal day is the fourth Monday of every month. As you can tell, group B posts on the second Monday of the month. Today!

My assigned blog for this “bonus” posting is Flavors by Four, a mother daughter blogging team. I started searching through their blog and found over ten things that piqued my interest. They have a wonderful selection of appetizers which is perfect now that the holiday party season is fast approaching. If you like stuffed mushrooms I encourage you to head on over to their blog, they have a multitude of recipes to choose from including French Onion Soup and Spinach Artichoke. With American Thanksgiving on the horizon I was tempted to pick their Orange Cranberry Bread and Mini Gobbler Pies are a fantastic idea for leftovers! I’m actually making their Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes tomorrow night.

I ultimately settled on Nicole’s Broccoli and Grape Pasta Salad. Frozen grapes are my favorite healthy dessert and we are on a grape kick right now. I also really like broccoli but never seem to buy it. I knew that this pasta salad would be great for me to have in the fridge as a quick lunch during the week. With a four month old I never know when I’ll be able to eat and this pasta salad sounded like a great alternative to my bagel. Of course, this would be a perfect dish to take to a potluck!

Broccoli and Grape Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

  • 6 strips cooked center cut bacon, chopped
  • 1/2 lb pasta, cooked and drained
  • 2 heaping cups halved grapes
  • 4 C broccoli florets
  • 2 heaping tbsp finely diced red onion
  • 1 C mayonnaise
  • 1/3 C red wine vinegar
  • 1/8 C sugar
  • 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper

Steps:

  1. In a large bowl toss together cooked bacon, cooked pasta, grapes, broccoli, and red onion.
  2. In a medium bowl whisk together mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper.
  3. Toss pasta salad in dressing and chill in the refrigerator over night.

*This recipe is adapted from Nicole at http://flavorsbyfour.blogspot.com/2013/09/broccoli-grape-pasta-salad.html *

Pasta Salad FG1

To see the other bloggers who participated in the Secret Recipe Club this month click here:

Corn and Black-Eyed Peas Dip

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

Every Sunday after July 4th weekend my Dad’s family has a reunion picnic. Today is the 15th Annual Dominican Picnic in Chicago. Even after we moved to Florida we did our best to make it back up there to see all of our family. It would always be a two week vacation, split between Busia’s summer home in Lake Geneva, WI. As we got older and our schedules became more hectic, our Illinois-Wisconsin vacations got shorter and skipped a few years. Unfortunately, this year I am not up there – instead I’m battling this never-ending rain in the FL panhandle.

Last year I was very excited to bring my husband to Lake Geneva and Chicago. Lake Geneva is my favorite place to be and I was glad I could share a piece of my childhood with him – and better yet, he enjoyed it too! I also immersed him into my gigantic family at our reunion. Luckily he’s very outgoing! He spent about 45 minutes helping my uncle set up the volleyball net (why it took them that long I still don’t know!) and he taught cousins how to play Ultimate Frisbee. Give him a sport to play, and he’s happy!

547708_3835277598687_1339327212_nDSCN3423Ultimate Frisbee

Stu, Mom, Me
Stuart, Mom, and Me at the Dominican Family Picnic 2012

We assign potluck dishes by letter of your last name – Mom (S) was a salad and I (E) was a fruit/vegetable. I bent the rules slightly and combined our assignments into a tailgating favorite of Corn and Black-Eyed Peas Dip. I can’t remember where I first got the recipe, but it’s become one of my go-to party dips over the past couple years. It’s super simple and nice and light for a hot day.

Corn and Black-Eyed Peas Dip

Ingredients

  • 2 cans black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
  • 2 cans sweet corn, drained
  • 1-2 pts cherry tomatoes, quartered
  • 2-3 avocados, diced
  • 1 lime
  • 1/4-1/2 red onion, diced
  • 2 bottles zesty Italian dressing

Steps

  1. In a large bowl combine all veggies. Squeeze lime over top to keep avocado from browning. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Add in dressing and mix to combine.
  2. Tostitos Whole Grain Scoops are the best complimentary chip for this dip.

You can adjust the amount of avocado and tomato so suit your preferences, but they do make the dip beautiful! I’ve also tried the recipe using thawed frozen corn because I always have it in on hand, but I’ve found the canned corn works better.

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