Fáilte!

The people we choose to share our ups and downs with in life are our best friends, our confidants.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - that can knock you out!!

It's been dreary and overcast here in Pittsburgh the last few days and I'm not going to sugar coat it, it's just depressing after a point. But food is always a pick-me-up for both David and myself :D which is when David suggested we have meatballs for dinner. A nice comforting food that makes us feel happy and satisfied. However, you haven't seen these meatballs. May be it's just me, but I have a certain fear respect for a ball o' meat that's big enough to knock me out if someone took a fancy of lobbing one at me. Who would lob a meatball at my head you ask? Flint Lockwood? No, probably David - he is always itching to toss a snowball at me so I figure it's the same. I digress (but I will watch my back in the kitchen now...)

So, in order to prevent a terrible hailstorm of meatballs in the 'burg's vengeful gods, David and I set out to make these giants. I won't lie, I laugh everytime I make them because there just isn't a mixing bowl big enough for them (outside of a restaurant's kitchen. Or, either of our mothers lol), so a pot it is! After we mixed everything together the ridiculous perfect amount of mixings were then formed and placed in our huge roasting pan, except when filled with these monsters our pan looks tiny : / 

How big are they, you ask. I would say they are a Pittsburgh unit, give or take, and if you don't know how big that is - let me assure you it's an intimidating amount of meat to be presented in any sitting at the table. It. Is. Big. 


I tried to take pictures to give you scale, but I had few ideas and I was too lazy concerned about their structural integrity, so I opted not to remove them from the pan to show you properly. Don't judge me. I was tired haha. Thus, our matchstick idea David so brilliantly suggested.

Speaking of that, This free programming is made possible by Chey, who without her ingenious idea and gift of Crocs my feet wouldn't have been able to stand long enough to make these balls. *Applause* Brilliant! They really do make standing in the kitchen cooking that much more of a pleasant experience. And yes, I really did just include a random picture of my feet in this post :D

 
This was our beautiful end result after an hour of baking. 13 beauties baked to perfection and just begging to be eaten. So, just go find a horde of hungry teenage boys, or a small army, and enjoy the feast!
 
 
Meatballs - the size of a softball! Recipe
 
Makes: about 10-13 servings
Cook time: 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes
 
*As a warning, do NOT cook these in sauce, unless of course your goal is to make a tasty meat sauce. They are too delicate to get stirred in a sauce.
 
  • 1 medium onion diced
  • 5 c fresh bread crumbs (5 slices bread food processed to crumbliness)
  • 2 c Parmesan cheese
  • 1 c freshly chopped basil leaves, or substitute chopped arugula and 1/4 c dried basil
  • 1 c fresh chopped parsley, or substitute in 1/4 c dried parsley
  • 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 tbsp kosher or sea salt
  • 1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 c whole milk
  • 4 tbsp EVOO
  • 1 head garlic, cloves smashed and finely chopped
  • 5 lbs ground beef, or substitute a 1:1 ratio of ground beef and pork
  • 1 c warm water
  1. In a large bowl, mix the bread  crumbs, cheese, basil, onion, eggs, milk, EVOO, garlic, meat, water, parsley, red pepper, salt and pepper. Mix well with your hands. The mixture should be loose, but able to maintain its form.
  2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
  3. Form the meatballs into balls between the size of a softball and a baseball (about 8-10 oz portions)
  4. Place them into a pan at least 2" deep, our roasting pan was perfect, making sure they don't touch each other to ensure they evenly cook.
  5. Bake until all the meatballs reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, about 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.
  6. Transfer to a serving platter and serve hot or let cool, place in container and refrigerate, OR let cool and put into a freezer safe container and freeze for use within 6 months.
 
 
 

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

San Diego

My vacation destination for this year was San Diego, CA because my mom's soccer tournament was taking place in Escondido, CA. So, Sara, myself, and my mother flew out there for a week. My mom was definitely focused on her soccer, whereas Sara and I had a week to do as many misadventures adventures as we could! One thing we tried to do was visit Escondido's pedestrian bridge while we had some time to burn - which did NOT work out for us. Oh goodness we drove around everywhere looking for that stupid bridge. what did we find instead? Eventually a lake. Don't get me wrong, it was a pretty lake, but not what we had just spent the better part of an hour searching for. However, this took a more humorous/frightening route when we decided to use the areas facilities before getting back in the car and was this sign:

Makes you think twice before sitting, doesn't it.

Between dropping my mom off and picking her up from games, Sara and I actually got a lot of sightseeing in.We visited Old Town, which was great Mexican food, but I did feel cheated when we went to "America's most haunted place". Why did I feel cheated? Let me tell you why - upon entering the building I did not feel a single cold spot, no one played with my hair, no mysterious shadows or laughter, nothing. In a word - disappointing. The only demonic thing I saw in this building was in this picture
And I am pretty sure those are just the reflection of the wall sconces. But I was placated because we left this "haunted" building and went for lunch at a cantina down the street and it was delicious enough to nearly make up for that disappointment.
Oh so sauve Sara!

We also did a 3 hour sailing tour from the harbor out to the open ocean! I would like to say that we learned how to personally sail the seven seas, but we did the more lazy version of sailing. Which means that we sat on the sail boat drinking wine and enjoying the wind in our hair and sitting on a cool boat while the captain did all the work. It was probably safer that way. Sara and I felt so prepared and excited for this trip, we got there early, got to enjoy pretty views/flowers, and sprayed our faces, arms and back with sunscreen so we wouldn't get burned, but you want to know a secret we overlooked? Spray your legs with sunscreen. We didn't think we would need it, "Oh we'll be up and about on the boat, plenty of shade, yadda yadda yadda" - don't be foolish. You will ALWAYS need sunscreen if you have our complexion on ANY area exposed. *Sigh* when will we learn?
It was great to be on the water, the captain even let me take the helm and take us out to the open water and this is of course where I learned that I am a natural pirate. I don't just think it - it was reaffirmed by the captain haha. Or, he was "fishing" for better tips (haha I'm hilarious). My money is on the latter, but it's fun to believe the former. I am proud to say I didn't make anyone seasick, unlike the guy who took over for me. It was a fantastic experience and we came away happy, until about 10 minutes from dock where we realized our legs had been BAKING in the sun for 3 hours with no protection. Imagine fire engine red and you begin to form the correct picture... we did everything we could think of to help ourselves (except to avoid it by just using sunscreen). However, the next morning we woke up and headed down to La Jolla for our snorkel/kayak excursion we had scheduled.
 



La Jolla was beautiful and we did our snorkel/kayak excursion there. We got to swim with the sharks! Big man eating great whites!! ... OK not really great whites per se, but that does make it a better story :) Although, even the 'small' sharks make you very nervous in the water, haha. Other than the sharks, we saw a lot of bright fish in the murky water and sea lions. Lot's of barking was going on in the area. Kayaking was actually the most difficult part,w e had the head wind against us the entire way out (and I swear even coming back in it was against us). Our excursion was supposed to take an hour and a half, but with this wind it was a 3 hour tour. My favorite part may have been the overweight guy who kept capsizing his kayak. After 3 tries he gave up and was escorted back to shore. In the end Sara and I learned a few things: 1) wet suits are not flattering, 2) putting a wet suit over top a sun burn sucks, and 3) putting a wet suit over top a sun burn sucks. HAHA we were in the changing rooms and I could hear Sara in the next one over making the same whimpering sounds as I was when I was trying to slip on the suit over my burns. Not fun.

We ate a lot of good food on this trip I have to say. We stopped for breakfast one morning in Carlsbad at this adorable place called the Daily News Cafe. By time we were done eating we wanted to move there. Then another morning we dined in the Gaslamp Quarter at the Broken Yolk because it was highly recommended, Sara was even able to get gluten free pancakes there! We tried an In N' Out and found it to be pretty good for fast food burger and fries. I tried mine 'animal style' as the worker called it, and it was as tasty as he promised. We ate at the zoo (which was nice) and we got to eat next to the waterfall even. At the harbor we went to a nice seafood restaurant on the water and it was amazing. Here's one of our desserts . . . we ate our meals before thinking to take a picture (haha) sorry!


We crammed in SO many things and drove so much during the trip (well Sara mostly drove, I navigated) that by time we got home we were ready to just be HOME. I came to Pittsburgh and told David we needed to move to San Diego haha. We not only vacationed, we vacationed HARD. In fact, I think I'm still recovering . . .



Sunday, September 1, 2013

Engagement!

This has been such an exciting summer! I want to tell everyone how excited I am for my brother and his fiance :)
My whole family traveled out to Michigan for the engagement ceremony  and to celebrate! They live in a beautiful area and her family and friends were so sweet and welcoming. The ceremony was a neat experience and the food was delicious, plus all the good company - how can it not be a great time? I have to share some photos so just bare with me on this :D




Everyone looks wonderful and so happy, it was a beautiful day for a perfect couple :) David and I were so happy we could come and share in this happy ocassion, and we cannot wait to celebrate the wedding with them.