Today's cooking stuff

I don't really use recipes, but I can cite two, so keep reading if you are still interested. For my meatballs and tuna salad, I just go with the flow and add things that look good and appropriate together.

For my tuna salad, I took about two cans each of Chicken of the Sea Albacore, some Italian tuna brand in olive oil that I bought at the Chelsea Mart a while ago, and two cans of Trader Joe's no salt tuna in water. First, I put a few tablespoons full of typical pickle relish to my mixing bowl, then a few sprinkle's of Penzy's Sunny Paris spice blend, and a few dollops of mayo, a splash of plain white vinegar, and two cans of the tuna, then I stirred. I then realized I forgot all about the vegies, so I took out four celery ribs and diced them and threw them in the bowl, then I got out my mandolin and finely diced half an onion and threw that in the bowl along with maybe 1-4 of a green pepper that I also finely diced. Then I stirred, added more tuna, more mayo, a bit more spices, a bit more vinegar, then when all the mayo in the small jar was used, I just stirred thoroughly until everything was blended and all the tuna clumps were mashed down and I transferred the tuna salad into a tupperware container so I can transport it to my sister's house this afternoon.

For the sweet and sour meatballs, I make them differently every time. This time, I took my big pot and dumped in a large can of stewed tomatoes, and few sprinkles of dried oregano, and freshly ground pepper, and then I sauted half an union that I cut up into slivers. I also threw in about half a large bulb of garlic which I peeled and diced by hand. When the onion was translucent, I tossed it into the pot with the stewed tomatoes and I simmered it for a few minutes and mashed town the tomatoes.

I cleaned out my big mixing bowl from the tuna and put in 1 pound of ground pork and three pounds of ground sirloin. I don't know the fat content because the sirloin was ground for me at a local farmer's market on Friday, but it is pretty lean. I tossed in about half a teaspoon of dried oregano leaves into the meat, some fresh ground pepper, and garlic powder. I thoroughly blended the two types of ground meats using my hands. Then I dumped a jar of Trader Joe's tomato sauce into the pot and a jar of some other brand of tomato sauce. I formed the meat into balls and in to the pot, they went. I then poured another jar of Trader Joe's tomato sauce on top of the meatballs. I covered the pot and simmered it for about an hour and I stirred it thoroughly every 15 minutes or so. Just after the New Years Eve ball drop in Times Square, I mashed up a small can of jellied cranberry sauce and put it in the pot and stirred again and I let it simmer for another ten minutes before I turned off the heat and tasted a couple of meatballs. The sauce is a bit thinner than I prefer, but its pretty good. If I have time, I will pick up a can of tomato paste to thicken it.

I also made a somewhat modified batch of the 2nd Avenue Deli's health salad. This recipe is from the Second Avenue Deli's cookbook, and the but you have to scroll down to the page with the health salad recipe on it. I use a similar recipe. Instead of cabbage, I used two bags of the cole slaw blend that a local supermarket sells. Its quite good. I also omitted the chives and white pepper because I don't like them. The cole slaw blend I buy has a variety of vegies in it, so I didn't bother with the celery or carrot. I also replaced the sugar with an equal amount of Splenda because I try to avoid eating sugary foods.

I just tasted the meatballs and tuna. I made a small sandwich for breakfast this morning from the tuna and it was quite good and I also tried three of the meatballs and they were tasty too. The sauce thickened a bit over night, but its still a bit too thin for my taste so I will try to add in some tomato paste if I can find a grocery store that's opened this morning.

A coworker recently gave me a recipe for a pasta and cheese skillet which I plan to make in a couple of hours for this party. I have never made this recipe before so I plan to follow it fairly closely. Instead of the macaroni, I plan to use Dreamfield's wheat penne pasta which I think tastes pretty good and its healthier than regular pasta.

So here's the recipe:

ingredients:

2 cups uncookded elbow macaroni 2 tablespoons butter 1 medium sweet onion, diced 3 or 4 large tomatoes, diced (my coworker suggested a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes instead, which is what I will do). salt and pepper 1 cup freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese 1-4 cup grated parmesan cheese (optional)

I plan to use the optional parmesan cheese. I will omit the salt because my dad prefers to maintain a low salt diet.

Cook and drain the macaroni, but do not rinse it. Melt butter in a large skillet. Saute the onions for 2 to 3 minutes and onion turns golden brown. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add macaroni and cheddar cheese to skillet and toss the mixture together over a medium-low heat until the cheese has melted. Sprinkle with parmesan.