Erika over at Tummy Treasure received my package yesterday! Yay! You can read her post about it here.
The best ginger cookies EVAH! were a big hit. Thanks again to Music and Cats for sharing. 🙂

Erika also seemed to enjoy my chocolate peanut butter fudge, which (thankfully) turned out okay on the third try. 😉 My first try was edible but too soft. The second try went directly into the garbage…it carmelized or something. This one, while not perfect, was both edible and firm enough to cut. 😉

Here’s the fudge recipe, courtesy of my parents, if anyone’s brave enough to try!

• 1 box powdered sugar
• 1/8 to 1/4 cup baking chocolate (the more, the darker)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• peanut butter…approximately 12 ounces
• 1 stick of cheap margarine (My dad, who is the reigning fudge-making master, swears by this. He uses Blue Bonnet)
• 2-5 T milk (dad always uses regular milk. I used evaporated milk in my most successful attempt. feel free to experiment)

Melt the peanut butter, margarine, vanilla, and chocolate together, until silky smooth

Next, add about 2/3 of the powdwered sugar and mix until it’s a paste…make sure all the lumps are out

Add 1 tbsp of the milk and start adding, SLOWLY, the remaining powdered sugar, stirring as you add…as it starts to get dry add another tbsp of milk. From here, add milk as you think it needs it, for the correct texture.

Spread into a small, deep dish. A square or small rectangular cake pan will work. Chill.

That’s it for now…more later! 🙂

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And baking…Jen has photos posted already. 😉

Please note my third attempt at fudge. Fudge is hard. 😛

Anyway, yay for a fun girly day in the kitchen! Hope you are all in the holiday spirit!

As promised, here are some photos of my apple pie.

I used a deep dish pie plate, NYS Empire apples, bought in Niagara County before I went home to PA, and the Betty Crocker cookbook.

See more photos of the pie-baking process here.

This post has nothing to do with Abba, and everything to do with spicy little balls of meat.

Yes, I’m finally posting photos of my meatballs, and I’m going to do my best to describe the process. As I’ve said before, it’s nearly impossible for me to write down a recipe for this sort of thing.

The process starts, of course, with the ingredients.

The large metal mixing bowl was probably not necessary for the amount of meatballs I was making, but it was what I had. 😉

I used about a pound and a half of ground beef. The necessary ingredients include:

• grated cheese (I use a parmesan/romano blend that my family buys from The Cheese Man–really, that’s what his card says–who’s based in Jamestown.)
• bread crumbs (my grandma made her own using leftover bread no one was going to eat and a food processor. I buy them in the can.)
• parsley flakes
• black pepper
• garlic salt or powder (if you use powder, I recommend also adding some salt)
• eggs

Here’s the tricky part…no measurements on any of the above ingredients. I dump a bunch of stuff in and mix it up, adding things until it feels/smells right. You need a good meat-to-bread ratio. (you don’t want it too meaty) I use lots of cheese. I ended up using all three eggs in this batch, but it’s hard to say.

Here’s what the mixture looked like:

You’ve really got to work it through, to make sure it’s well mixed.

Then, you roll it into balls. I scoop some of the meat out with a tablespoon and form the ball from that, but you can make them whatever size you like.

I always test one…form one into a patty and fry it so that I can taste it before frying the rest.

Once you’re satisfied with the flavor, it’s time to fry!

I just used canola oil. You can use olive oil, but that costs more. Plus, I was out of it. 😉

The meatballs should just be browned in the pan. (I cook them a little bit longer if they’re going to be eaten in this state.)

I did put some aside for Jen, since she likes them this way, but I made sauce a couple of days later. No photos of that, though.

When I make sauce, I start with cans of Hunt’s tomato sauce and some water, seasonings (cheese, garlic salt/powder or real garlic, various italian seasonings, pepper, and a bay leaf), add meatballs (and just a smidge of the oil they were fried in), and cook for several hours. I let the water I added cook down, which gives enough time for the sauce to really cook into the meatballs.

I thought the results were pretty tasty. 🙂

A while back, Stephanie sent me a recipe that I’ve been meaning to try. Last night, I finally decided to do it.

The recipe was for sticky chili chicken. These are the things I had to go and buy:

• ginger
• chilis (I had to get dried ones)
• white wine vinegar
• sugar (we were nearly out)

Things I learned…a traditional grater is not good for grating ginger. Also, ginger is easier to grate when frozen. Oh well. I ended up chopping it as finely as I could. Um…I need a much sharper knife. Chopping the dried chilis was not fun.

I decided to also serve a little salad:

Romaine hearts, dried cranberries, mandarin oranges and sliced almonds.

Here’s what the chicken looked like in the pan:

And here’s what it looked like served over rice:

If I’d wanted to pretty it up, I’d have bought some fresh cilantro to garnish. (the recipe did call for cilantro leaves. I used dried ones. because we had them.)

Very, very tasty. And pretty simple, but for the chopping. 🙂 Rand and I both enjoyed.

Thanks, Stephanie!

I make a damn fine meatball. 🙂