Meatballs and red sauce

(OK, so my kids always eat this one, but it's too good not to share.)

For dinner last night, we had my favorite meatballs in red sauce.  The meatballs are really good (especially if you use the recommended fresh breadcrumbs).  If you like a moister meatball, try adding a tablespoon or two of milk or tomato sauce to the mix.  

The real star of this dish, however, is the red sauce.  I cook the onions past the translucent stage, heading toward caramelized and only add the garlic at the end of the onion cooking process, just before adding the tomatoes.  Doing so, gives a richness to the sauce.

I might adjust the seasoning to taste, and I always add a scant 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes...just enough to make the sauce complex and more-ish, but not enough to give an unnecessary spiciness to the dish.

If you don't like a  chunky red sauce, use an immersion blender or a food processor to even out the sauce...just before adding the meatballs.

I've been known to make the sauce in the morning and just let is simmer all day on the stove, and add the meatballs thirty minutes before meal time.

Along with the pasta I prepare just before serving, this recipe feeds my two bottomless pit thirteen year-old boys, my husband, and me...with a generous serving left for my lunch the next day.  (Who am I kidding...I had it for breakfast just now.)

Click here for recipe.

Lemony Grilled Shrimp Salad

What a delicious dinner salad this was!  I'm glad the boys weren't here so Paul and I could eat all four portions by ourselves.

The highlight of the dish was definitely the grilled shrimp.  Marinated briefly in a bit of olive oil, fresh lemon zest, smoked paprika (a must!), kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, these shrimp would be wonderful on their own as a main course.  This part of the recipe alone is a keeper.  Just be careful not to overcook the shrimp.  Two minutes per side over high heat on the grill (or under the broiler) is perfect.

I got the idea for this recipe from Cooking Light once again, but I tweaked it a bit.  For the original recipe, click here.  In addition to the baby arugula, jicama, queso fresco and avocado, I added some freshly roasted corn and red bell peppers.  The dressing is refreshingly simple:  olive oil, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, a tad of sugar, salt and pepper.  Perfect for a summer dinner.

Even if salad isn't your thing, you must try this shrimp!

The restaurant version

Paul had a business dinner tonight, so a friend and I went out for sushi...the raw kind.  Definitely on the list of things my kids won't touch...yet.

Here's one of my favs, double crunchy spicy tuna roll:  

Now, to be fair, I should admit I also had the asparagus tempura roll.  Nothing raw going on there.

We went to Sushi Avenue in Snellville, an unlikely spot that serves up some of the best sushi and tempura that I've ever sampled.  The original Sushi Avenue is located in Decatur, GA and for reasons I'll never understand yet always appreciate, the owners decided to open a second restaurant out here in my little ol' suburb...in a strip mall, right next to the Radio Shack.

For you non-sushi lovers -- or yet to become sushi lovers -- they also serve a full menu of cooked items like rice bowls, Udon noodle bowls, teriyaki, and entree-size tempuras.  My kids love the chicken teriyaki and shrimp tempura.

Tomorrow night, it's back to my own kitchen with Lemony Grilled Shrimp Salad.

My kids are at camp, and we're going crazy

Could it be sillier to be feeling giddy this week because I'm cooking whatever I want, with nary a concern for anyone else's palate? Luckily for my husband, he is in on the gag, because he eats whatever I put in front of him...except maybe Brussel sprouts.  Then again, there was that shrimp, angel hair, jalapeno-orange-cream sauce from our courting days.  It was the early 90's and those were heady times for angel hair.  (But, really, doesn't that still sound mind-blowingly delicious even under the bright lights of 2014?)

It's not even that my kids are that picky.  One will eat salad.  The other will eat broccoli.  It balances out.  But, this week, in their absence, it's all about ME.  I don't care if somebody doesn't like smoked paprika or satay sauce.  Go ahead, kids, try liking what I like.  I DARE you.

Last night's menu:
Lemony-minty squash ribbon salad
Kofta (Middle Eastern meatballs) with yogurt-tahini dipping sauce

The squash salad is divinely easy to make.

Slice a few zucchini and yellow summer squash length-wise, as thinly as possible.  (I had an old Pampered Chef mandolin in my cupboard waiting for its inaugural use.)  Once sliced, add to the squash a swoosh of olive oil, some thinly sliced fresh mint, about a 1/2 tsp. (or more!) of grated lemon rind, a bit of kosher salt, and a couple of grindings of black pepper.  See how basic these ingredients are?  But, I promise, they pack a big flavor punch in the end.  Put the seasoned squash slices in the fridge while preparing the rest of the meal.  

Just before serving, sprinkle the salad with 1/4 cup feta crumbles and 2 slices of crumbled crisply cooked bacon.  The original recipe called for three thin slices of prosciutto, which I'm sure would be delightful, but I worked with what I had.  Just don't go heavy on the bacon.  The other flavors are delicate and you only need a smidge of the bacon flavor to pull it all together.  Cooking Light originally published this recipe and here is its online version.

The lemony-minty goodness of the squash was the perfect foil for the more intensely flavored kofta.

Kofta are basically meatballs, and you find them from North Africa to Greece, from the Gulf States to Indian.  There are probably as many variations of the recipe (and its spelling) as there are grandmas to cook them. 

This recipe claims to be specifically Lebanese and came from a wonderful food blog, The View from Great Island.  Ground lamb marries with ground beef, an array of intense spices like cardamom, allspice, and cumin, fresh mint and fresh parsley, finely chopped green onions, and feta cheese crumbles to create these delectable skewered meatballs that are having a hard time surviving as leftovers in my fridge.  They're that good cold, right out of the Tupperware.

Even though the recipe called for frying them in a light amount of olive oil in a large skillet, I elected to thread them onto skewers and grill them over medium-high heat charcoal, because that's how they were done when I had them in Greece and Turkey.  However, you could easily just form them into cylindrical sausage shapes, thick enough not to fall through the grill grates, and grill them just like little hot dogs, sans skewers.  Add a little of the yogurt-tahini dipping sauce to freshen it up, and you've got some amazing flavor explosions going on.

Here's the recipe.  Bon appetit!