Food Therapy

It's been a roller coaster of a week for me.  Wednesday was my birthday (I turned the big 3-3) and I was having very mixed emotions about celebrating another year of life.  Loneliness has weighed heavily on me this week, and it's been difficult for me to want to just get out of bed every day.  I've been having some anxiety, and it's been intensifying....some nights, I just wake up for no apparent reason.  I have been struggling to find the motivation to do something about it; I know there are lots of things I can do to combat my anxiety.  Cooking is really probably the best remedy...and I know it's been a while since I've really cooked anything.  This morning, I needed a little retail therapy to get myself out of this slump, so I went to Kohl's, and BAM!  They had a meat grinder attachment for my new KitchenAid mixer ON SALE.  It actually rang up $5 cheaper than the posted sale price, too.  Score!  I also had a coupon....it's no secret that I'm all about the bargains.  But, I digress.
So, I couldn't just buy this new toy and not use it today, so I picked up a couple things from Kroger to whip together a meatball casserole. 
I had a tough choice between stew meat and a beautiful beef chuck roast....I went with the stew meat because A) it was already diced, and B) it was cheaper, so if I messed this whole thing up, I wouldn't be out as much money.  (I'll tell you at the end if I made the right decision.)
I already had several jars of Prego spaghetti sauce -- that's my personal favorite, until I master the art of making my own -- and so all I needed was a block of whole milk mozzarella, because I have a crap-load of spices and bread crumbs already. I cannot stress enough the importance of using WHOLE MILK MOZZARELLA.  It is so much creamier and melts so much better.  Skim-milk mozzarella leaves a lot to be desired.  Seriously.  Don't do it.  Get the whole milk.  Trust me.  For real.
Okay, back to reality.  I used my handy dandy new grinder to grind up the stew meat.  Really, this is the coolest thing ever.

Snap, clip, bing, bang, boom.  Turn that puppy on, push some meat down the doohickey, and out comes ground beef.  It was grossly fascinating.  Sorry, I forgot to take a picture.  

Okay, to the recipe......

FIRST:  Preheat your oven. For meatballs, I go to 400-Fahrenheit.  

Again, notice I don't really measure.

• Italian seasoning.  This is important.  It's your flava.
• Salt and pepper.
• My secret ingredient:  a little dash of my Tastefully Simple Everyday Grilling Seasoning.  You could easily substitute some pepper steak seasoning...obviously not too much, but it adds some depth of flavor.
• Bread crumbs (about a palm full.)
• A splash of milk.
• I had just over a pound of beef, and my rule of thumb for meat mixtures is 1 egg per pound. That may not be the Julia Childs way, but it works for me.  So, 1 egg. 

Now, preheat a skillet and spray it with some Pam before you have to get dirty.

Get your hands in there and get it aaaaaaalllllll mixed up.  Roll them into whatever size balls you want (giggity.)

Now, sear them.  If you're not into cooking terminology, "sear" means to brown on the outside.  So, pop those bad boys into the skillet for a few minutes, and make sure you flip them to get them browned all over.

I move them to a cookie sheet lined with non-stick foil (a life saver!)  They need space!  Crowded beef will NOT COOK.  Don't invade its bubble.  Then I cook them until I think they're done.....which usually ends up being between 20-30 minutes.  I just eyeball it, really.  

I move them to a casserole dish, also lined with non-stick foil, and dump the whole jar of sauce on them.  Let them cook in the sauce for another 10 minutes or so...the sauce will get all bubbly and kind of darken up a little bit. 

While the meatballs are soakin' up the sauce, dice up yo cheese!  Whole milk mozzarella will pull apart really easily, and it will look like strings.  Sometimes I cut the cheese (baahahahahaa) and other times I just chunk it up with my fingers.  Whatever strikes your fancy.  

Sprinkle it all over the top of the meatball/sauce mixture.  As much or as little as you like.  I happen to love cheese, so I go all out.  

I let it cook for about 5-6 minutes so it kind of melts down, then I turn on the broiler.  This is what gives you those brown spots of cooked cheese....oh, man, those are the best.  You REEAAAALLLLY have to watch it, though, because a broiler will burn it faster than anything.  You're looking at probably a minute or two, MAXIMUM.  Don't burn your cheese.  That's gross.

Then, voila!  Finito!  You get this beautiful picture:

My review:  the stew meat was a little too lean for the meatballs....I also realized post-cooking that I forgot to add my splash of milk!  So, the meatballs themselves were just a smidge dry.  Good thing there was all that sauce and cheese to soak them in!  Lesson learned:  go with chuck roast.  Or mix pork and beef next time.
This is some great comfort food. And it's low carb-friendly because you really only have a small dose of bread crumbs inside the meatballs.  Really, the trick is to flavor your meatballs, and to get WHOLE MILK MOZZARELLA. It's worth it.
That was my therapy today.  Well, that and the peanut butter cookies I made.....

Mystery Fridge Challenge

Captain Obvious speaking:  I love watching MasterChef....or any cooking show, for that matter.  My favorite part of MasterChef is the Mystery Box Challenge, because it often mimics my fridge and/or pantry.  Tonight was one of those nights where I had a crap load of crap that I needed to do something with.  Come to think of it, it's kind of what my week at work was like.  I had a pile of crap and nowhere to put it.  Anyway...I digress.  Here's what I had:

Ignore the two butcher blocks in the background...and the hot dog buns....and the Tupperware container.....and the bread....and the paper towels....I LIVE IN AN APARTMENT!   Okay. 
Then I got out my trusty cast iron skillet.  You can't go wrong when you use a cast iron skillet.  I'm telling you -- listen to me.  Cast iron FTW!

First step:  ALWAYS pre-heat your oven. I promise.  You will not regret it.  I chose 350-degrees tonight.

I browned the beef and drained it, strained it, whatevered it...and put in my packet of onion soup mix, and I did a round of beer to deglaze.  Let that simmer together for a hot second, stir it up some, and pour the rest of the beer in.  Turn the heat up on that burner, son!  Let 'er boil!

Just for kicks and giggles, I threw in a dash of seasoned salt and another dash of my Tastefully Simple Onion Onion. I let it cook down for a while; maybe 10-ish minutes.  I don't know, I was busy texting people.  After a bit, I added some of the frozen veggies.  Yep, just thrown them in.

Looks like Christmas!  Stir, set, stir, set.  The veggies have to cook a little bit because they are frozen, so let it go. (See what I did there?)  I had to thicken up this mix, so I whisked a little flour into a little cold water and tossed it in the skillet.  BAM!  Thickness.
I cut my pie crust with a pizza cutter - because duh - and had 8 triangles.  I spooned out some of the beer beef onto four of the triangle crusts.  I topped the little messes with the other triangles, spread some melted butter on the tops, and stuck them in the oven until they were light golden brown.

The beer mixed with the onion soup mix created such dense flavor.  The little hand pies don't look pretty, but they sure tasted delightful!