Classic Beef Meatballs

The weekend before last, it finally felt fall-ish. It was chilly and gray, the NY Giants were winning, and I could smell fireplaces from other houses in our neighborhood. The kind of fall day that makes you want to cuddle up in a hoodie and watch a movie (if you want to be entertained, watch Game Change — Julianne Moore does a killer Sarah Palin!).

The thought of spaghetti and meatballs crept into my head. We never make pasta for dinner, but I found myself wanting some old-school Italian goodness. The husband was agreeable, although he says he eats "meatballs and spaghetti" rather than the other way around. Definitely a carnivore. Note that these are delicious (and very healthy!) with spaghetti squash too!

Anyway, this was the first time I made meatballs with just beef — I really wanted to go traditional. You can use a meat combo (e.g., pork, veal), but I wanted to stay simple. I started with a Martha Stewart recipe and adapted from there. Sadly I forgot to take a picture of our finished dishes, but here's a good "before" shot.

Panko-Crusted Salmon

If the idea of cooking salmon makes you nervous, wait! Don't touch that dial! Keep reading! You really should give this one a try. I love making salmon this way...it might actually be my favorite way to prepare it. It's fast, easy, and so tasty. And don't forget healthy — that's important too!

I even taught Brad how to make this dish. Typically, I'm the cook of the family (though Brad mans the grill), but he nailed this one! Here's a dimly lit cell phone shot of him in action!

Gooey Butter Cake

My blog seems to have turned into Dessert Central lately. While I didn't want to post yet another sweet treat, it just happens to be a special occasion — my husband and baby daddy's 33rd birthday.

And he's a special guy, so for his birthday I made one of his favorites — Gooey Butter Cake.

Brad is from Kansas and I'm from New Jersey, so we had to be very purposeful when deciding to pursue our relationship. And when he permanently moved to Philadelphia five years ago, I knew I was a lucky girl! We've since gotten married and had a beautiful baby girl. He's supported me in amazing ways over those years — most recently as my "labor and delivery support person" (at least that's what the hospital bracelet he had to wear called it). He was so great in the delivery room that the nurses and doctor asked him what birth classes we took (shhh, we didn't take any classes!). And I just love watching him with Katy — she lights up when she hears or sees her daddy!

Banana Bread with Cinnamon Swirl

We've had a lot of visitors over the past couple of months, as Baby Katy is a very popular gal! It's been nice to have an excuse to bake something have something sweet to snack on when they're here.

I came across the original recipe on Pinterest and was wooed by the sounds of a "cinnamon swirl." I made a few modifications to add some fiber and reduce the fat, but followed the basic premise of the original recipe. Feel free to ignore my modifications if you want full-on indulgence!

And you know how the best part of a muffin is the top? Where all of the flavorful, crunchy goodness lives? Well, thanks to the swirl of sweet cinnamon in the middle, you get a little bit of that "best bite" throughout the bread. That's in addition to the nice crust it creates on top, of course.

It's tasty from top to bottom!

Baby Girl Has Arrived!

Greetings, friends! It occurred to me that I have been absent from my blog for nearly the whole summer. You see, I was in the process of baby-making — and as it turns out, that's pretty taxing work!

While I had a mostly enjoyable pregnancy, I began having difficulties being on my feet in the kitchen for hours of cooking (sad!) and also using my laptop on my lap, which no longer existed starting sometime around mid-June. Thus, very little experimental cooking or blogging.

The end result of my hiatus? A beautiful baby girl named Kaitlyn Grace. She has been a true blessing, and we're so happy she's here! She was born August 4, 2012, just a day after my birthday.

Here she is in the hospital, one day old.

Strawberry Lemonade Bars

I haven't exactly been whooping it up this summer. I think it has a little something to do with the fact that I'm really pregnant and we've had several heat waves so far. But at least I can cook/eat like it's summer — and these treats are like summertime in a bar!

I do a lot of pursuing on Pinterest these days, and I came across this recipe there. Brad and I both really enjoyed it — it's light, refreshing, and so full of flavor. They're a snap to make, too, as long as you have a few lemons on hand. (And I highly recommend that you use fresh-squeezed lemon juice rather than store-bought. It'll make a huge difference in taste!)

Rhubarb Snacking Cake

I've already mentioned that I love me some rhubarb. And there's no better time than now to get in on the action while it's still in season. This rhubarb snacking cake is a great way to feature the unique, tart flavor, and I dig it!

I looked up rhubarb on wikipedia to get the low down. I was very interested to read this: "Rhubarb is usually considered to be a vegetable; however, in the U.S., a New York court decided in 1947 that since it was used in the U.S. as a fruit, it was to be counted as a fruit for the purposes of regulations and duties. A side effect was a reduction on imported rhubarb tariffs, as tariffs were higher for vegetables than fruits." Sorry, was that nerdy of me to find interesting?

I saw this recipe in a post from Smitten Kitchen. It caught my eye because she talked about how she took Martha's recipe, cut the cake portion in half, upped the amount of rhubarb, and threw more crumb on top.

YES. This is my kind of a recipe.

Perfect Pulled Pork

These days, I'm all for making food on the weekend that will feed us during the week. It's just smart! It's also cost-effective, efficient, and gives us back time otherwise spent making dinner and cleaning it up. Pulled pork is a great for this purpose.

Here's the thing about pulled pork. It's completely low-maintenance. But yet it tastes like you spent hours caressing it, massaging it, and willing it to be tender.

Before trying this recipe, you should ask yourself a few questions:

• Can you order a Boston/pork butt from your butcher? I'll be honest, it feels a little silly to say to a grown man, but it pays off. Note that while it's called "pork butt", it's really a shoulder cut of meat.
• Can you mix spices and brown sugar together and rub them into the meat? 
• Can you place the pork in a low temp oven and not touch it for 8 hours? 
• Can you take a fork and shred the meat in a totally imperfect, and even haphazard, way?  

Cherry Almond Granola

Having a stash of homemade granola in the pantry is a beautiful thing. First of all, it makes for a great snack, is perfect for mixing in with yogurt/fruit for breakfast, and is good enough to sprinkle on top of vanilla ice cream. (So far this is sounding a lot like my post about Rhubarb Strawberry Sauce.)

Secondly, it's so easy to make — can you stir and do you have 30 minutes? And finally, it keeps for weeks in an airtight container/ziploc bag, so there's no feeling harried to finish it off.

The beauty of granola is that, once you have the basic technique down, you can really experiment as much as you want with the ingredient list. Like cashews? Great! Throw them in or sub out one of the other ingredients. Want dried cranberries instead? Cool — make it happen! Just beware that if you add more ingredients (as opposed to substituting something out), you'll need to up your quantities of honey and oil to make sure everything has a nice coating while baking.

Rhubarb Strawberry Sauce for Mom(s)

For some reason, pregnancy and blogging hasn't mixed for me. It may be because my baby bump precludes me from using my laptop comfortably on my lap. Or possibly because we've been trying to get so much done every weekend — we're definitely in the nesting stage!

We've painted the baby's room and our living room/kitchen, shopped for new baby furniture, registered, and I've been trying to make food to freeze so I'm not cooking dinner so much during the week. And at the end of any of these projects, all I've wanted to do is sit down with my feet up and veg.

I did, however, manage to make a few homemade gifts for Mother's Day.