Recipe #1

So, I have been pretty successful as of late planning meals, cooking etc. and a little lax on my photography promise to myself... needless to say this next one was a big hit, so I thought I would share the meal as well as my (pitiful) attempts at food photography.

On the menu:

Herbed turkey meatballs aka Turkey Meatballs with Cranberry sauce (aka to be named later)

Served the garlic whipped mashed potatoes and broccoli

I was fairly optimistic about this recipe considering that the cookbook had worked well so far (Williams Sonoma Simple Suppers):

Ingredients:
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 small celery stalk, finely chopped
1 lb. ground turkey
1 cup fine fresh bread crumbs
1 egg
2 Tbs. chopped fresh oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
2/3 cup fresh orange juice
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 cup sugar

Directions:
Make the meatballs
Preheat an oven to 425°F. Lightly oil a rimmed baking sheet.
In a large fry pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and celery and sauté until softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Spoon into a bowl and let cool. Set the pan aside.
Add the turkey, bread crumbs, egg, oregano, salt and pepper to the cooled onion mixture, and mix gently but thoroughly with your hands. Shape the mixture into 12 meatballs and arrange on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake the meatballs until opaque throughout, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the orange juice, cranberries and sugar in the fry pan and place over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring often, until the juice comes to a boil and the cranberries begin to pop, 2 to 3 minutes.

Divide the meatballs among dinner plates, spoon the cranberry sauce over them and serve immediately. Serves 4.

Here is my assistant Chef (aka younger brother, roommate and resident foodie) with our balls



Word of warning, when making these with a guy, especially your younger brother, there will be lots of comments regarding balls

While the balls were cooking... I worked on the mashed potatoes and broccoli, and went to get started on the cranberry sauce

Now, here is where the complication came in... it is February and everywhere we looked they were fresh out of cranberries...

So we improvised with a can of whole cherries and since the sauce wasn't quite thickening we added corn starch (and when I say we added corn starch it is a rather loose term given that... well... I didn't have corn starch on hand either so... we used flour... which... WORKED!)

So we have cherries instead of cranberries... more hilarity with jokes regarding cherries and balls ensue, and at this point my dear husband was also chiming in, and the joking was clearly reflective of a high school locker room, and very entertaining.

Here is the final product Cherries and Balls a la Becca



Resounding success among the two boys (who will admittedly eat anything), but I enjoyed it and thought it was relatively healthy and will definitely make it again.

Now left out of this entry...

The destruction that cherry sauce leaves on the stove

And the picture of my finger with the cut on it from the cherry can... needless to say I thought I would leave the gore out (not to mention I need to work on self portraits in my photography)