Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Meatball Calzones



This is a great weeknight meal because it's so easy to throw together but it looks and tastes like you've slaved for hours! No one has to know any different! ;)

The recipe calls for homemade meatballs and if you'd like to make homemade meatballs for this recipe by means, go right ahead! I had a bag of turkey meatballs in my freezer from Trader Joe's and so I went searching to find a recipe that I could use them in. I came across this site called Group Recipes and found this meatball calzone recipe. Jordan really likes calzones so I wanted to give it a try. You can click on the link above to take you to the original recipe.

Ingredients:
1 bag frozen meatballs - mine were turkey meatballs
1 can Pillsbury dough sheets
Mozzerella cheese, shredded
1 egg white, lightly beaten
Italian seasoning
Spaghetti sauce, warmed

Directions:
Bake/cook meatballs according to package, set aside. On a floured surface, roll dough into an 18-in. x 12-in. rectangle. Spoon meatballs and a few handfulls of mozzarella cheese down the center.



Fold dough over filling; press edges firmly to seal.



Place seam side down on greased baking sheets. Careful, this is a bit tricky! Brush the top with egg white; sprinkle with Italian seasoning.



Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.



Doesn't that look delicious?!



Make sure to serve with a side of spaghetti sauce. Enjoy!

Friday, September 11, 2009

Gooey Butter Cake



I have had The Cake Mix Doctor cookbook by Anne Byrn for two years and haven't used it yet! Well, I decided that was ridiculous so I decided to choose a recipe to take to a friends house for Labor Day. I went with the Gooey Butter Cake - which really should be called Gooey Butter Bars because it's not really cake. But it's definitely worth making! This recipe is easy and yummy but very rich so cut them into small squares.

Ingredients:
Crust -
1 package plain yellow cake mix
1 stick butter, melted
1 large egg

Filling -
1 package cream cheese, at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter, melted
3 3/4 cups confectioners sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For the crust, place the cake mix, melted butter and egg in a large mixing bowl - blend with mixer for two minutes. Scrape down the sides - the batter will be crumbly.



With your finger tips pat the batter evenly over the bottom of a 13x9 inch baking pan, as Saryn is showing you below. ;) Smooth out with your fingers until the top is smooth, set aside.



For the filling, place the cream cheese in the same mixing bowl - no need to clean - blend until fluffy, about 30 seconds. Add the eggs, vanilla and melted butter and beat for 1 more minute. Add the sugar. Beat again for 1 more minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and pour the filling onto the crust and spread with rubber spatula so the filling covers the entire surface.

Place pan in oven and bake until it is well browned but the center still jiggles when you shake the pan - mine took about 47 minutes.



Remove pan from oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes. I would recommend chilling and then cutting into small squares to serve. I thought these tasted much better cold than served at room temperature. Enjoy!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Balsamic Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Grilled Grapes

Great recipe, not so great photo. Sorry!



My photos aren't the greatest because I do my cooking at night and the best lighting for photographing food is natural light. I almost didn't post this recipe because I wasn't happy with the photo - but it's soooo good I have to share it! I'm looking into getting some photo boxes with some lighting to help with my pictures. Hopefully I'll find something this winter!

On with the recipe! We had friends over for dinner on Saturday and I wanted to make pork tenderloin on the grill. I've had my eye on this recipe in Cuisine at Home for three years and I finally gave it a try. ;) I love pork tenderloin but only have a few recipes that I really like enough to make over and over. One is the pork tenderloin wrapped with puff pastry and the other one I just realized I have not posted on my blog! Not sure how that happened but I'll work on getting that up here soon!

This tenderloin recipe is very easy with great flavor. The lemon honey sauce is what makes this dish so don't skip that part. I think it really needs to be served over polenta as well.

Pork & Grape Ingredients:
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 T whole grain mustard
1 lb pork tenderloin, trimmed
salt & pepper
8 oz cluster grapes
2 t olive oil
ground black pepper

Lemon Honey sauce ingredients:
1/4 cup shallots, thinly sliced
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 T honey
2 T butter, cold

Polenta ingredients: (I couldn't find ground polenta, Whole Foods probably has it, so I used the prepackaged stuff they have in the grocery stores and added water, salt and parmesan cheese)
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup fine ground polenta
pinch of salt
2 T Parmesan cheese, shredded
ground white pepper to taste

Polenta Directions:
Bring water, milk, polenta, and salt to a boil in a saucepan over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until polenta is the consistency of hot cereal, 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the parmesan and pepper. Cover and keep warm until ready to serve.

Pork & Grape Directions:
Whisk balsamic and mustard together in shallow baking dish. Add tenderloin, turn to coat, marinate 10 minutes. (I marinated mine for about an hour)

Preheat grill to medium heat. Remove pork from marinade and season with salt and pepper. Place tenderloin on the grill, cover and cook 10 minutes. You can brush tenderloin with marinade if you like before flipping. Gently toss grapes with oil and pepper in a bowl and arrange grape clusters on grill. Cover and cook 10 more minutes (the grapes might be done sooner) or until pork reaches 150 degrees and grapes have turned slightly lighter in color. Let pork rest 5 minutes, then slice into 1 inch thick pieces.

Lemon Honey Sauce Directions:

Saute shallots in oil in a saucepan over medium heat until softened, about 2 minutes. Deglaze with wine, add rosemary, and simmer until nearly all liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Add broth, lemon juice, and honey. Simmer until reduced to 1 cup, about 15 minutes. Remove and discard rosemary, the swirl in butter. Serve slices of pork on polenta and drizzle with sauce. Garnish with grapes.