Homemade Spaghetti O’s: The Sequel

Rather than be beaten down by my latest kitchen catastrophe, tonight I made a second attempt at making Homemade Spaghetti-O’s. Every sequel is better than the original, right? So my attempt today had to turn out better than my first.

You will be happy to know that it went much better this time (If you missed this post and didn’t notice the aftershock effects that originated from my kitchen, you can read my account here).

So… HERE is how to make Homemade Spaghetti’O's without causing self-induced trauma (adapted from the America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook).

First, combine 8 oz ground turkey, 2 Tbsp fresh chopped basil (2 tsp dry basil), 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1/4 cup grated parmesean, and 3 Tbsp dried breadcrumbs. And a bit of salt and pepper, to taste.

Kidding. Please don’t taste the raw meat.  Ick.

Pinch the meat into little bitty meatballs, put them on a plate or in a pan, cover and put them in the fridge while you whip everything else up.

Heat a couple tablespoons olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat.

While that’s heating, coarsly chop 1 onion and 1 medium carrot:

Refill your fancy olive oil bottle.

Clean up the olive oil you dribbled all over your fancy bottle and counter.

*sigh*

Remove the battery from the smoke detector. Temporarily.

Dump veggies into smoking oil and cook until softened and onions start to brown, about 5 minutes.

One lump or two?

Two??? C’mon, people, this is hearty Italian Spaghetti-O’s we’re making! At least four cloves, please!

Thank you!

Cook for another minute, then add 1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes (juice and all) and 2 1/2 cups chicken broth. Bring to a simmer, then reduce to medium-low, cover, and let cook for another 15-20 minutes so that carrots can further soften.

Now, here is where it got messy for me last time. Hot liquid. Full Blender. Empty stomach that couldn’t wait for it to cool.

This time, I planned ahead.

Let the liquid cool for a little bit. Just enough so that it won’t burn you if a mini-catastrophe might occur.

Assemble all of the clean towels in your household. Just in case.

Hunt down the most patient person you know. In my case, Tyler.

Have them blend it for you:

1/3 at a time, stating on low speed (DO NOT PULSE!), removing the middle plastic top thing-y so that some of the steam can escape in order to prevent pressure build-up.

Cheer and fist-bump your blending-buddy for successfully blending your Spaghetti-O’s without any explosions!!!

Or, if this experience was more akin to my first attempt at making Spaghetti-O’s, comfort your patient husband or friend and kindly counsel them through the trauma while you clean the mess up for them.

Pour the blended mixture back into your freshly cleaned pot, bring to a simmer at medium heat and dump in meatballs and 1 cup of ditalini.

Or, if you prefer, alphabet pasta.

Which I do prefer, thank you very much.

Cook for 12 minutes, covered over medium heat, until pasta is al dente and meatballs are cooked through.

Finish with salt and pepper, a little brown sugar for some sweetness, parmesean, and a little basil, if so desired.

Make your husband suffer from hunger while you fiddle around with the camera to try to get some pretty food-pictures.

Scold your husband for leaving his watch and cell phone on the table right where you needed to take food-pictures. Darn hunger. Next time I’ll get started a little earlier so I can notice things like clutter in the background.

Apologize for scolding him and thank him profusely for helping out and for being SO patient during the 3 hours it took to make the Spaghetti-O’s, photograph them, and blog about them (Kidding, I didn’t really scold him or make him wait while I blogged about it. But taking pictures definitely did slow the process down a bit. How does the Pioneer Woman do it???).

*sigh*

And finallly, let the nostalgia sink in as you melt into your favorite cozy chair and savor the sweet flavors from your favorite childhood food. Mmmm.

And that, my friends, is how homemade Spaghetti O’s should be.

Chili

You know what day yesterday was, don’t you?

Aww, c’mon, don’t be modest, I know you remembered.

As of yesterday, it was official.

I have now been rambling blogging for one whole year!!!

And what did I do to commemorate that momentous event?

Not blog.

It wasn’t intentional really. I kept thinking, Ok, here I go.  But Wednesday nights are our big T.V. watching night (I know, I know, it’s terrible!), and I just didn’t get around to blogging. I was too sucked into watching Gordon Ramsey terrorize the cooks on Hell’s Kitchen. And speaking of Gordon Ramsey, we watched a new show he was on in the summer called Masterchef America, and I got a couple really good recipes from the website. He’s much nicer on Masterchef and I love that they made some of the recipes available.

So anyway, I thought I would share my VERY favorite with you

Modified to my own personal tastes, thank you very much. And scaled down on expensive ingredients. But don’t you worry, I will give you the link original recipe here too.

Masterchef Cheyenne’s Awesome Chili:

20 ounces ground beef or turkey

2 Tablespoons ground cumin

2 Tablespoons chili powder

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

10 cloves garlic, chopped

1 large onion

1 green bell pepper

1 jalepeno pepper, chopped (Don’t forget to de-seed and de-rib! And make sure you wear gloves!)

28 ounces crushed tomatoes (1 large can)

1 can (15 ounces) beef broth OR 2 cups broth made from beef stock

1 can of beer (I don’t drink beer, but someone donated it to me for my chili so that I wouldn’t have to buy a whole pack. Trust me on this ingredient though… it’s kinda nasty stuff to drink, but it made the chili SO good!!!)

2 chipotles chilis, chopped (In the Mexican aisle. We use this all the time, because you can put it in a little mayo for some chipotle mayo for sandwiches. It’s delish).

1 cinnamon stick

1 Tablespoon oregano

2 cans of beans – I used kidney and pinto, but you can use whatever you want.

Lime juice (optional, to taste)

Cilantro (optional, 1 small bunch fresh or 2 Tablespoons dried)

To cook the meat, season it with the cumin, chili powder, and salt. Drain the meat when it’s done. Set aside for a moment, covered so that it doesn’t dry out.

Heat the oil over medium heat and add in the vegetables (garlic, onion, peppers) to saute for aroudn 5 minutes if you want some crunch still (yum) or 10 minutes if you want it soft (ehh).

Add the meat to the pot as well as the tomatoes, beer, broth, chipotle chilis, oregano, and cimmamon stick. Allow flavors to combine on medium low heat, stirring occassionally for 15 minutes.

Add beans and dump everything in the crockpot to allow the flavors more time to come out. Put it on the low setting for at least 30 minutes, no more than 2 hours (the beans will get too soft if they are in for too long. If you need it in for longer, wait to add the beans until 30 minutes before you plan to eat). (You could also just leave it in the pot and let it simmer on low, but I like to be able to stick the crockpot right in the fridge after we’re done with it and it’s cool. Otherwise I lose the availability of my big pot).

Add the lime juice and cilantro before eating and enjoy!

And THAT my friends makes some REALLY good chili.

Granola Grandeur

Don’t worry guys, I did survive the quarterly de-clogging of the bathtub drain and de-tangling of the vaccuum. The Hairy Shower Monster and the Fuzzy Vaccuum Fiend were no match for me!!!

Bet you were starting to get worried though, weren’t ya? Since it had been almost a whole WEEK since I last posted!

Geesh, what a lazy bum of a blogger I am.

Anyways, today I greet you now with a perky smile and a happy heart because today, friends I am making CEREAL!!!

Have I ever told you how much I love cereal? Ask my family, my roommates, or my husband what food I could not live without and they will tell you: cereal. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner I could eat cereal no problem. The Total sweetness of Life Kix in whenever I Chex my cupboard for food to find several friendly cereal boxes!!!

Sorry… I get a little (Fruit) Loop-y talking about cereal. It plays Trix with my mind.

Again, I apologize. *clears throat*

Anywayyyyys…

This weekend we made our own granola, because it’s one of Tyler’s favorite kinds of cereal, but it’s always so expensive. You could pay $4 for a teenie little box that, frankly, I could eat in 2 days. That’s (Grape) Nuts (man, I just can’t control myself)!

So here is a recipe for granola that is quick and easy and much less expensive than buying granola. It’s based off of this recipe here.  Most of the ingredients are items you probably have on hand already:

4 cups Old Fashioned Oats

1 cup Shredded Coconut

1/2 cup Almonds, chopped or slivered

1/3 cup packed Brown Sugar

1/3 cup Vegetable Oil

1/3 cup Honey

1/2 Tbsp Cinnamon

2 tsp Vanilla

1 cup of raisins (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 35o degrees. Combine oats, coconut, and almonds in a medium size bowl.

2.  Combine sugar, oil, honey, and cinnamon in small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring consistently.

3.  Remove from heat and add vanilla, still stirring. (At this point, the mixture will sputter and foam like a chemistry experiement. Don’t worry, though — this is supposed to happen.)

4.  Pour hot mixture over dry ingredients until evenly coated.

5.  Spread onto baking sheet and place on center rack in the oven for 10 minutes. Stir and return to oven for another 10 minutes.

6.  When cooled, add raisins (if you so desire).

7.  Dump back into medium size bowl.

8.  Pour 1/2 gallon of milk into bowl.

9.  Rummage around kitchen for serving spoon.

10.  Haul bowl over to couch, turn on cartoons and devour.

11.  Take a blissful post-breakfast mid-morning nap because you can’t move.

12.  Repeat steps 1-11 daily.

13.  Optional: Disregard Steps 7-12.

And THAT, my friends is the way I do cereal.

Cheerio!