I like our Saturday/weekend Six so I'll start it off:

heather_in_sf

Well-known member
SF is happily tsunami-free. Whew. The storm woke me up at 3 am along with a few other SF people. Then I started watching CNN, so glad our dear Hawaiian friends are safe too!

So I caught up on Ina's shows and saw her anniversary show where she made the Italian wedding soup. I went to the store to buy spinach and champagne and a few things. Can you believe Whole Paycheck did not have a dozen eggs that weren't broken? At $3.65-$4.95 you would at least expect the shells would be intact. Good thing I had 2 egg left at home. It's simmering away now! I must say that I love the chicken meatballs so much, I made extra and so far I've snacked on 4. Well, 6 but who is counting. Well. Maybe more than that but they're really good!!

I'm going to make the meatballs for next Saturday for my SILs party to honor my late brother. It's his birthday and for at least 30 years they had Pisces Parties and he and his band played all night. So wonderful! So, even though it will be 7 years that he's been gone this fall, the party and the band plays on. I haven't gone before because I was/am too emotional but I'm going anyway. If I cry so what, right? They will understand. So what kind of sauce should I make for the meatballs?

I'm watching Iron Chef, the Battle Lemon, and it's one of the few shows I want to crawl through the screen and eat there. I'm having an early glass of wine to celebrate getting through a horrible week and am hoping this is the deepest of the pit and that it's all going to be better from here on out.

NFRC, I love how Apple's autocorrect changes for me are to ate, live to love and bake to bacon. It knows me well!

Here's the soup recipe. Can't wait to eat it!

Ina Garten's Italian Wedding Soup

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

3/4 pound ground chicken

1/2 pound chicken sausage, casings removed

2/3 cup fresh white bread crumbs

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

3/4 pound ground chicken

1/2 pound chicken sausage, casings removed

2/3 cup fresh white bread crumbs

2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving

3 tablespoons milk

1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the soup:

2 tablespoons good olive oil

1 cup minced yellow onion

1 cup diced carrots (3 carrots), cut into 1/4 inch pieces

3/4 cup diced celery (2 stalks), cut into 1/4 inch pieces

10 cups homemade chicken stock

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup small pasta such as tubetini or stars

1/4 cup minced fresh dill

12 ounces baby spinach, washed and trimmed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the meatballs, place the ground chicken, sausage, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, Pecorino, Parmesan, milk, egg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl and combine gently with a fork. With a teaspoon, drop 1 to 1 1/4-inch meatballs onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (You should have about 40 meatballs. They don't have to be perfectly round.) Bake for 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.

In the meantime, for the soup, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and wine and bring to a boil. Add the pasta to the simmering broth and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender. Add the fresh dill and then the meatballs to the soup and simmer for 1 minute. Taste for salt and pepper. Stir in the fresh spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted. Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle each serving with extra grated Parmesan.

2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving

3 tablespoons milk

1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the soup:

2 tablespoons good olive oil

1 cup minced yellow onion

1 cup diced carrots (3 carrots), cut into 1/4 inch pieces

3/4 cup diced celery (2 stalks), cut into 1/4 inch pieces

10 cups homemade chicken stock

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup small pasta such as tubetini or stars

1/4 cup minced fresh dill

12 ounces baby spinach, washed and trimmed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the meatballs, place the ground chicken, sausage, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, Pecorino, Parmesan, milk, egg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl and combine gently with a fork. With a teaspoon, drop 1 to 1 1/4-inch meatballs onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (You should have about 40 meatballs. They don't have to be perfectly round.) Bake for 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.

In the meantime, for the soup, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and wine and bring to a boil. Add the pasta to the simmering broth and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender. Add the fresh dill and then the meatballs to the soup and simmer for 1 minute. Taste for salt and pepper. Stir in the fresh spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted. Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle each serving with extra grated Parmesan.

 
My Six

* Bought yarn to make some socks (new project)got pattern from Ravelry (overwhelming site-might need your help, Heather)
* Gathered more Miner's lettuce and made salad with raw thin-julianned beets, sherry vinegar, orange zest vinaigrette with feta--I think I'll patent it!
* Other walkers were curious about the Miner's lettuce so we gave samples (above the dog-pee free zone)
* Finished another fingerless glove (needs its mate now)
* Trying to lose the same 5 pounds AGAIN!
* Good Luck...

 
Not much cooking in my Weekend Six

* Was taken out to a birthday lunch yesterday. My birthday isn't till March but we'll be away for it.
* Today we're going out to a friend's for what I hope will be a light supper.
* Finishing packing today as we head out Tuesday for southern climes. We'll be spending 3 weeks in the Dominican Republic soaking up some sun (we hope).
* Today I'll stock up the fridge for our daughter who will be staying at our house while we're away.
* First I'll clear out what's in the fridge and make a soup.
* Tonight we'll watch the Olympic Hockey Game and keep our fingers crossed that Canada pulls off the Gold medal. And, if we don't, Silver is not shabby at all. Go Canada Go!!!!!

 
My Weekend Six

1. I haven't been on the computer much lately, because my puppy chewed off my computer cord. While I was logged on. I'm so relieved he didn't electrocute himself in the process.

2. We have gotten a ton of snow here. I can't believe we are just around the corner of March, and we have three feet of snow. I bought some seeds the other day just to cheer myself up.

3. Note to self: Do not feed the dogs the leftover pasta. It gives them gas. Horrible gas! As in, 'need to leave the house because of the smell'-gas.

4. DH baked a chocolate cake on Thursday. He is such a great baker. I wish he would bake more often. I had a huge piece for breakfast this morning and it was so good.

5. I love my new pedimeter. I wear it all day and have found that I walk 15.000 steps on average. I like to walk. It keeps me in shape and clears my head.

6. I'm making home made lasagna for dinner today. DH loves it, it's his favourite dish. We're celebrating his belated birthday today so he got to decide what to have for dinner.

 
Week-end Six......

1 Turned a BIG 00 this week and went to a DD for supper - Greek lamb and feta tats and a 'made from scratch' white chocolate mousse which was utterly delish.....

2 Celebrations today/Sunday at the beach ordered snacks/tapas and magnum bottles of Clos Bayliss my fave rose...about 40 folk could be there...and two yummy fruit mousse cakes from a French bakery.

3 My books arrived from Amazon finally...LOVE THEM
Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking 2 vol.
Paula Wolfert' Couscous
Ana Sortun's Spice
Claudia Roden's New Book of Middle Eastern Food
And The New England Soup Factory Cookbook!!!

4 Had a couple of excellent cooking workshops last week, one were repeat customers.

5 Bought a supermarket chicken to make walnut and chicken pate with smoky paprika from Ana's book...the walnuts were on the verge of being rancid. The supermarket did exchange the packet.
Bought another supermarket chicken for supper, my DH says " where is the usual chicken we have"??? That would be Cathy Z's...the best roast chicken ever.

6 Went shopping for a look see for what there is offered in the French shops for an outfit for a daughter's wedding...only in a years time...came away with 3 outfits which I can ill-afford to buy...love them/hate the fact I succumbed...and they wont be for the weddinjg smileys/smile.gif

 
Yes, sounds like a nice tribute. How about a lemon-based sauce for the

chicken meatballs, although I must admit I think I'm influenced by one of your "six"!

Whole Paycheck? It sounds like it! Is it like a gourmet shop? Even so, a dozen eggs for $3.65-$4.95? Wow.

 
Weekend Six!

Most exciting is that Syracuse University won the basketball game against Villanova last night. Yippeeee! Now on to the US/Canada hockey game this afternoon. Good luck to both teams, kinda would like to see Canada win it, but then again they won it 8 years ago in Salt Lake City, didn't they?!

I went to the farmer's market while DH took the kids bowling yesterday - I bought 5 (smallish) heads of cabbage for $1 - now what to do with them?

Simple cooking weekend today: went to an all you can eat pancake breakfast (the best in the area, includes waffles, omelets, and much more). Other than that, just chicken-something in the crockpot tonight. Pizza and wings last night. After posting the Coca Cola cake, now I have a huge craving for it...

Snow. Snow. Snow. When will it end? April?

Once in a while we get Trader Joe's overstocks. Yesterday I found some of thier mango sauce, and not sure if it's meant to be eaten "as is" or if it's supposed to be an ingredient in something else. I love mangoes, so either way...

Did I mention we are still shoveling out from the storm? It's that wet, heavy stuff. Breakfast buffet-calorie burning stuff ;o) (The buffet was great!)

 
Happy belated birthday to you, joanietoo - I love your new cookbooks.

I want a couple of them myself smileys/smile.gif

 
Happy B-Day!~ Wishing you continued success with the cooking workshops. Love the website;

beautiful pictures!

 
I was thinking the same thing re: $$/egg! Heather, what a nice tribute and celebration of life.

Your bro's friends will be so happy that you are there.

 
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