Porcupine Meatballs



I've been having fun cooking my way through Dinner: A Love Story. It certainly helps that I'm home to make supper every evening. One of the few upsides to being unemployed. But if anyone asks, I'm not unemployed, I'm being a stay at home momma to Lucan. So there. I refuse to be an unemployment statistic. Sorry for the tirade. Back to food.

Lucan has interesting food tastes. He loves beans, pears, kiwis, chicken stir fry and meatballs. But not meatloaf. And not leftover chicken stir fry. He loves popcorn. This is a meal Lu LOVES. DALS (Dinner A Love Story) porcupine meatballs. They are on the sweet side, but quite yummy. Def a crowd pleaser.

DALS' Porcupine Meatballs

1 pound ground beef (or turkey)
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 tablespoon chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped green peppers
1 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic
2 cups tomato juice
4 cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire


Combine uncooked beef, rice, onion, green peppers, salt, and garlic in a large bowl. Shape into small balls, about 1-inch wide.

Whisk together remaining ingredients in a deep skillet (I used my Le Cruset dutch oven) and bring to a simmer. Drop in meatballs and cover tightly. Simmer for 30 minutes (for the rice to cook through, it was closer to 50 minutes), flipping over about half way through.
Remove cloves before serving.
I serve with oven fried potatoes and garlic bread. A lovely green salad is also reccommended.

Pizza Braids

Pizza braids are one of my go-to recipes for when I bring a meal to a family. Generally they are well received because they involve warm bread and pizza flavors. I like them because they are a bit different than the standard casserole or pasta dish and pretty easy to assemble. The hardest part is planning well enough in advance to let your bread dough rise.

Here are your ingredients: a loaf of frozen bread dough, your choice of spaghetti or pizza sauce, Mozzarella & Parmesan cheese and whatever pizza toppings you fancy. When I'm making them for a family who I don't know their toppings preference, I usually go pretty standard like pepperoni.

The first thing to do is to follow the standard instructions for thawing and letting the frozen bread dough rise. You'll need to grab a loaf pan, spray it with cooking spray, set the bread dough in the pan, cover the pan with cling wrap that has also been sprayed and place it in a warm place to rise for a few hours. Once the dough has doubled in size, it's time for action!

Sprinkle flour on your counter, rolling pin, and dough ball. Roll out the dough into a rectangle. This will take a little elbow grease, but you'll be fine (less of a workout than playing airplane with my 20 lb baby!).

Spread your sauce down the middle, not going all the way the ends. You will want to leave 2.5 inch space all the way around so you can cut strips. Follow with your pizza toppings, then the cheese. Sometimes I'll sprinkle on a little pizza seasoning too. Don't get crazy with toppings otherwise they'll leak out the sides.

Next is the cutting of the braid strips. Easy! Cut approximately 10-12 strips total on each side, around 1 inch apart. Cut pretty close to the toppings, but not too close otherwise you'll have leakage. You can leave wider strips on the ends.

Your finished product should look something like this.

Now for the braiding. Don't be afraid, it's really easy! All you have to do is start on one end, folding your end piece in. Now taking a strip from the left side, stretch it across the toppings to reach the other side. Repeat on the other side until you almost reach the base. Leave 2 or 3 strips on both sides because you need to fold the end piece up and then braid/cover with the remaining strips.

When you are done it will look like an papoose all wrapped up. Get a friend to help transfer to a baking sheet. It can be a little tricky ...

 

Easy peasy, lemon breezy. Bake at 375 degrees for ~20 minutes. Add an additional 10-15 minutes if baking frozen.