On Top Of Spaghetti...

Not all of my baking is sweet... sometimes I bake a savory dish up for dinner. Tonight was one of those days. This recipe was emailed to me by my BFF a while back, and it is now my go to meatball recipe. It's a recipe from Kraft and it's called "The Best Meatballs." I was not convinced after reading the recipe, but after trying it.... I was! It really is the best meatball recipe I've ever made. And it's super easy and made from things I usually have on hand.

2 lb. Ground beef (I use one pound lean beef and one pound turkey)

1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken

1-1/4 cups Water

2 Eggs

It really is that simple, and it is so yummy! Step one, preheat the oven to 400. Then combine all ingredients....

Stir together (I use my hands) until they are all combined.

The recipe says to shape the mixture into 1 and a half inch balls. I, of course, used my trusty old scoop (medium sized)

Then I shape it into a ball shape with my hand...

...but I'm pretty fast, so its kinda blurry. Then you roll out the rest of the mixture. Using my scoop I ended up with 48 meatballs, 24 on each cookie sheet.


I baked them for about 25 minutes, and they looked like this....

And I served them (half of them that is, the other half I put in the freezer for another meal. Cook once, eat twice! Sweet!) with spaghetti. Just regular old spaghetti. A Williams House favorite. I have used both sauces that they suggest to serve them with and they are both great, but tonight I was in the mood for spaghetti...

Here is the original recipe, in case you want to check it out. I highly recommend it! It's inexpensive, simple, goes a long way, and is delicious. And my friend, Dayna, made an excellent point... you could really feed a big crowd with this recipe! So it would be great for entertaining as well. It really is very versatile. Enjoy!

Toffee Talk

"Misty, what recipe should I try next for my blog?" I asked my sister a few days ago. Her reply came very quickly, "Toffee!" So, I went looking for toffee recipes online. I decided on this one, and it did sound easy enough. But I've never tried it before so I was a little apprehensive, but I pressed forward anyway...

Ingredients:

2 cups butter

2 cups white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

That seems super simple, so let's go! In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, combine the butter, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the butter is melted.

Doesn't it look almost good enough to drink? Allow to come to a boil, and cook until the mixture becomes a dark amber color, and the temperature has reached 285 degrees F (137 degrees C). Stir occasionally.

There was a warning in the review of this recipe saying that if you waited until the mixture reached a dark amber, it was too late and the toffee came out with a burnt taste. So when I reached the goal temp of 285, I stopped... this was what it looked like....

As soon as the toffee reaches the proper temperature, pour it out onto a baking sheet.



I was beginning to doubt that this was going to turn out right. The color wasn't quite right yet and the texture didn't seem right yet either. On a side note, check out my wonderful Pampered Chef pan... look how easily it poured out and left no mess!!!

I thought I was going to have to spread the toffee around once I poured it, but it wasn't necessary. It poured out of the pan in an even, perfect layer... it was impressive! To my surprise, it came together just perfectly. Exactly the way I imagined it should. Though I though it would be much messier and more difficult. This is a few seconds after I poured it out. Doesn't it look delicious?
Sprinkle the chocolate over the top, and let it set for a minute or two to soften.

Spread the chocolate into a thin even layer once it is melted.

This part was a lot of fun! That toffee was really hot, but somehow the perfect temperature to melt the chocolate. It smoothed out with no issues... and smelled like heaven!!!

Place the toffee in the refrigerator to chill until set. Break into pieces, and store in an airtight container. So this recipe really was as easy as it sounded! I will never buy another Heath Bar or Skor Bar again after tasting this wonderful, buttery, chocolate-covered toffee goodness! It was so good! The hardest part was waiting for the toffee to cool and the chocolate to set up, so that I could break it up and eat it!





Here is a link to the recipe I used. I omitted the nuts per my sister's request but I will try it with them next time.

ROOT BEER Cookies!

My sister found it! The "Root Beer Concentrate" that they used in the "Root Beer Cookie" recipe on Betty Crocker's Facebook page! She found it at a Walmart that I hadn't checked.



So I did the recipe as it was written. The first major change was the color of the batter.

My "Root Beer Float Cookie" batter:


Here is the "Root Beer Cookie" Batter:


It smelled different too. I thought it smelled like gingerbread dough. Even after I took them out of the oven, they didn't really smell "root beery" to me. Then I made the icing. It too was much darker but it really smelled like root beer. Here is the finished cookie:





To me they taste a little like gingerbread, but my friend Dayna assures me that they are very "Root Beer-ish." Either way, they are really good and you should try this recipe if you like Root Beer... or gingerbread. Enjoy!