HELLLOOOOOOOO BUTTERBALLS!!!!
I return to you after a long hiatus of student teaching, music programs, actual teaching for cash-monies, graduations, road trips, and a WHOLE LOT OF TAKE-OUT. I apologize for my lengthy absence, you see, when you teach, you do absolutely nothing else. Now don't get me wrong, I adore my line of work and find it incredibly rewarding. I was fortunate enough to not only get to sub for the lovely choir director at Florence-Carlton school while she was on maternity leave this spring, but to also accept a general music job in Stevensville this fall. I am one lucky lady, and after all that, all I wanted to do was sleep, and that is 90% of what I've done since last Thursday. Now that I am alive, refreshed, and most of all, hungry, I can't wait for us to start cooking together again!
We have so many exciting things to look forward to! For one, I am now the proud owner of an iPad, so I plan to use this wonderful technology (which is far more complicated than my previous experience of turning my laptop on and off/operating my microwave, i.e. my only technological experience to date...) to make videos for the interweb. Especially during these summer weeks, Butters and I are planning on making you a new food movie every week. The relative informativeness of these creations has yet to be determined, but there will most likely be wigs and musical entertainment so... win?
For two, I have recently come into ownership of a magic time-capsule box from the 1960's. This is a giant box (i.e. like a shoebox...) that is full of absolutely ridiculous cooking school/entertaining recipes from the year of our Lord, 1962. I found it in a pile of crap at an antique store in Clarkston, Washington yesterday while Matt and I were on a mini-vacation. Matt and I have been antiquing for about as long as there have been humans on the Earth. I have a very specific antiquing technique. It's called, "Find the Weirdest/Most Amazing Thing You Never Knew You Always Wanted/Needed and Only Buy It If It is Damn Near Free". I purchased the box for $10 plus tax. This is a SCREAMING deal because 1.) the box is made of some sort of wood product, and 2.) It was full of roughly ONE MILLION recipes that will entertain us all for weeks. You're welcome. I'm planning on drawing one of these at random from now until the end of time and making movies/blogs about them soooooo there will be THAT to look forward to. I skimmed them briefly today and apparently we're going to be learning alot about aspic and chop suey, the dishes du jour of 1962.
Until I get what is sure to be a cinematic/culinary masterpiece online tomorrow/the next day, I do, in fact have a new and exciting recipe to share with y'all. I made this for our buddies Rebecca and Garrett the other day when we had a fancy dinner party. I should clarify this by saying the term "fancy dinner party" at our house is alot of Matt making sure I don't cut/burn myself while I drink wine barefoot and throw things in pans. These were a modification on a recipe my Mom makes (I'm guessing... I have never actually looked at that recipe, but the whole "meat-tortilla" thing seemed pretty familiar...) on occasion for Sunday dinner.
Stuffed Meat Thingies with Spinach and Cheese:
You'll Need:
8-10 (or enough for each guest to eat two....) thin, poundable cuts of beef
3 cups bread crumbs
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups spinach cut in chiffonade ribbons
1 onion finely diced
1 cup of assorted cheeses (I used parmesan, mexi-blend, and some sharp cheddar)
3 garlic cloves finely chopped
Start by pounding out the beef into roughly 6 inch rounds (this is what you'll make your meat tortillas out of...), set to the side. Chiffonade the spinach, chop the onion and garlic, and sautee/wilt in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Place 1 cup of bread crumbs, and chosen cheese into a large-ish bowl. Add in your wilted spinach/onions and garlic.
In three flat containers (for the sake of easy cleaning, I go the ugly-American-who-doesn't-own-a dishwasher-route and use a paper plate for each item... this lets you trash everything so you have the prep surface to use for other things. I realize this is not at all "green", but you of course should feel free to use non-disposables...) make an egg wash with your egg and milk, fill one with flour, and the other with salt-and peppered bread-crumbs.
Assembly:
Lay out meat, fill with roughly one to two ounces of filling. Roll it up, secure with one or two toothpicks. Roll in flour, dip in egg, then roll in bread crumbs. Fry in olive oil set to medium high until bread crumbs are golden brown. If you are not a fan of slightly rare meat, you can finish in the oven at 350 for about five to ten minutes. After this you have alot of serving options- you can make a pan gravy out of the pan drippings and serve with mashed potatoes, or serve over your choice of pasta (spinach would carry the theme through nicely). Best paired with a salad or other light vegetable to help cut the whole Cheese-Filled-Fried-Meat thing.
Enjoy, my lovelies! Can't wait to reconnect over a steaming bowl of awesome this summer! Mwah!
