Salisbury Steak Meatballs

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Salisbury Steak Meatballs
I’m such a sucker for any form of comfort food. I’ve been feeling a little gypped this winter, as it’s been unseasonably warm for most of the season. But, I haven’t let it stop me from enjoying a few of my favorites.

One dish I loved growing up was noodles and gravy. It was so easy, so filling, so comforting. Growing up, I stayed with an elderly couple before and after school in the afternoons until my parents got off work. It was something they’d often make for a quick meal, and I remember them always using No Yolks® noodles.

So when the brand reached out to me about creating a comfort food recipe to share with my readers using their noodles – my mind immediately flashed back to that childhood favorite. But, I wanted to elevate it a little bit to create a more grown-up version…

Salisbury steak has always been a favorite in our home, so that flavor combination rolled up into a delectable meatball, and served over a bed of perfectly cooked and firm egg noodles? It’s absolute heaven. The beefy flavor from the mushrooms and the savory flavor of the sautéed onions is perfection. And, the meatballs stay incredibly moist simmering in the sauce. It’s everything I loved and remembered about the meal in my childhood, only incredibly better!

A key component of the dish that shouldn’t be overlooked is a good, quality noodle. No Yolks has always been the gold standard in my kitchen.  They always retain their firm texture and shape, even in something like a soup. That is something that’s hard to come by in an egg noodle! Not to mention the fact that they are low in fat and have zero cholesterol.  What more could a girl ask for?

For more comforting recipes using noodles, visit No Yolks® for some delicious ideas.

What was one of your favorite comfort foods growing up? Leave a comment with the answer to win a $100 Visa gift card!

 

Salisbury Steak Meatballs

2/3 cup milk
4-5 slices of bread, crusts removed, bread cut into pieces
1/2 medium white onion, peeled and grated (through a cheese grater)
2 eggs
1.5 lbs ground beef (80/20)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 bag No Yolks ®  Extra Broad Noodles

For the sauce:
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
2 cups sliced onions (other half of onion, plus 1 medium onion)
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 Tbsp butter
1/3 cup flour
1 quart beef stock
Salt
Black pepper

In a medium bowl, mix the bread pieces with the milk. Set aside for 15-20 minutes, or until the bread soaks up all the milk. When it does, pulverize the bread in a food processor and pour it into a large bowl.

Add the grated onion, eggs, ground beef, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper to the bowl with the bread. Using your (clean) hands, mix well for about 2 minutes until the ingredients are well combined.

I like to use a cookie scoop to make the meatballs. Form into 1-inch balls. Set aside on a sheet pan or plate. You should get 35 to 40 meatballs.

Heat 6 tablespoons of butter for the sauce in a large sauté pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted, reduce the heat to medium and add some of the meatballs. Do not crowd the pan. Work in batches, browning them slowly on all sides. They don’t need to cook all the way, they’ll finish in the sauce. Once browned, use a slotted spoon to remove them from the pan, setting them aside so you can make the sauce with the remaining pan butter.

Add the sliced mushrooms, onions, and garlic – along with a pinch of salt, to the pan drippings. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until onions are soft and the mushrooms have released most of their liquid. Slowly whisk in the flour. Stirring constantly, brown the flour until it is the color of coffee-with-cream. Add the beef stock slowly. Keep whisking until sauce loosens up and everything combines. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Carefully add the meatballs back into the sauce, cover, and cook for 25 minutes over low heat. Meanwhile, prepare the egg noodles according to package directions.

Serve the meatballs with a generous dose of sauce over a bed of warm egg noodles.

Serves 6

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Strawberry-Vanilla Bean Sauce

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Fresh Strawberry-Vanilla Bean Sundae Topping

While we’re still trying to fight off winter, spring has already sprung in some of our sunshine states like Florida and California. When I you start to see fragrant strawberries from these states popping up in your stores, you know that warmer days are right around the corner. At least, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell myself…

There are few things better in life than a perfectly red, ripe strawberry. When I buy them, I can always be counted upon to eat at least half of the clamshell package on the way home. So I’ve learned my lesson and usually buy two, just to be on the safe side. As much as I love to eat them “as-is”, it’s so much fun to cook and bake with them in the kitchen!

Cake. Cupcakes. Ice Cream. Vodka. Margaritas. Salad. Salsa. Syrup. You name it – I’ve made it! But one thing that was conspicuously missing was a good homemade strawberry sauce. Which, oddly is probably the easiest of all of those things to make. Fresh strawberries cooked down with a bit of sugar and a vanilla bean. Heaven over a bowl of yogurt and granola in the morning, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the evening…

Look for berries that are a deep red in color, but most importantly – smell them! Good strawberries are extremely fragrant. That’s usually my rule of thumb for most fruits, actually – the better it smells the better it’ll taste. So, keep your sniffer in mind the next time you’re in the produce aisle!

Strawberry-Vanilla Bean Sauce

1 pint fresh strawberries, wash and trimmed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1 vanilla bean (split and seeds removed), or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Halve or quarter strawberries and place in medium-sized saucepan. Add sugar and water. Cook over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.

Add the vanilla bean pod and seeds, stir, and cover. Reduce heat to low and cook for about 20 minutes.

Mash any large pieces up with masher or wooden spoon. If you like a smoother consistency puree half of the sauce in a food processor, then reincorporate it.

Sauce can be stored in an airtight container refrigerated for 1 week.

Homemade Caramel Corn

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caramelcorn

One of my favorite things about our local fireman’s carnival in the summertime is their homemade caramel corn. Sure, you can get great caramel corn on the boardwalk in Ocean City…but the site of a giant copper kettle full of popcorn, butter and brown sugar being continuously stirred by one of our local hard-working guys is one to behold. For me, that scent wafting through the air means summertime on Chincoteague.

But then fall arrives, and the carnival is over for another year…leaving me without a giant tub full of caramel corn to munch on. So, I decided to start taking matters into my own hands a couple years ago, and started making my own. A few basic ingredients and about an hour – and you have a giant batch of caramel corn that stays good for a couple weeks, or also make excellent gifts when bagged up and tied with a pretty ribbon.

Peanuts, are of course optional…but we love the nutty crunch that it adds. Looking forward to playing around with some different ingredients to change the flavor up a bit…maybe a little cayenne to spice things up, or a little cinnamon and nutmeg for an autumnal spin! With Halloween coming up, it’s the perfect excuse to try making this classic for yourself at home – you won’t regret it!

Homemade Caramel Corn

1 cup popcorn kernels, un-popped
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 250° F. Line two baking sheets with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper, set aside.

Pop popcorn using your preferred method, I use and air-popper and have to do two batches. Place the popped popcorn onto the baking sheets.

Meanwhile, to make the caramel, melt the butter in a medium saucepan set over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, mix in the corn syrup, brown sugar and salt. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently.

Once the mixture reaches a boil, let the mixture continue to boil for 5 more minutes without stirring. Remove the mixture from the heat, stir in the baking soda and vanilla extract. The mixture will bubble up and become frothy. Evenly drizzle the caramel sauce over the popcorn on the baking sheets, and use a silicone spatula to gently toss and coat thoroughly. It’s okay if there are some clumps of caramel throughout, it will melt and become better spread out while baking.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, removing from the oven to toss/stir every 10 minutes. After 40 minutes, test a cooled piece of popcorn. If it is not completely crispy (i.e. still slightly mushy when you bite it), bake for 10 minutes more.

Remove the baking sheets to a wire rack and allow popcorn to cool completely before breaking apart for serving or packaging. Can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks (no way in hell it’ll last that long).

Source: adapted from Annie’s Eats

Fresh Peach Cupcakes

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Fresh Peach Cupcakes

We technically have a couple weeks of summer left – so I wanted to squeeze in one last post utilizing another of my favorite fresh seasonal items. Peaches. For me, they are the epitome of summer. There is nothing like plucking a fresh peach off of a tree, still warm from the sun, and biting into it. Doesn’t get any better than that!

I’m thankful to have a wonderful orchard, just a short drive off of the island. I’ve talked about them before here on the blog, I truly love them. Vessey’s Orchard has been there for close to 100 years, there is a huge historic home on the property, acres and acres of fruit trees – it’s just paradise.

After the parents passed, there were some family disputes and they found themselves closed for a couple of seasons. Well, I’m happy to report they are back in business…and the produce is better than ever!

Vessey's Orchard

If you’re here on the Shore, I can’t recommend visiting them highly enough. It’s getting to be apple picking (and fresh-pressed cider!) season there as well, that’s something that we look forward to every year as a family. We’ve made so many memories in those fields, and I can’t wait to make some more!

You can find their contact information here – just make sure when you get there, you drive all the way to the end of the long driveway.  So anyways, the cupcakes…

I took my favorite vanilla cake recipe and added chunks of fresh peaches, then topped with a fresh peach buttercream – which I’d made with fresh pureed peaches. And, a garnish of a fresh peach slice right before serving really set off the gorgeous blush hue of the frosting.

The resulting cupcakes were bursting with sunny peach flavor, and tender and moist from the addition of the peaches to the batter. One I’ll definitely be looking forward to making again next summer!

Fresh Peach Cupcakes

3 cups cake flour (or 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour)
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
16 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup fresh peeled peaches, roughly chopped

For the frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 cup fresh peeled peaches
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt
fresh peach slices, for garnish

To make the cupcakes, preheat oven to 350. Line 2 cupcake tins with paper liners, set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy,about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, and the vanilla, and mix until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

Combine the buttermilk and vanilla extract in a liquid measuring cup. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and mixing just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for 15 seconds longer. Gently fold the chopped peaches into the batter.

Fill the cupcakes liners 2/3 of the way full with batter (I like to use a large cookie scoop). Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Let cool in pan about 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.

For the frosting, puree the peaches in a small food processor until smooth and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream the butter over medium speed for 1 minute. Reduce speed to low, and carefully add in the confectioners sugar and the pinch of salt. Add the vanilla extract, as well as the peach puree. Increase speed to medium, and beat until smooth and well combined.

Frost cupcakes as desired (I used Wilton 2D) and garnish with a fresh slice of peach before serving.