Spaghetti with Meatballs

Spaghetti and meatballs should be in everyone's repertoire. For some of us, this dish is the ultimate comfort food. Today, I'm sharing my take on this dinner classic. 

It's a fairly simple dish to make but it does require some time to prep and if you make the sauce from scratch, it would take even longer but I totally recommend you to do it because it makes the difference. 

My son Lucas had this for the first time and he loved it. I think it's universal, kids love this dish and I can't blame them. What's not to love? Garlic, Parmesan cheese, a great sauce. I think this dish is one of the things he will remember and trigger his childhood memories when he grows older.   

Ingredients:

The Sauce:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 md onion, chopped

2 garlic clove, minced

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon dry oregano

2 cups of water

1 (6oz) can tomato paste

2 (14.5 oz) can crushed tomatoes

salt and pepper to taste

The Meatballs:

1 pound ground beef 

1/2 pound ground pork

1 egg, beaten

3 garlic, minced

1 small onion, chopped

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1/8 cup whole milk

3 tablespoons parsley, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil

For Serving:

Parsley, chopped

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

To make the meatballs, place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, except the olive oil, and combine them well (using your hands is best) Form the mixture into about 2-inch meatballs. Pour enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a 12 inch skillet. Heat the oil and brown the meatballs on all sides, don't overcrowd the pan, brown them in batches. Remove the meatballs to a plate and cover them. For the sauce, heat the olive oil. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Then add the 2 cans of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, bay leaves water, salt and pepper. Mix well, cover and let it simmer for 30 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and roughly puree the sauce with a hand blender. Cover and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Add the meatballs, cover and cook for 25 minutes more. Cook spaghetti according to package directions and serve with Parmesan cheese and parsley.

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Hummus

Are you ready for Fall? I know I am. In fact, I have been ready for a while now. I will tell you my little secret. I don't really like summer that much. It's just too hot and this year was pretty bad so I am happy it's gone at least for now.  The only thing I will miss is the summer fruits and vegetables. 

This week's recipe is hummus. This was my childhood favorite thing to eat and it continues to be. I am happy to see that my son loves it and I already can see that this will be one of his favorite things too.

I can eat hummus almost every day, it's healthy and it's the perfect thing to do ahead of time and eat when you are in a rush so I always keep some in my fridge. Another great thing about hummus is that it's easy and quick to make and definitely cheaper and tastier than store bought hummus. 

Ingredients:

Find a pita recipe HERE

1 15.5 canned chickpeas, drained

1/4 cup tahini

1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for garnish

2 garlic clove

the juice of 1 lemon

1/4 water (from boiled chickpeas)

salt to taste

paprika

Drain the chickpeas and place them in a medium saucepan, add water to cover them and boil the chickpeas for 5 minutes. Drain the chickpeas reserving 1/4 cup of water. Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, taste for seasoning. Transfer to a serving plate and drizzle hummus with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with paprika.

Happy Weekend!

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Chocolate Mousse

I hope everybody had a great time with their families this past Mother's day! We had a blast! It's my second year being a proud mother and I still can't get use to flowers, cards and people congratulating me on this day. All these years calling my mom to tell her happy mother's day and now I get a "to you too, honey". It seems surreal. Being a mom has been the most wonderful experience.

On Monday I had a terrible craving for chocolate (how weird), and I went back to one of my favorite things, chocolate mousse. Chocolate mousse doesn't have to be complicated, I personally don't like to use eggs on my chocolate mousse. I like to keep it simple and quick and love to use a little bit of coffee to enhance the chocolate flavor even more. It's a great recipe to have specially when you don't have a lot of time and need a quick dessert.

Ingredients:

7 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 cups of heavy cream

1 tablespoon of instant coffee

 disolved in 1/4 tablespoon of hot water

In a bowl of an electric mixer, whip the cream to soft peak. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Make sure the bowl is not touching the water. Once the chocolate is melted,

mix in the coffee. Whisk 1/4 of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture, fold in the remaining whipped cream into the chocolate with a spatula. Do this gently, we don't want to deflate the cream. Pipe the mousse into ramekins and top with whipped cream.

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Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cupcakes

Well, it was about time I posted a cupcake recipe on this blog. What a better flavor combination than peanut butter and chocolate? 

The frosting is nice and smooth and the chocolate cupcake light and moist. The only negative part of these cupcakes is that you can't eat only one.

I thought about making this cupcake recipe for my birthday which is in a couple of  weeks but I am very indecisive, and now I want something with lemon curd. I have a feeling chocolate is going to be somehow involved in this cake, mmm... We'll see what happens in a couple of weeks, maybe I'll end up making something completely different. Suggestions are welcome.

Recipe courtesy of Ina Garten

Ingredients

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk, shaken, at room temperature

1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature

2 tablespoons brewed coffee

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup good cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Chopped salted peanuts, to decorate

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and 2 sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Lower the speed to medium, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, and coffee. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. On low speed, add the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture alternately in thirds to the mixer bowl, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture. Mix only until blended. Fold the batter with a rubber spatula to be sure it's completely blended. Divide the batter among the cupcake pans (1 rounded standard ice cream scoop per cup is the right amount).

Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans, and allow to cool completely before frosting. Frost each cupcake with Peanut Butter Icing and sprinkle with chopped peanuts, if desired.

Peanut Butter Icing:

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

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Fig Jam and a DIY Project

The last batch of figs. I know, It's been all about figs lately but like I mention in my last post, we got very lucky with our tree this year and had lots and lots of juicy, sweet figs. I've been collecting figs these past days until I finally got one pound of them to make a jam. 

I made this very same recipe last year and everybody loved it. If figs were in season at Christmas time, I would totally give them out for gifts. Although, if properly canned, jam can keep for a few months but then again, it's too good, it wouldn't make it until then. 

One thing I love about this recipe is that it's not very sweet, and here is where I pay attention, I taste whatever fruit I want to turn into a jam, to see how sweet it is and that's how I decide how much sugar to use. Now,

the figs I used in this recipe were very sweet so I used 3/4 of sugar where I normally would have used 1 cup.

Play around and taste, taste, taste! Clove plays a nice role in this recipe, it leaves a nice aftertaste and makes it a great addition when used in a savory dish. 

Ingredients:

1 lb figs, washed and cut in half

3/4 cup sugar

The juice and zest of 1 lemon

1/8 cup red wine

1/4 teaspoon clove

A pinch of salt

In a large saucepan, combine all the ingredients and let it macerate at room temperature for 30 minutes,

stirring occasionally. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens.

Here is my little secret, instead of using a potato masher to break down the figs, I use a hand blender, but be careful not to over blend. A food processor will work too. Fill glass jars with hot fig jam and enjoy.

I also made a little DIY project, how to distress wood to use as a photo backdrop. It's very easy, here is how it goes:

First, find a piece of wood you want to use, whatever sizes you want but if the wood you are using is painted,

you will need to sand it first. Strike the wood with the back of a hammer to create some dents, don't hit too hard we don't want to break the wood. By the way, this is a good way to take you anger out hehehe. 

Next, scratch the surface using a screwdriver or other pointy metal object you might have on hand. Using wood stain, pour some directly onto the wood and spread it all over using a rag. You can use a brush too.

Let it dry and give it a second coat or as many as you need to reach the desired darkness. That's it! that's exactly what I did and what I used for some of my photos. I hope you find this tutorial useful and please, feel free to share your opinion and give us some extra tips ;) 

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Chocolate-Coffee Cake with Fresh Figs

Wow! What a weekend! A hurricane in New York? I was not expecting that. It came as a guest to say 

happy birthday to my husband. I had planned a Southern meal to celebrate my husband's 30th birthday which was on Saturday. Instead, I ended up preparing for the hurricane. Thankfully, nothing bad happened around here but I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared. Despite the hurricane, I decided to go ahead and do what I had planned. My mom made a delicious pulled pork which I wish I had the recipe for to share with you but I was not there when she made it and my mom is not great at giving recipes, no measurements or quantities, I love it.

Of course there was a cake. My husband's all time favorite, chocolate fudge cake with a chocolate-coffee frosting. I love this cake, it's rich, chocolaty, it has a lovely coffee flavor and the frosting is just good. I also used some fresh figs to top the cake, I used figs, because I love them but also because my tree is just producing figs like crazy, it's the best harvest we've ever had. 

For the cake:

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup canola oil

2 large eggs

1 cup of buttermilk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon instant coffee

1 cup of hot water

Fresh figs (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment,

combine the sugar, brown sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt at low speed until blended. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. Slowly add the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients on low speed until just blended. Scrape around the bowl with a rubber spatula, scrape the bottom and the sides. Mix the coffee powder into the hot water and pour coffee into the batter, blend well on low speed for 20 seconds. The batter will be thin, don't worry, that's the way it should be. pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 25 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack and cool completely. 

Frosting:

7oz Chocolate, semisweet chocolate, 

finely chopped

2 sticks of butter, at room temperature

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 cup of confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon of instant coffee dissolved in 

2 tablespoons of hot water 

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Make sure the bowl is not touching the water, set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and the dissolved coffee and continue mixing for a minute more. Turn the mixer to low and gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then turn the speed back to medium and mix until smooth. On low speed, add the melted chocolate and mix until well blended. The frosting will be a bit runny but don't worry, just let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes or until it's hard enough to pipe the cake. You can also spread immediately on the cooled cake if you don't want to pipe. 

Tip: feel free to double up on the frosting if you like chocolate as much as I do :) 

Assemble:  

Carefully cut cake in three layers and spread some frosting on each layer. Spread the top and the sides with the remaining frosting, if you want to create the ruffles, here is a useful video you can watch. Don't be afraid, just go for it. Place the figs on top.

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