Mostacciole with Meatballs, Ribs and Sausage and Heart Attack Garlic Bread

This is a dish I learned I believe when I was in High School.  I learned it from a friend who was Italian and lived a few doors down from me along with homemade raviolis.  I don't make it too often as it takes a few hours, but if your going to be around the house for 4-5 hours, it really isn't that much work to make.  As a matter of fact, this would make a great Christmas Eve meal if you're looking for something out of the ordinary and need to feed a lot of people.  Here goes:

Mostacciole

  

Ingredients:

·       Sauce:           

·       8 cloves garlic, pressed             

·       1/2 onion, chopped

·       1/3 cup olive oil                        

·       6 oz. tomato paste                     

·       2 cups water  

·       28 oz. tomato puree                  

·       28 oz. crushed tomatoes           

·       10 cups water

·       basil, salt and oregano to taste  

·       1-2 lb. mostacciole noodles      

·       Meat:            

·       1 1/2 lb. ground beef                 

·       5 eggs            

·       1 tsp. salt and pepper                 

·       1/4 tsp. garlic powder                

·       1 tbsp. parsley                            

·       1/4 cup Romano cheese (grated)   

·       1 cup Italian style bread crumbs

·       6-8 boneless country style ribs 

·       1 lb. Italian sausage                                                  

 Directions:

    In an 10+ quart pot, sauté garlic and onion in olive oil until tender.  Add tomato paste and mix well (low heat).  Add 2 cups water and simmer a minute.  Add tomato puree and crushed tomatoes.  Stir in about 10 cups water.  Raise heat to medium-high. 

    When sauce comes to a boil, add salt to taste, about 1 tbsp. basil, and a pinch of oregano.  Simmer for 1 hour. 

    Preheat oven to 350º. 

    Mix ground beef, eggs, salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley, Romano cheese, and bread crumbs  well.  Form into 2-3” balls.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes (turn over in 15 minutes).  Makes about 23+ meatballs. 

    Fry ribs and sausage until brown on all sides. 

    After sauce has boiled an hour, add meatballs, sausage and country style ribs.  Slow boil about 3 more hours, stirring frequently.   

    In a large pot, bring water to boil for noodles.  Cook per package directions.  Drain pasta and pour enough sauce over noodles to give a light coating.  Plate pasta and serve sauce with meat over noodles.  Can also grate Romano cheese over mostacciole.

Servings:  8-10

You initially simmer the sauce for an hour before adding the meat.  If you try the sauce, it might seem a bit bland, but don't panic.  A lot of the flavor will come from the meats.  

For the next 3 hours you don't want it at a high boil, but you don't want it too low because you need the sauce to thicken up a bit.  And make sure you stir it once in a while to keep it from scorching the bottom.  

When you're ready to serve the sauce, you can serve the meat as is but I like to cut the ribs and sausage into smaller pieces so there's enough to go around.  I use large kitchen shears to cut them up.  The ribs will be pretty tender.  

Once in a while my co-workers and I would have lunch at Stuart Anderson's Black Angus restaurant.  They would have a soup and garlic bread special for lunch and the garlic bread was so different and loaded with flavor.  And once I get obsessed with a recipe, I have to find it and so I searched online.  I've called it Black Angus Garlic Bread for years, but recently a group of friends started calling it Kim's Heart Attack Bread because it isn't actually the most healthful of recipes.  But when you want to wow a group, you'll want to bring this baby out.  They just go crazy for it!

Heart Attack Garlic Cheese Bread

  

Ingredients:

·       1 loaf French Bread    

·       1/2 cup unsalted butter         

·       1 cup shredded jack cheese

·       1/2 cup Asiago cheese, grated       

·       1 cup mayonnaise        

·       1 bunch green onions, white party only, chopped      

·       3 cloves garlic, pressed         

 Directions:

    Preheat oven to 350º. 

    Split French bread into halves horizontally.  Place on a large rimmed cookie sheet

    Mix butter, cheeses, mayonnaise, green onions, and garlic in a bowl, blending well.  Spread the cut side of bread with spread. 

    Bake for 7 minutes, then place under broiler about 1-2 minutes longer (watch carefully). Cut into slices and serve.

Servings:  12-16 slices   

For the loaf of French bread, do not go fancy.  You want just the basic, fluffy French bread loaf.  I like Albertson's because it just has the best flavor.  You really only want to use unsalted butter because the Asiago cheese can be a tiny bit salty so you don't want to add any more salt.  When I started making this bread, Asiago cheese was pretty difficult to find.  I pretty much could only find it at Alberton's, but now it's gotten very popular so it shouldn't be any trouble finding it.  It use to be described as Poor Man's Parmesan, but I love it.  To me it has a stronger flavor with a bit of salty nuttiness.  You may be tempted to switch it with Parmesan or Romano, but that will be a big mistake.    It will not remotely taste the same.  Believe me, I've done it and regretted it.  The last thing I suggest is that you only use the white part of the green onions.  I've chopped up the whole thing and when I stirred it all together, the green parts turned the mixture green.  I didn't have an issue with it, but some people do so just stick with the white part.

I gave this recipe to several ladies at my ceramics class and every year the store would have a Christmas party.  Sometimes the husbands would attend and I was talking to one of them.  He had come to one of my gatherings and had tasted it and loved it but when his wife made it, he insisted it didn't taste the same.  I asked her if she replaced the Asiago with Parmesan and she was insistent she didn't.  I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what went wrong so I have her tell me step by step what she did.  At the end, she said she thought the mixture was too much for just one loaf split in half and spread on the halves so she divided it up between two loaves.  That was it!  You might be tempted to do the same because the thickness can be a bit intimidating, but don't.  It will really affect the flavor.  I find that it usually only needs about 1 1/2 minutes under the broiler.  Any longer and it gets too burnt on the edges.  Yours could be different so watch it carefully.  Allow the bread to cool down and firm up before you cut it into slices or it will be a big mess.  Enjoy!

Lucinda Scala Quinn's Baked Chicken with Honey-Whole Grain Mustard Glaze with Gourmet Hash Brown and Salad with Whole Grain Mustard Viniagrette

Actually, this recipe with originally created by Lucinda's son Calder who sometimes apprentices on her show, Mad Hungry.  If you haven't read before how great this show is, check it out!  It is amazing and currently airs on the Hallmark Channel.  If I remember it right, Calder and a group of his friends at college were dateless for Valentine's Day and they decided to pool their efforts and make a nice dinner.  He wanted to utilize what they had at their place along with some local favorites and their level of cooking skills.  Another thing that's cool about Lucinda is what she can whip up just from what she has on hand in her kitchen.  She always keeps certain items in stock at her house because sometimes she doesn't know if she'll be home in time from taping her show or working with Martha Stewart Omnimedia to make dinner.  And, she has taught her son's this skill of which the oldest is a professional chef in Los Angeles!  Here it goes:

Baked Chicken with Honey-Whole Grain Mustard Glaze

 Ingredients:

·       8 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs

·       1/2 cup olive oil (maybe more)

·       1 lemon (juiced)

·       salt and pepper to taste

·       some fresh herbs i.e. fresh rosemary (if you have them)

·       Glaze:

·       1 1/2 tbsp. whole-grain mustard

·       1 tbsp. Dijon mustard

·       1 or 2 tbsp. honey

·       1/3 cup olive oil

·       little salt and pepper

Directions:

    Marinate chicken in olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and herbs, for at least 1 hour and up to a day in advance. Preheat oven to 375º. Rub big broil-safe baking pan with olive oil or butter, place thighs skin side down. Discard marinade.

    Bake for 20 to 25 minutes and turn skin side up. Bake for 10 more minutes. Spoon out pan juices and save for potatoes.

    To make the glaze, add mustard, honey, and oil in a bowl in that order, whisk, add salt and pepper, whisk some more. Apply glaze with brush or spoon and broil for 4-5 minutes watching carefully.

    Take out and let rest for a second.

Servings:  4

I used a rimmed jelly-roll pan for this dish since I don't have any baking pans that aren't non-stick or not stoneware of which neither are broiler friendly.  If you do use this type of pan, be mindful when you take the pan out of the oven.  There will be lots of juices and if you move to fast, they can slosh out onto you and that would not feel good!

Hash Browns

  

Ingredients:

·       2 tbsp. olive oil

·       2 tbsp. butter

·       3/4 quarter onion, minced

·       3 whole potatoes, boiled, peeled and shredded

·       salt and pepper

Directions:

     Boil potatoes for about 30-45 minutes.  You want them soft, but firm enough to grate.  Allow to cool enough to handle, then peel and grate.

    Heat a cast iron pan on medium-high, add oil and then butter. When the fat is heated add minced onion and cook until soft, about 5-7 minutes.  Add shredded potato, salt and pepper.  Combine Gently.

    Reduce heat to medium and start pressing the mixture down and toward the center of the pan. Try to get it to congeal and keep pressing it down and cook for 10 to 12 minutes while occasionally lifting the mixture so it doesn't stick.  You can also pour a little olive oil around the outside perimeter to help prevent sticking.

    Take a round platter or cutting board and lay on top of pan and flip hash brown onto dish.  Slide hash brown back into the pan and cook until bottom firms up.

    Spoon reserved glazed chicken juices onto the top of the potato mixture and fry a few more minutes.  Cut into servings.

Servings:  4-6

I originally made this recipe in a non-stick pan.  While this made flipping the hash brown easier, it just didn't crisp it up enough.  If your cast-iron pan is seasoned properly, it should make the flipping easier.  Just have good oven-mitts on hand.  

Spooning the reserved juices from the baked chicken adds a great flavor to the hash brown, just don't go overboard on it.  Remember, the objective is to keep it crisp.  Too much juice and it will be too soggy.  

Salad with Whole-Grain Mustard Vinaigrette

  

Ingredients:

·       Boston lettuce (or green lettuce of your choice)

·       1/2 red onion, sliced thinly

·       cucumber, peeled and sliced

·       or whatever vegetables sound good

·       Dressing:

·       1 tbsp. each of whole-grain and Dijon mustard

·       little honey

·       juice of 1/2-1 lemon

·       2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

·       salt and pepper

·       maybe a fresh herb minced as well

Directions:

     Make sure lettuce is dry.  Mix veggies in a large bowl.

    In a jar or dressing shaker, combine all dressing ingredients.  Mix well.

    Evenly pour dressing over salad or an equal portion over each individual serving.

Servings:  4-6

I like to use Romaine for this salad because I usually have it ready in my garden and it's my favorite.  Red onion is great for this recipe, because it's sweeter than your yellow and white onions.  Just make sure you slice it nice and thin.  You want a nice blending of flavors.  I also prefer my cucumber peeled and then sliced.  When you peel cucumber, it just seems to release that fresh scent and flavor.  

I love how Lucinda makes her dressings.  If she uses up one of the ingredients making the dressing, she just pours everything into that jar to shake-blend it.  That way she's getting every last bit of that ingredient out of that jar.  My mom always does this with her coleslaw dressing.  And if Lucinda isn't at the bottom of the jar, she mixes it up in a mason jar you would use for canning.  

You can just have everyone pour the dressing on individually, but this recipe doesn't make a lot of dressing so I would recommend pouring it over the salad and tossing it.  A tossed salad just always seems better to me and that way you're encouraging your family to try different things and learn that certain salad dressings go better with certain dishes.  If you want to slightly intensify the flavor of the salad, sprinkle some sea salt on it before tossing.  Not too much as salt can quickly wilt your greens as it has qualities that pull moisture.  

Just one more note.  Another thing I love about Lucinda's show is that when you look up her recipes, they include a video of her making the recipes.  This can be very helpful, especially with the Hash Brown recipe.  Enjoy!

Quick Fudge

I learned this recipe as a Pampered Chef Consultant.  It was a great, quick way to show off the qualities of the non-stick cookware.  It's not the fanciest fudges and I'm sure those who do make the fanciest of fudges may initially turn their noses up at the idea of quick fudge, but it's a great recipe to throw in when you want to add something more to whatever you've got going but just don't have the time or ingredients.  And actually, when I include this fudge in my holiday gift packages, it's usually the first one that they want the recipe for.  So here goes:

Dish:       Quick Fudge         

Ingredients:

1 12 oz. package semi sweet chocolate chips      

1 container chocolate frosting (not whipped type)

Directions:

Melt chips in a nonstick saucepan over medium-low heat stirring frequently.  Add frosting and stir together in sauce pan until blended. Mix in chopped nuts if desired. Pour into square baker or 8x8 or 9x9 lined with foil and chill in refrigerator until just set. Slice and serve.

Now if you want to change flavors you just match up the chips with the frosting.  For peanut butter I would match up a vanilla icing with peanut butter chips.  Great creative.  I'm thinking of doing a double layer with the chocolate on the bottom and peanut butter on top.  

You can also make this fudge into shapes using a cookie press.  I would recommend placing a cookie sheet in the freezer.  When nice and cold, press the fudge using your cookie press onto the cookie sheet.  Don't use parchment paper, it won't stick and come off the press properly.  Allow them to set up and remove with a small spatula.  Store in an airtight container with the layers separated with wax or parchment paper.  Enjoy!