Marjorie Approved Turkey Meatballs

Soooooo, never leaving anything alone, I have a new Turkey Meatball recipe

There are three things to remember
1)  Fresh ground turkey, no frozen chubs.  I prefer turkey from The Turkey Store (Go Barron WI), but you can use other.
2)  You MUST cook by temperature - once the meatballs hit 150, off the heat they go.  At 170 they turn into dry disgusting balls of sawdust.  Under 150 you risk food poisoning.  So get a Thermapen.
3)  Seasoning is your friend - low fat means you need lots of seasoning.  Under season and they are boringly bland

Ingredients
1 lb fresh ground turkey (I use 93/7 - you can use 99/1, but that is pretty dry stuff
8 ounces fresh mushrooms
1/2 onion
1 stalk celery
Garlic (you can use fresh, or use Penzeys Roasted Garlic)
Seasoning as appropriate (depending on if you want Italian, Asian, Swedish, or other style meatballs). For Italian I like Penzeys Tuscan Sunset and for Asian the Sate seasoning.
Salt
Pepper

Sauce of choice, depending on style of meatballs

Recipe
Finely dice onion, celery and mushrooms
Saute onion, celery and 1/2 the mushrooms.  Season with salt and pepper, and whatever seasoning your using.  Cook till soft, then cool.
Spread cooked veg on plate, spread turkey of the top
Spread rest of mushrooms on top of turkey, salt, pepper, season with seasoning
Mix together, but not too much.  Compress the turkey, you get blech

At this point I like to make a quarter size piece of the meatballs (squished flat) and cook, to check the seasoning.  Then adjust seasonings if necessary and cook the rest

Heat pan  medium (I use teflon, just spray oil)
Make meatballs and begin to brown
Once meatballs are brown on two sides (but not cooked yet), I add sauce and turn temp down to low. The idea is that the sauce will bring the temp of the meatballs up slowly to 160, making it hard to overcook.  Remember - at 150 they come off the stove.  Residual heat will bring them to 155

Serve - I like using Rosarios Spaghetti Sauce over Zucchini noodles.

Marjorie Approved

If you only have one thing in your kitchen, it should be this

Buzzfeed Food is exactly correct.

5.5 quart round Le Creuset Pot

I have owned 3 of them (one now resides at my Son's house), plus a 7 quart, plus a sauce pan, plus the goose pan.

But the 5.5 quart is the only one you must have

Island Bamboo Over the Sink Cutting Board with Colander - the Review

Eight Inch Chef's Knife, Five Small Potatoes

 The Island Bamboo Cutting Board is an interesting idea - A cutting board designed to use over a sink, with a built in silicone strainer.

The strainer is a pop-up kind - it becomes flat for storing the board on it's side (3/4 inch thick, like the board) and then it can "pop" out to different sizes depending on need.  In the picture to the right it is extended all the way down - it is quite deep and can hold a lot of material.

Work in Progress

The strainer is strong enough to hold up a stainless bowl, which is convenient when prepping a number of different vegies.

The board itself is nice - 3/4 inch thick, firm, no flex.  Made of bamboo, it is very strong

The cutting area is a little small for me - I like a bigger work area for my cutting boards.  Although as you can see, my eight inch chef's knife fits easily  diagonally.

This is a great vegie processing tool.  Silicone colander lets you wash, chop and go through a number of vegies.  Also, being silicone, it can be tossed in the dishwasher, even cooked with as a steamer because heat will not degrade it.

I bought mine at Sears, but it is widely available between $29 and $49.  I got mine on sale for $10 with free delivery - a great buy at that price.  Not sure at $49 it would be worth it.