Noodle Nite

For those of you who are unaware, I am full-time Associate Director of Youth Ministry in Katy, Texas.  On Wednesday nights, our youth gather for an evening of food, fun, and reflection.  Each week is themed with something to hopefully draw intrigue to other students who might want to join.  Here is our flyer of the theme nights.

Last Night, we celebrated Noodle Nite.  We made some homemade meatballs and spaghetti (although the sauce was out of the can (I got lazy)).  Meatballs are easy to make but can be a little time consuming.  I prefer homemade because then I know what goes in them.  The freezer stuff  you can buy from Sam's Club are okay, but I like fresh stuff better.  

Here's what we did.  Take out your ground beef and put it in something large enough to mix it.  Add eggs, bread crumbs, parsley, salt pepper, and garlic.  Mix it up right.  

Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the meat into balls and place them on a baking tray.  6 pounds of meat made about 75 large meatballs.  Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until cooked all the way through.  

yum, right? haha

Once they are finished, put them in your spaghetti sauce.  Let them simmer for another 20-25 minutes.  Serve over noodles.  duh.

I started eating then remembered I needed a picture.  The kids loved it.  I loved it.  Happy Plates.  BOOM!

You're Sweet But...

     If you're looking for some good, daytime television, look no further than the Cooking Channel (but stay away from anything Bobby Flay).  The pictures below were inspired by Alton Brown's show titled "Good Eats".  You can find the recipes by google-ing "Alton Brown Sweet Potato Pie Recipe" or by clicking the link I inserted for you.  Don't be afraid to be creative with recipes.  A quote for you today: More than half the mistakes in the kitchen are successful.  Below as examples of this, except I don't call them mistakes, I call them enhancements.  The one with pecans was drizzled (awkward word) with fresh bee honey instead of maple syrup.  And the one with marshmallows was inspiration from one of my historian friends.  Her name is Sarah and this is her shout out.

 

     

With the left over sweet potato mash, you can create a stuffed Mam Papaul's King Cake!  

CAUTION:  Make sure you have people around so you don't eat the whole thing!

I think I need to bake more often....

So I need to work on my presentation....once you bite into it you forget what it looks like anyways, right?

Big thanks to people for checking out my blog.  Keep on keeping on. 

 I leave you with a song/video.  New Radicals "You Get What You Give"

Happy Plates!

Deal Breaker

     Looking for something that's easy to make and quite delicious?  Look no further than breakfast tacos with eggs and sausage.  First brown the sausage in a dutch oven.  I used 3 packaging of Jimmy Dean.  I thought all three were "Original"; However, one turned out to be Maple flavored.  The syrup smell woke us up and screamed breakfast!  Next add a ton of eggs.  We used about 60 for this pot.  Put the lid on, heat to medium low, and let the eggs cook.  It should take about 15-20 minutes for all the eggs to cook.

     A Dutch oven is an essential cookware to every kitchen.  After cooking, the lid can be flipped over on the burner and used as a skillet to warm up the tortillas.  This dish was perfect for an early tailgate and just as easy to prepare!

     Next we fired up the grill to finish cooking our pork shoulders.    I woke up at 6:30am to put 29 lbs of pork into the oven.  They rest there at a temperature of 250 degrees for 3.5 hours.  Pulled Pork is easy to prepare with a dry rub (let marinate for at least 3 hours before cooking).  Just be sure to be patient and give yourself plenty of time to cook.  Slow and low is the trick; usually about 7-8 hours.

It fell off the bone and everyone was extremely satisfied.  I'll be cooking another one or two this Wednesday for our weekly youth group gathering: JAM.









     I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for not blogging as much as I had envisioned.  I've been somewhat busy with work (understatement) and even though I have been cooking, I haven't taken the time to take pictures.  I'M SORRY!  Here are some more photos from my recent trip to Baton Rouge for LSU's Homecoming Game against Western Kentucky.  It was Nicki Rivers' first LSU game!  Geaux Tigers!

She made it in!!

oh yeah, and Happy Plates!