Passover and Carrots and British Mysteries!

So I hosted a Passover Seder this week on Thursday night and invited a bunch of friends from the Economics Department. We had a great turn out and it was a lot of fun. For those of you who do not know, the Passover Seder is a traditional dinner ceremony in celebration of the Passover holiday. “Seder” literally means “order”. The holiday is in remembrance of the story of Exodus, where Moses helped to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery. I am certain you have seen or heard of the unleavened bread, referred to as Matzo, that we eat during the eight day holiday. If you would like to learn more you can follow this link and enjoy an informative video:

http://www.nick.com/videos/clip/NTV_rug_passover_full.html

For the meal, my mother insisted I prepare a particular dish. It came out being fantastic and so I shall now share the recipe with you:

Carrot Soufflé:

Ingredients:

·      1 lb Carrots

·      ½ Cup Melted Margarine (butter if dairy is ok)

·      3 Eggs

·      ¾ Cup Sugar

·      2 Tablespoons Matzo Meal (or bread crumbs I suppose)

·      1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

·      1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Tools:

·      A food processor or blender

·      Some bowls

·      Maybe a Spoon?

·      1 qt Casserole dish

The process of making the Soufflé is quite simple.  Cut up the carrots into small chunks and place them into a pot. Fill the pot with water above the level of the carrots and bring to a boil. Then lower to a simmer and allow the carrots to cook a few minutes until soft. (The idea is for them to be soft enough to be easily diced in a food processor or blender.) Then drain the water and mix in the melted margarine. Place the mixture into the food processor and obviously run the machine. It may be smart to do this in stages and only place a fraction of the mixture in the processor at a time. This may help it dice the carrots more effectively. Now mix in the eggs. Then mix in the remaining ingredients. Once again, process the mixture so it becomes a nice creamy orange blob of deliciousness. Pour the mixture into the casserole dish and cook uncovered for 1 hour at 350. That is all. In an hour and a few minutes of cooling you will be enjoying a deliciously sweet Carrot Soufflé!

Makes enough for 5-6 people to have as a sizable side dish.

Sorry no pictures, it was gobbled up too quickly…

In seemingly unrelated news, I began watching the new Sherlock Holmes series this evening on Netflix. Pretty sweet show. Seems like a great actor choice to play the role. I suggest anyone with interest in watching a witty sociopath with a British accent make clever conclusions using seemingly obscure evidence check the show out…

That is all for tonight. Take care. And now for your favorite update…

Benefit of Being a Smaller than Average Person:

#2. Much more comfortable airplane rides. In fact, sleeping on the folding tray on the seatback in front can be quite refreshing…

Meatballs!

Tonight I made some meatballs and sketti!

While waiting for my meatballs to cook this evening, I took a few moments to investigate the history of the meatball dish. The earliest recordings of meatball recipes dates back to Roman times, specifically in a recipe book series entitled "De re coquinaria libri decem (Cuisine in Ten Books)" by Marcus Gavius Apicus. Today, some form of meatball is a part of countless cultural cuisines. Bulgarians refer to them as “Kyufte”. Germans have a variation which includes anchovy called “Königsberger Klopse”. The Chinese make giant meat balls they refer to as “Lion’s Heads”.

Some more cool facts:

·      The world record for largest meatball was given in October 2011 to Columbus Italian Club for cooking a delicious meatball weighing in at 1,110.5 pounds!

·      Urban Dictionary tells of meatball being a derogatory term implying one to be dimwitted and lacking of common sense.

That is about it for cool meatball factoids. Now for the recipe!

Charlie’s World Famous Slow Cooked Meatballs (Improved)

What will be needed:

            Balls

·      1 lb ground beef (I like using one that isn’t too lean as it seems to help the meat stay in a ball)

·      ¼ cup diced onion (I use sweet yellow’s)

·      ¾ cup bread crumbs (Italian style for an Italian dish?)

·      ¼ cup milk

·      ¼ cup sugar (They got to be sweet)

·      ½ teaspoon salt

·      ½ teaspoon garlic powder

·      1 egg

Other stuff

·      1 Can Pasta sauce (I like to use a three cheese sauce or an alfredo tomato sauce as it seems to be creamier!)

·      ¼ cup milk

·      Appropriate amount of spaghetti (I have found about 10 ounces works well)

·      Lots of grated parmesan! (I love me some parm)

The process:

Making the balls is simple. Take all the ingredients under the “Balls” section and mash them together until consistent. Then dump the pasta sauce into a pot along with the second ¼ cup of milk and set to a low simmer. While the sauce is heating up, begin rolling the meat mixture into balls of one inch diameter and plopping them into the pot. Once all the balls have been rolled, cover the pot.

Wait about 15 minutes then return and gently roll the balls to get them to begin circulating. At this point, be extremely gentle not to destroy any of the meatballs! Leave on a low simmer (Level 2 out of 10 on my stove) for a total of 1 hour. (Including the earlier allotted for 15 minutes) Every 5 or 10 minutes, return to roll the meatballs so as to ensure they are all cooked evenly.  I normally start cooking the pasta around the 35 minute mark and both generally finish around the same time.

That is it. Enjoy! Below is a picture of the meatballs I created tonight, covered in a flurry of parmesan cheese.

Something new I would like to begin doing is to a catalog some benefits of being a smaller than average person....

Benefit of Being a Smaller than Average Person:

#1. Spending less on soap. Less surface area, less soap needed to clean.

Hello people. I am making this blog for a number of reasons.

1. Boredom. I should be studying right now but instead would like to convince myself that procrastination is justifiable if I am doing something pseudo productive. All the household chores have been taken care of so this is a natural next option.

2. To remember stuff. My original motivation was to collect recipes of things I have cooked over time in one place for future reference. Sometimes I get lucky and cook a dish that doesn't turn out half bad. For these instances, I would like to create a blog post so I can reference the recipe and try to reproduce the dish.

3. I am sure few people will actually subscribe to or even view my posts. The one person who most likely will on a regular basis is my mother. This will make relaying every detail about my life to her a bit easier. As an aspiring economist, this seems like an efficient use of both our time. (I won't have to tell her the same stories and information multiple times over!)

4. Remembering other stuff. I always feel as if I get less and less clever over time. Having a collection of thoughts to later reference could help prove this fact. That or one day when I am an old man, I can look back to see how naive I once was.

There are more reasons, which will be revealed later, through clues.