Spice Place Blog

If you’ve never read the nutrition label on most pre-made store bought meatballs, you might be surprised at the fat content. Many times the daily value for fat is at 25% or higher, and that’s only for a few meatballs (the nutritional values are listed for an arbitrary serving which isn’t a portion). So because of that high fat content in the prepared meatballs, we always make our own using lean ground beef, ground turkey breast or ground chicken. It’s really not that hard to make meat balls, and all most all are made with 4 key ingredients: meat, bread crumbs, egg, and seasoning. The short story is you toss everything into a large bowl, mix well with your hands and then form the meat balls into balls with the palms of your hands. Place the formed meatball on a piece of wax paper and if making lots of meatballs, separate the layers with additional wax paper sheets.

Last Sunday night we felt like making a meal with kluski style egg noodles. While kluski egg noodles are more often used with soups, they are hearty enough to use in a chicken pasta dish. To the right is a picture of kluski noodles along with a quarter so the size can be judged. Kluski noodles are about 1/4 - 3/8″ wide, 2 1/2 to 3″ long, and are a little bit thicker then regular egg noodles.

Recipe for Chicken Meatballs with White Cheese Sauce and Kluski Noodles

To Prepare Chicken Meatballs

1. Prepare a place to put the formed meatballs by placing a piece of wax paper on a plate.
2. In a small cereal bowl beat and mix well:
   1 1/2 tsp Poultry Seasoning
   1 egg
   2 tbsp milk
3. In a large bowl add:
   1 pound ground chicken
   1/3 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs
   Seasoned egg mixture
4. Mix well with hands for a minute or so, and then form into 1 to 1 1/4″ balls with the palms. Place on plate covered with wax paper. Repeat until all of the meatball mixture is used up.
5. Place the meatballs in a lightly greased large non-stick skillet, cover, and cook on low heat, turning every 2 to 3 minutes to cook through, and brown on all sides.
6. Total cooking time will be about 10 - 15 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, make the White Cheese Sauce and Kluski Noodles.

Kluski Noodles

1. Cook 1/4 pound of Kluski Noodles according to package directions. Ours cooked for about 10 minutes.

White Cheese Sauce

1. Add 1 cup milk and 2 tbsp white flour, and 1/2 tsp Poultry Seasoning to a 1 quart non-stick pan.
2. Place over low heat, and stir constantly until the milk thickens, about 8 - 10 minutes.
3. When sauce is thick, add 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese.

To serve, place a layer of cooked kluski noodles in a small bowl, top with 6 chicken meatballs, cover with some Cheese White Sauce, and Sprinkle with a little Parmesan cheese.

Chicken Meatball Sandwich Recipe
As an alternative for serving this recipe over kluski noodles, you could instead make a Chicken Meatball Sandwich. Make the meatballs and Cheese White Sauce as described above. Spread the Cheese White Sauce on a kaiser roll, cut meat balls in half, and place on roll, and finely sprinkle with finely sliced lettuce.

On those busy weeknights or weekends for that matter, it’s nice to have a standby recipe that’s quick and easy to make. This recipe for Open Faced Beef Sandwiches is exactly one of those. Our sandwiches were served with Homemade Garlic Mashed Potatoes and they took 1/2 hour to make — but you could easily replace the mashed potatoes with instant mashed potatoes, potato salad, or macaroni salad to save that effort. Of course, this is only a quick meal if you have the ingredients on hand but it’s a great recipe to have to plan for those busy days ahead.
Here’s what you need to make Open Faced Beef Sandwiches

For each sandwich you will need:

• 2 slices bread (we prefer whole wheat but any bread will do)
• 3 slices of luncheon beef (you could use shaved beef as well)
• 1/4 cup prepared McCormick Brown Gravy Mix

1. Toast the bread to your liking. We like our toast dark but not burnt for these sandwiches so that the bread doesn’t get soggy from the gravy.
2. Warm the beef in microwave, quickly in a frying pan, or if you are making lots of gravy, in the gravy.
3. Place toast on plate. Top with Beef, and then cover with gravy.

Tip: Make extra brown gravy if you are serving the Open Faced Beef Sandwiches with mashed potatoes as we have in the picture. McCormick Brown Gravy is essentially fat free and has a nice flavor to use liberally on these sandwiches.

Looking for a change of pace in your breakfast meal? The typical breakfast omelet is made by pouring scrambled eggs into a hot frying pan, cooking the egg until firm, and then adding filling ingredients such as ham, cheese, tomatoes, green pepper and even blanched fresh asparagus. We regularly make omelets this way and have a post in our blog about the exact steps needed to make a good omelet.  We’re always seeking change and variety in our meals, so todays post is about making an omelet in a different way.

By adding the ham or pepper into the eggs when the eggs are first added to the frying pan, you’ll end up with an omelet with the filler ingredients imbedded into the eggs.  If you like, you can think of this method of making an omelet as an inverted omelet. It’s basically taking the same ingredients that you’d add to the omelet after the eggs were firm and mixing them into the eggs.  The only exception is cheese which we sprinkle on top of the omelet just before removing the omelet from the pan.

To make this type of omelet, first chop up what ever you want to add to the omelet.  We like ham, green pepper, red pepper, tomatoes, asparagus, and carrots. Start with a 10″ non-stick skillet that has been lightly greased with olive or canola oil.  Heat the pan to medium heat. Scramble 3 eggs, and pour the eggs into the pan. Immediately add the ham or other items you like to the eggs, distributing them evenly.

 Lower heat to medium low, and cover the pan.  The eggs will cook through faster with the cover.  Take a peek into the pan after 2 minutes to see how the omelet is progressing.  You may need to lower or raise the amount of heat.  When the eggs are done, they’ll be rising from the bottom of the pan.

When the eggs are cooked through, then it’s time to add cheese.  We use shredded Cheddar Cheese often, either white or orange. Other cheeses we’ve used include Mozzerella and Blue Cheese.  Whatever cheese you choose, it should be grated and spread evenly over top of the omelet. For the 10″ skillet we use, 1/2 cup of shredded cheese is plenty.  Once the cheese is on top of the eggs, replace the cover and without the heat of the stove let the cheese melt, about 1 minute.

The picture to the right here is of the finished omelet before adding the cheese as  discussed above. If you look closely, you’ll see how the ham is in the cooked egg mixture which is different from the standard omelet.  This is a great way to serve the same omelet, and yet have it be different.

Here’s a list of foods we use to fill omelets:

• Mushrooms
• Tomatoes
• Ham
• Sausage
• Cheese
• Green Bell Pepper
• Red Bell Pepper
• Cubanelle Pepper
• Asparagus
• Carrot Slices
• Onion
• Salsa
• Potatoes

It is said that variety is the spice of life and variety is something we actively seek in our breakfast meals. Yesterday, we made poached eggs with ham on whole wheat toast topped with white cheddar cheese. This was a nice change of pace for us and we can’t remember the last time we made poached eggs.

For those that are not familiar with poached eggs, they are simply eggs that are cracked open into a frying pan filled about 1″ deep with boiling water. The eggs are cooked in the boiling water until the desired doneness is reached. Some like the yolks runny, and other like their poached eggs with a firm yolk. The poached eggs end up with an egg white with a consistency like you find with hard boiled eggs.

One of the common recipes using poached eggs is Eggs Benedict, which is very simliar with our recipe we will describe here with the exception that Eggs Benedict is served with Hollandaise Sauce. Hollandaise Sauce is a very rich and fat filled sauce made with egg yolks and butter so it’s not something we cook with. The eggs themselves already are loaded with fat so it’s our opinion that there is no reason to add insult to injury and add tons of fat to an egg dish.

When cooking poached eggs, you can speed up the cooking time by covering the pan. But watch the pan closely because as the water boils and mixes with the egg whites it can easily boil over. If you’re standing nearby when that happens, you can prevent a mess by simply lifting the lid from the pan and the boil over will stop immediately. You don’t have to cook the eggs covered and can gently turn the eggs over once in the pan to allow the top to cook through. One last tip for cooking poached eggs is it’s helpful to have a slotted spoon to lift the cooked poached eggs from the water and allow the eggs to drain before serving. There will be some thin egg white surrounding the poached eggs when they’re removed from the pan and these should be discarded.

Poached Eggs with Ham on Whole Wheat Toast Recipe
For each serving you’ll need:
2 eggs
1 slice of luncheon ham
1 slice toasted whole wheat bread
shredded cheddar cheese

1. Begin to make poached eggs by filling a 10 inch skillet with 1 inch water, cover and bring to a boil.
2. Break up to 4 eggs into this pan of water. Cook eggs in the boiling water to your desired yolk doneness. Turn the eggs once; or cook covered and watch pan carefully for boil over.
3. Meanwhile toast whole wheat bread; heat ham in microwave or in another skillet.
4. Butter toast very lightly, place toast on plate, top with a slice of ham.
5. Remove poached eggs from boiling water with a slotted spoon, drain and place 2 eggs on top of each slice of bread.
6. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. If desired, microwave poached eggs for 20 seconds to melt cheese

Enjoying a delicious Hawaiian flavored pork ribs recipe on a cold winters night congers memories of warm tropical nights in the islands. Flavored with pineapple, ginger and garlic, these ribs are very tasty and it is a simple recipe for a weeknight as long as the ribs are thawed.

Start with:
2 pounds of boneless pork country ribs

Chop the ribs into 3 to 4 inch long chunks. Place a large 10 quart sized non-stick pan on the stove, and season with 2 tbsp canola or olive oil. Heat the pan for a minute, and then add the pork ribs. Cook over medium until the ribs are browned, stirring often to brown all sides.

Add 1 cup fresh chopped onion, and 1 tsp chopped garlic

Cook for 3 - 4 minutes until the onion is tender but not browned.

Add:
1 20 ounce can pineapple chunks
1 cup black vinegar
2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
2 tsp ground ginger

Mix well, bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 1 hour. Check the pot every 10 - 15 minutes and add water to the liquid should it get too thick.

Mix 1 tbsp corn starch with 1/2 cup water using a fork to blend well. Add to pan of ribs, stir in and cook, stirring often until sauce thickens.

Serve with Seasoned Rice and your favorite vegetable.

Seasoned Rice Recipe
2 cups water
1 cup basmati rice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp sesame seed
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp molasses

Heat water to a boil in a 2 quart sauce pan. Add rice, and all seasonings. Return to boil, cover tightly, reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 10 - 12 minutes until water is absorbed. Remove from heat, and let sit covered for 5 minutes. Mix to fluff the rice, and serve.

For some reason when December comes around our thoughts turn to cooking slow cooked foods for dinner. Some of our favorite slow cooked foods are beef stew, beef vegetable soup, chicken soup, and chuck roast and we make those all of the time.  We wanted to make something different, and there were some very nice boneless pork ribs at the grocery store this week. We bought the boneless pork ribs with the idea of grinding up the pork to make pork meatballs. Since the grocer is too often tempted to get some value from the waste fat and toss extra fat into the grinder, we try to grind our own meat, as we are sure to leave out as much fat as possible. As it turns out, when we got home the ribs were just too nice to be turned into meatballs and we decided to make Country Boneless Pork Ribs with them instead.

Stove Top Country Barbecued Pork Ribs are a simple and easy slow cooked meal. You’ll need a large stockpot or dutch oven with a cover to cook these ribs in. While we made the pork ribs on the stove top this recipe can easily be adapted to the oven by replacing the stove top simmering and cooking the pork ribs at 315° F. for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

• 1 pound boneless pork ribs
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 tbsp molasses
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
• 1/2 tsp McCormick Pepper Supreme
• 1/4 tsp Tabasco Sauce

1. Cut 1 pound of boneless pork ribs into about 3 inch long pieces.
2. Place 1 tbsp canola oil in a large pot or dutch oven and heat.
3. Add the boneless pork ribs to the pot, and cook until browned on all sides.
4. Add the diced onion and chopped garlic, and cook, stirring about 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Add tomatoes, liquid smoke, Worcestershire Sauce, Tabasco Sauce, molasses and Pepper Supreme. Stir well, and bring to a simmer.
6. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, checking every 15 minutes to make sure the sauce isn’t too thick.  Add water if needed.  Oven Method: Bake covered in a slow oven (315° F.) for 1 1/2 to 2 hours instead of cooking on stove top.

Serve Country Barbecued Boneless Ribs with your favorite vegetable.

 Note this recipe calls for using McCormick Pepper Supreme.  Pepper Supreme is a wonderful blend of 7 peppers and is a delightful mix to add taste to meals.  If you don’t have Pepper Supreme on hand, subsititute 1/4 tsp black pepper, and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper in it’s place.

We are always trying to add variety to our breakfast meals. So this recipe ranks high among our favorite new breakfast dishes. This last weekend we thought we would experiment with McCormick Greek Seasoning with our breakfast. What we came up with was a Mediterranean Tomato and Scrambled Egg dish that was wonderful.

In a 10 inch non-stick skillet, add a 1 tbsp olive oil, and heat. Then add 3/4 cup of fresh chopped tomatoes (or a 3/4 cup of canned diced tomatoes). Add 1 tsp McCormick Greek Seasoning, sprinkling widely over the tomatoes. Add 1/2 tsp chopped garlic. Cook the tomatoes and seasonings for about 10 - 15 minutes over a low heat until most of the water in the tomatoes has evaporated. Chop 1/2 cup ham, and add to skillet. In a medium bowl, scramble 4 or 5 eggs, and add to the skillet. Cook, stirring carefully to mix eggs with tomatoes and ham until eggs are cooked through. Serve with fresh toasted and buttered rolls.

This is the recipe related to our Greek Marinated Chicken Recipe. Serve this Greek Salad with the baked Greek Marinated Chicken recipe or anytime you want a seasoned salad. It has a deliciously different taste from most salads.

Greek Salad Dressing

• 2 tsp McCormick Greek Seasoning
• 3/4 cup vinegar
• 1/3 cup olive oil

Mix all ingredients together and let sit for 15 minutes.

To make Greek Garden Salad
Combine the following in a bowl then sprinkle the Greek Salad Dressing over top: Peel cucumber, and slice in half lengthwise. Cut into half-moon slices about 1/4 inch thick. Chop tomatoes into chunks. Dice an onion fine. Wash spring onions, and dice fine. Drain a can of Chick Peas. Enjoy.

A new spice blend we have at Spice Place is McCormick Greek Seasoning. This is a spice blend with mint, garlic and other spices that is great for adding new flavors to your meals. We’ve made a few recipes using McCormick Greek Seasoning, and all have been a hit. So we can highly recommend this seasoning to anyone that likes flavorful foods. Greek Seasoning isn’t spicy hot — it’s simple a spice blend with great Mediterranean taste.

We’re really impressed with the seasoning, so you can expect to see more recipes here that incorporate Greek Seasoning. We’ll start with the first of three easy to make recipes today.

Recipe for Greek Marinated Chicken

• 1 pound chicken breasts and/or thighs
• 2 tbsp McCormick Greek Seasoning
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil

1. Mix the vinegar, olive oil, and Greek seasoning together in a pyrex cup.
2. Wash chicken well, and place in a 1 gallon Ziploc bag.
3. Pour the Greek Seasoning mixture over the chicken, seal the boag, and roate to spread the seasoning over the chicken.
4. Place bag in refrigerator, and marinate for 2 - 3 hours, flipping the ziploc bag over ever 30 minutes so that the marinate gets evenly distributed over the chicken.
5. Remove chicken from the ziploc bag, place on a baking dish, cover and bake at 350° F for one hour. Remove cover during last 15 minutes.

Serve with Greek Garden Salad

While Snickerdoodle cookies have an unusual name, these rich cinnamon-sugar cookies are great for a holiday treat. They are a sweet sugar cookie with a coating of sugar and cinnamon. Easy to make, just mix, roll into a ball, roll the snickerdoodle balls in a mix of sugar and cinnamon then bake for 8 - 10 minutes.

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsps cream of tartar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
2. Cream together 1 1/2 cups sugar, the butter, shortening and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
3. Roll Snickerdoodle dough into 1 1/4-inch balls.
4. Make the Snickerdoodle topping by mixing 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon.
5. Roll balls in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place cookie dough 2 inches apart on an un-greased cookie sheet.
6. Bake Snickerdoodle Cookies for 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Remove Snickerdoodles from cookie sheet to wire rack and let cool.