Author: This Girl Really Cooks

Turkey Meatballs with Zucchini Ribbons

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I wanted to make some turkey meatballs and came up with this recipe trying to make the meatballs as moist as possible for turkey. It’s a three step cooking process that works well with the zucchini ribbons as a side instead of pasta.

  • 1-1/2 pounds of Ground Turkey 85/15
  • 1 cup chopped green onion
  • 1 tbsp of good mustard
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 cup breadcrumbs (I used panko bread crumbs)
  • 1 tbsp of italian herbs
  • Pinch of cracked black pepper
  • 2 cups of vegetable broth
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  1. Add onion, mustard, egg, herbs, breadcrumbs and black pepper. Mix in the turkey. Shape the turkey mixture into 1 1/4-inch-diameter meatballs. Place on a large plate or baking sheet.
  2. Heat the oil in a heavy large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and saute until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes.
  3. Pour the vegetable stock in the pan and bring to a boil. Turn meatballs often to cook on all sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer the meatballs to a pyrex baking pan, leaving the vegetable stock
  4. Heat oven to 350 degrees and bake the meatballs for about 15-20 additional minutes. While this is cooking, you can prepare the vegetables for the dish.

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And for the vegetable portion of the dish, I like to make ribbons out of zucchini by using a vegetable peeler and some diced veggies.

  • Vegetable broth leftover from meatball recipe
  • 1 large zucchini, peeled into ribbons
  • 1/4 cup diced onion
  • 2 garlic cloves, diced
  • 1 roma tomato, diced small
  • 1 cup of swiss chard or kale, cut into ribbons

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  1. Prepare all vegetables while letting the vegetable reheat using the same pan that you cooked the meatballs in. Bring to a boil and stir often, getting any meatball flavor from the bottom of the pan.
  2. Add all ingredients, stirring every couple minutes. Total cooking time  is about 5 minutes on medium heat.
  3. With a slotted spoon, place vegetables on a plate, top with turkey meatballs, parmesan cheese and pepper.

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Oven Roasted Crab

IMG_3454 Thinking back, one of the first recipes I ever wrote on my blog was my Roasted Crab recipe. I wanted to be able to share my love of making one of my favorite dishes at home, easily.

The fresh local Dungeness Crab and seafood is one of the best things about my hometown San Francisco. I look forward to Crab Season every year and like to celebrate with a nice crab dinner for friends and family.

You want to use a fresh live crab. Whether you get it cut and cleaned at the seafood market or do it yourself, start with one dungeness live crab and increase the recipe to include more. IMG_3450

  • 1 Large Dungeness Crab (or 2 small crabs), legs and arms removed and cleaned.
  • 2 cups of white wine or sake
  • 1/2 onion, cut into chunks
  • 2 lemons, cut into wedges
  • 4 tbsp of butter, chopped into small squares
  • 2 tsp of diced garlic
  • Old Bay Seasoning or pinch of Cayenne, Salt and Pepper
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Put the crab, butter, garlic and onion in a large baking pan or pyrex casserole dish. Then pour the wine over the crab, then squeeze the lemon wedges over the crab and toss them in.
  3. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes depending on the amount of crab used. Occasionally  adjust and flip the crab while in the oven, to maximize the flavor that goes into the crab.
  4. Cool and serve with some of the broth from the pan mixed with butter. The lemon garlic sauce is really good with the crab and a nice toasted sourdough loaf.

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Acorn Squash Polenta

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I love the savory flavors that acorn squash adds to dishes, so I decided to try making  a healthier version of creamy polenta by using acorn squash that was first roasted and made into a puree.

  • 1 acorn squash, chopped into pieces
  • Olive oil cooking spray
  • 1 tbsp of butter -melted
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Bake for about 30-45 minutes until soft.
  2. Remove skins from acorn squash, chop into small pieces and mash. Mix with 1 tsp of melted butter or a little olive oil. Set aside

IMG_3336 Basic Polenta Recipe

  • 6 cups of water
  • 1-3/4 yellow cornmeal
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 3 tbsp of butter
  1. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a heavy large saucepan. Add 2 teaspoons of salt. Gradually whisk in the cornmeal.
  2. Add in the acorn squash mixture after the cornmeal, working the pieces into the polenta as it cooks.
  3. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the mixture thickens and the cornmeal is tender, stirring often, about 15 minutes
  4. Turn off the heat. Add the butter, and stir until melted.

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Easy Garlic Biscuits

IMG_5972One day I will write a blog about all of my crazy ideas and half-homemade recipes that I made with pop can biscuits. You know the ones, they last in the fridge for awhile. I tend to stock up and use them in creative ways. I wanted to make an easy twist on garlic bread with these biscuits.

  • 1 pop-can of ready to bake biscuits
  • 3 tbsps of chopped garlic
  • 3 tbsp of finely diced onion
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1/2 cup of chopped chard or kale
  • 2 tsp of parmesan cheese
  • Black pepper
  1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
  2. In a small skillet, cook garlic, onion, chard in a little olive oil. Cook for about 5 minutes until soft.
  3. Place biscuit dough on an ungreased cookie sheet and press down the middle of each biscuit.
  4. Add a 1/2 spoonful of the garlic mixture, sprinkle with black pepper and parmesan cheese
  5. Bake for 12 minutes until golden

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