Slim (Apple) Pickin’s

This weekend is Thanksgiving which is one of my favourite holidays.

The food is delicious.

The weather is gorgeous and the leaves are just started to fall.

And, mostly, there is little hype about it. It’s a fun get together with family that people don’t make a big fuss about or spend months planning for like, say, Christmas.

I had two dinners this year: one with Matt’s family tonight, and the other with my family at my dad’s house on Saturday night.

For dinner at my dad’s I put these Turkey Meatballs on the menu since I was cooking and I don’t like / don’t know how to make roasted turkey. The meatballs turned out awesome, yet again. Luckily, this time they didn’t take me 3 hours to make because I already had marinara sauce in the freezer and I made the meatball sauce with that on Friday night.

My sister Vicki flew in from Illinois for the holiday weekend, although she had to fly back home today (why can’t American thanksgiving be on the same day as ours?) But we were able to take advantage of the nice weather this morning by going apple picking!

Generally, I love apple picking but I have to admit that today’s experience was a pretty shitty, to put it nicely.

We got to the farm at high noon and it was hot as balls outside. We went in to buy our bags to fill and the lady at the counter told us:

“All that’s left on the trees is Golden Delicious”.

Vicki says to me “Golden Delicious? Those are the shitty kind! Want to try the apple picking place on Patillo Rd?”

I said no because I know how these “pick your own” places work- they always have good fruit on some trees that are off limits to the public. You just have to sneak your way into the no pick zone and pretend like you belong (note: it helps to look like a Jamaican or Mexican migrant worker in these cases). No, this woman was clearly bullshitting.

When we got into the orchard we quickly discovered that, in fact, she was not.

(Vicki holding a Golden Delicious)

All that was left of the empires and mutsus on the trees were very, very high in the tree tops and even if we could reach them they were basically rotten or mealy anyhow. We spent a good 15 minutes walking around with empty bags hoping to find some semblance of an edible fruit that wasn’t of the golden delicious variety.

We gave up and headed to the golden delicious trees. I tasted one and it wasn’t so bad. It was pretty crispy for what it was. I filled up half my bag and then said

“I’m just going to fill the rest from the bins at the front entrance.”

(Me and my half-picked bag of Golden Delicious. And COWS! I love cows.)

There were some pristine looking pre-picked mutsus and empires there and I wanted to bring home some apples that I would actually eat.

“We could have done that at Zehrs.”

…and we could have.

But at least we got to hang out. Next time we’ll just go to the gym together.

Happy Thanksgiving!

day 153: meatballs

Last night’s dinner was an endeavour to say the least, but 3 hours in the kitchen was well worth it when I finally was able to sit down and enjoy it.

Let me back up to the beginning.

With weightlifting, yoga, tutoring, shopping, visiting grandparents, coaching, etc… Matt and I never seem to be home at the same time between the hours of 5 and 8 pm. So in the Menzies kitchen the answer to the question of “what’s for dinner” is often hidden in little clues that we leave in the kitchen. Sometimes he’ll prep a dish before he leaves and I’ll finish it when I get home. Other times I’ll come home to a strategically-placed open cookbook. This was the case last night.

I strolled into the kitchen after last night’s workout with a dish in mind: beans. But the evidence pointed in a different direction: meat. Specifically meatballs.

Cooking Tip: It’s a good idea to read through a recipe BEFORE starting your prep work. Had I known what was involved in this recipe I would have said: “He can make his own fucking meatballs!” and settled on cereal for dinner.

I started with the sauce. Wait, what? I need to make a basic sauce to use in meatball the sauce? Shit.

So first I had to make tomato sauce from scratch.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 60 minutes (although I let the unused portion simmer for another hour)

Meanwhile, while the sauce simmered away on the stove I moved on to the meatballs:

Meatballs before going into the oven

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Baking Time: 15 minutes

Then on to the meatball sauce.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Pour the sauce on the meatballs and it’s time to eat. . .just kidding.

I thought I was done until the book reminded me that these babies have to bake for another hour!

Baking Time: 60 minutes

These better be some damn good meatballs! I’m hungry!

20 cloves of garlic chopped,
5 onions diced,
2 hours of cooking,
And 1 hour of baking

Yield: Best. Meatballs. EVER.

We finally sat down to eat at about 9:00pm. It was worth the wait. I couldn’t stop eating them.

…oh and Matt like them too

Ingredients – Meatballs

• 2-1/4 c. bread crumbs
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 eggs
• 1 c. milk
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp of crushed chiles
• 1 tbsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. black pepper

Ingredients – Meatball Sauce

• 1/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cup tomato sauce (wait until you have some already made)
• 3 red onions, finely sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 1 c. white wine
• Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450deg.

Lightly mix all the meatball ingredients together in a large bowl.

Form the mixture into golfball sized balls.

Bake uncovered for 15 minutes.

Reduce temperature of oven to 375deg.

Meanwhile for the sauce in heat the oil on high heat in a saucepan to almost smoking.

Add the onions and garlic and cook until lightly browned.

Add the rosemary, tomato sauce, and the wine. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper.

Pour the sauce on top of the meatballs, cover, and bake for 1 hour.

day 128: sour cream glazed

So, today I managed to get in almost all of the 150g of protein that I’m aiming for. I calculated 138g of protein from: eggs (breakfast), some leftover Indian beef dish (early lunch), canned tuna (late lunch), and a turkey thigh (dinner- food porn to follow).

Today was Camp Day at Tim Hortons so the social committee at my office brought in coffee and Timbits for the staff today. Alas, my fat intake was a bit too high today. Damn you, sour-cream-glazed-deliciousness! You are my downfall.

(Source)

Tonight I did a late workout: 20 speed intervals on the treadmill and a power yoga class. I tried out the Wednesday night class at my gym because I’ve been getting bored of the class I do on Sundays. Plus, at 8:30pm I find myself a lot more flexible than at 9:00 am on a Sunday.

I’ll leave you with this protein porn. Gotta love thighs. Roasted. Mmmmm.