Quarantine Meatballs

This post is by Matt, the Beer Baron

When she isn’t being awesome in the kitchen, the Clockwatching Tart actually works for a local health unit, which means she is incredibly busy at the moment. Between that and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, cooking has been a bit of a challenge lately. 

One thing that has definitely helped us out has been a delivery service from one of our favourite local restaurants, Grace. Rather than deliver actual meals, Grace has rebranded as Grace Pantry during this time of physical distancing and is using their connections in the food industry to deliver an amazing selection of locally sourced meats, produce and other tasty treats. You can check out their online store here.

When I was unpacking our very first order from Grace Pantry, I was blown away by how beautiful the ground pork from Stonecroft Farms looked. I wanted to do something special with it, so I decided to try a variation of my favourite recipe for meatballs from Anne Burrell. 

I don’t normally refer to ground pork as “pretty”, but there’s the evidence. For my version of the recipe above, I just omitted the veal, substituted dried parsley for fresh (we are in a pandemic, after all), and used more than a cup of parmigiano (pandemic or not, I like what I like). 

Another interesting note about cooking in the age of a pandemic is the absolutely bonkers number of onions I go through in a week. I suppose it is because I have all the time in the world, so I’m making everything from scratch, which often includes onions in one form or another. Luckily, I love dicing onions. I find it soothing and the OCD part of my brain enjoys the symmetry of the process.

While I love garlic, I wouldn’t call the process of smashing it with the flat blade of a knife soothing, but it is certainly satisfying.

When I have the luxury of time, prep work is my absolute favourite part of cooking. It’s obviously the OCD thing, but having nicely diced ingredients all out in their own little bowls or own their own little plates is a very satisfying feeling. 

While the Clockwatching Tart tends to individually weigh her meatballs on a kitchen scale, I opted to just eyeball it and am pretty proud of how they all turned out. I suppose I missed my true calling in meatball forming. C’est la vie.

Apart from quality ingredients, it is how you cook them that really brings out the flavour in these meatballs. Searing each side as best you can in the frying pan before they get finished off in the oven adds so much flavour.

These photos are about two weeks old as I write this post and oddly enough, we had some store bought meatballs for lunch today and I was so disappointed with them that I wanted to throw them out. That is how good these homemade meatballs are in comparison.

Cheers to wonderful comfort food and finding the silver lining during strange times. (And a shout out to Grace Pantry for their awesome, contact-free delivery.)

Matt's Shepherd’s Pie (Guest Post)

Here's one of my wonderful husband's dinner specialities.  It's fantastic! And not just because I don't have to cook it.

If it’s not obvious my now, I’m lucky to be able to taste so many of Jen’s wonderful dishes. As much as I like helping and tasting, I even enjoy cooking sometimes too. One recipe that I’ve been tinkering with for ages now is my shepherd’s pie. You can make this recipe in lots of different ways but there are a couple of tried-and-true tips to make any shepherd’s pie even better that I’m happy to share below.

This is what you’ll need to start off:

1 lb of ground beef

3 lbs of Yukon Gold potatoes (5 lb if you want left over mashed potatoes)
1 cup grated marble cheese or old cheddar
1/3 to ½ cup of milk
3 to 4 tablespoons of butter
2 zucchinis (or ¾ cup frozen peas if you’d prefer)
1 cup frozen corn
2 large carrots
1 large red onion
5 heaping tablespoons of salsa
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

Taco Salad

I love main course salads. A meal in a bowl. One of my favourites is taco salad, but I'm a little picky about how it's made and this is not a light choice, so we don't have it often.  It is a delicious treat though!

Here's what you need:

Ground beef, black beans, taco seasoning, lettuce, green onions, grated cheese, sour cream and salsa.  Also and avocado, not pictured.  

I make my own taco seasoning which I use on chicken for fajitas as well as beef.  If you can't read the bottle, I combine 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp chili powder, 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tbsp salt, and 1/2 tbsp black pepper.  

I try not to use ground beef too often. I just don't consider it a healthy choice. But it is so delicious in this taco salad it's worth it as an occasional treat. You could also use ground chicken or turkey for a lighter meal.  And you can use very lean ground beef without compromising flavour. 

Cook the beef in a skillet until it starts to brown, then add a large chopped onion and some diced jalapenos.

Once the beef is cooked and the vegetables are softened, add a few tablespoons of the taco seasoning and about 1/2 cup of water.

Simmer until the liquid is mostly absorbed, then add black beans.

I also added some salsa.  You can add it to the beef or add it to the salad at the end, whichever you prefer.  

Meanwhile, assemble the salad. This is romaine lettuce from our garden but you can use any greens.

Add chopped avocado.

And top with some grated cheese and broken tortilla chips.  These are baked chips which work well in this salad. 

Next, smother with the beef, onion, bean mixture and top with a dollop of sour cream and some chopped green onions.

There's no "dressing" on this salad.  The saucy beef and sour cream combine to dress the greens.  Extra tortilla chips to scoop up the salad wouldn't be a bad idea. Or a fork. 


The leftover beef is awesome on nachos or in tortillas as tacos or burritos.